Bountiful Garden #01

Bountiful Garden #01

Mad Cave Studios 2021

Written by Ivy Noelle Weir

Illustrated by Kelly Williams

Coloured by Giorgio Spalletta

Lettered by Justin Birch

In the year 2200, a team of teenage scientists are sent on a terraforming mission to a distant planet. Selected as the best and brightest of their generation, architect Jonas, botanist Marnie, biologist Jane, engineers Anya and Kamari, and security detail Kurt are all put into cryostasis expected to wake up when it is time to prepare to land on their assigned planet. When they are awakened abruptly, ten years early, halted above a strange planet, the teens are tasked with trying to figure out why they're stalled - or what stalled them. As they break into two teams, one tasked with fixing the ship, the other with exploring the unknown planet below, they're faced with an increasingly nightmarish scenario as they encounter a cosmic horror that seems to not only have attacked their ship, but also their minds.

Finally we see a story that utilises kids on a long range, long term space mission. Yes it makes sense because they are young and supposedly brilliant so sending them into space doing what they are supposed to do. It is like someone heard my unvoiced plea about doing this, putting the kids in space, because they are younger and will live longer it just makes more sense to me. With what else we see during this introductory issue goes a long way in showing the downside of kids in space as well as the inherent danger in heading into the unknown. I do find not only the mix of kids to be interesting but their job descriptions intrigue me as well, as does the fact that we aren’t introduced to any kind of machinery that would help in terraforming or settling a new planet.

I am enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader 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 which they encounter. This gives us the chance to really get a good, solid look at each of these kids and their personalities. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

The inteiros here are absolutely charming. There is definitely a specific style happening here and it’s almost in the all-ages range but then it also adds this whole creepy element to the story. The linework is strong and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work that we see is fantastic. I like how we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as 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. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a very talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a solid eye for how colour works.

​

There is some really great tension added to the story because of what we see and where the story is headed. It adds this great intrigue factor as well and it certainly leaves that desire within the reader to see what is going to happen next. To be honest it feels like an early teen version of Alien for so many different reasons. This is a well thought out and constructed intelligent story with some diverse and interesting characterisation wrapped up in these stylised interiors that match the story beautifully. Mad Cave has another hit on their hands and it is nice to see that this isn’t aimed at your typical audience either.