Witchblood #1

Witchblood #1

Vault Comics 2021

Created & Written by Matthew Erman

Created & Illustrated by Lisa Sterle

Coloured by Gab Contreras

Lettered by Jim Campbell

A modern, Wild West road trip about a witch named Yonna cruising the Southwest as a band of bloodthirsty biker vampires, The Hounds of Love, hunt her scattered coven for the source of all magic: witch blood. From the critically acclaimed creators of The Modern Witch Tarot Deck and Long Lost comes WITCHBLOOD, a blend of action, lore, and Americana—perfect for fans of Buffy and American Gods.

Oh my goodness what a fun issue this is. So we meet Yonna and the story gets underway in earnest. What we see makes me wonder how old Yonna is and how much magic she has and I think this is a good thing because it engages the readers’ minds. It is almost a bit of detective work trying to figure it out and it’s actually a bit of fun. I very much am enjoying this, more so than I had actually anticipated which of course i’ll never complain about. I thought it would something a tad different than it is and while the all-ages style of art that Lisa does so well belies that this is more of a grownup story. The way that we see the characters introduced and how we learn about those that inhabit this world is extremely well done.

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold while moving everything ever forward is exceptionally well rendered. The character development is awesome! I really like how the dialogue and how we see the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter start to really flesh them out. The pacing is great and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the characters, the world they live and the story at hand we get swept up in the outrageously fun place. Of course it doesn’t feel like fun to Yonna at the moment but that’s what it’s all about.

Seeing how this is structured and how the layers within the story begin to merge show this really delightful way about them. Matt’s got some serious writing chops and he really understands how placement matters and we see that beautifully here. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is fabulous!

The interiors here are charming. The linework we see is fantastic and how the varying weights are being utilised to create the detail work is fantastic. We see a fair amount of backgrounds being utilised and I love that, though we could always stand to see more. They really enhance the moments, create some great spaces and bring us nice depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a superb eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautifully done. We see some nice variation in techniques to lay it down depending one here it is. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is very nice to see.

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Overall this is an incredibly delightful, charming and unexpected good time. This has a ton of promise and potential and considering the amazing start that this is off to the future kind of blows my mind. Hopefully this Hex Hunter that we met this issue is going to play a large role in this book and if not then she needs one of her own because that woman has everything going for her from fashion to the accessories she carries. I’m psyched to see what’s going to happen next as these folks have knocked this outta the park.