Beyond The Breach #1

Beyond the Breach #1

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Ed Brisson

Illustrated by Damian Coucceiro

Coloured by Patricio Delpeche

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Life sucks for Vanessa. Her mother just died and her boyfriend is cheating on her (with her own sister!). To clear her mind, Vanessa is taking the California road-trip that she’s been dreaming about for years.

Her postcard-perfect drive through old growth forests quickly turns when THE BREACH hits. A bizarre anomaly in the sky plunges California into a nightmare-world populated with strange, extra-dimensional creatures. Now Vanessa, along with Dougie, an orphaned child, and Kai, a strange, fuzzball of a beast, must fight to survive if they ever hope to make it back home. If there's even a home to return to.

What a frakkin sensational first issue! I had no idea what this was going to be like and I cannot say how many times I love doing this and its why I want to get you excited about a book without my giving anything away. First of all her language in the opening alone is phenomenal and she curses like a sailor when speaking aloud of and to her ex. Once the action here picks up it just doesn’t let up for a single moment all the way up to the last page cliffhanger ending.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reading learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter have a great way of fleshing out the characters. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and what is currently happening seemingly in the middle of nowhere is more than enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

I appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. The avenues we see opening up and then explored in ways that are utterly creepy and simultaneously fascinating. What this does is add extra depth and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is terrifically achieved.

I love the interiors here. The linework is bloody phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work is truly astounding! That backgrounds play an important role in enhancing the moments as much as working within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the book makes me a happy camper. The creativity and imagination that we see is off the charts and it’s superbly rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant. That full page with the dark skies yeah that shows me a master colourist at work. The various hues and tones within the colours and how they are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is done with such aplomb.

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While I’m not sure who or what is doing the breaching into this reality but I don’t much care all I know is that I want to see oh so much more. There is something about a creature feature that ignites the readers mind, imagination and creativity like no others can. That this is so intelligently written with stellar characterisation and phenomenally brilliant interiors is all you need to know to fully enjoy this!