Undone By Blood: The Other Side of Eden #1

Undone By Blood: The Other Side of Eden #1

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson

Illustrated by Sami Kivelä

Coloured by Jason Wordie

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

The early 1930’s: The height of the Great Depression and beginning of the Dust Bowl. Silvano Luna Del Rio works as a postman in Buttar, Texas. Reeling from a tragic past, with only a gun and a Western novel to his name, Silvano sets out to take back from the country that took so much from him by robbing the first skyscraper West of the Mississippi. But acts of retribution are never as simple as they seem, as his target is home to an eccentric fraternal brotherhood hiding their own dark secrets.

By Silvano’s side is an old west novel featuring famed gunslinger Solomon Eaton. As both stories unfold simultaneously, in true UNDONE BY BLOOD fashion, the mythic Western informs choices in reality, for better or worse.

I am such a fan of this series, the Undone By Blood, because while this doesn’t have the same characters it does have a common theme to it and that’s the Elmer Lockwood novels are being read by the main character. It is definitely a unique way to tie into multiple arcs into one title and even better is that we see the novel itself as it’s being read and that’s even more crazy original to me. It is what makes this so much gall darn fun to read.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. It is a completely different, original and unique way of taking the now & then style of storytelling and twisting it into something brand new. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is blowing me away. Think about the year this is set in and what state it is and that our lead character is of Mexican decent and how the dialogue we see surrounding and to him is being relayed is something incredible. The pacing that we see here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along with the story itself and the characters it’s a helluva solid issue.

I really like the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and dare I say continue from the last arc. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is pretty darn amazing to see as well.

The interiors here are so utterly gorgeous to see! The linework is amazingly exquisite and how we see it being utilised to create the attention to detail that we see is mindbogglingly good! To see the opening and to see the bookstore it actually makes me miss those small independent used book stores. How we see backgrounds being utilised, whether it’s from the novel or in the present, and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is utterly marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stupendous eye for storytelling. The colour work is absolutely magnificent! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a stellar eye for how colour works. The techniques we see as well are phenomenal as how the colour is actually laid down.

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Aftershock Comics is a premiere publishing house and if you haven’t discovered why then you really need to get on board because you aren’t going to find storytelling that’s much better than what they put on stands. This may be the second arc but it’s also a stand alone story that can be enjoyed all on its own so I challenge you all to pick this up and tell me it isn’t a phenomenal read.