Beyond the Breach #3

Beyond the Breach #3

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Ed Brisson

Illustrated by Damian Couceiro

Coloured by Patricio Delpeche

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

It's a showdown in Garberville! Vanessa's new friend might just be an ultra-dimensional out-law on the run, and now she's caught between him and those sent to hunt him down. If she hands him over, she'll never find out the secret of The Breach, but can she help someone who's responsible for the deaths of thousands?

What this issue does in terms of pure storytelling sprinkled with some action is take us through is a highly charged emotional madness that just engulfs the reader. The introduction of Orak and his passion to take Samuel in verges on the scary obsessive avenue and it really kind of adds something to the story that we needed to see. I was kind of hoping that the three of them would add one more person to their retinue but I understand the reasons for it. Though I’ve not lost all hope, all things considered as we see things playing out here. With the way this issue ends on the note that it does shows me that Ed isn’t shying away from the emotional impact he’s going to put the reader through.

I am mondo impressed with 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 reader learns information is impeccably rendered. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter fleshes them out even further. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we learn the more intrigued we become.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is utterly magnificent to see. What we see within the layers contains this kind of brutal honesty from the characters that leaves a great impact upon the reader as they speak their truths. How we see the depth, dimension and complexity brought into this story is really quite inspired. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceptionally well achieved.

The interiors have a very unique style all their own. What they do is add this crazy element of old school horror to the page that blends the science fiction and horror into this modern take. The linework is strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work is really quite good. We see backgrounds being utilised a bit more judiciously than I’d like because they really do enhance and expand the moments. How they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is definitely strong. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong and interesting eye for storytelling. The hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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This book has a lot of hard moments that are going to come at the trio and the hardest is waiting for Vanessa to tell Dougie the truth about his parents. Ed really isn’t holding back on the drama here and it really grounds this into something so much more real and powerful. It gets under your skin and it’s like that itch that you cannot reach to scratch. The wrong is utterly spectacular and the characterisation is intensely insane while these interiors blend the feelings and emotions to this incredible level.