Broken Souls Ballad #1

Broken Souls Ballad #1

Black Caravan/Scout Comics 2021

Written by Massimo Rosi

Illustrated by Ludovica Ceregatti

Saint Abigail's Institute creates monsters - and those monsters are teenagers! The story begins as several teens discover that they possess out-of-the-ordinary abilities, in each case related to their psychosomatic conditions. The resulting trauma caused by this horrific discovery leads them to stray from their normal teenage lives; some to seek answers, others in a desperate attempt to escape their terrible fate. Meanwhile, a mysterious organization working for the government begins to track down the kids with the goal of "bringing them home."

Well I have to say that the way this opens is pretty darn creepy. I mean unfortunately kids who get adopted out of the system homes usually aren’t treated so well, the parents are generally looking for the money benefit or in some cases a punching bag for their aggression. Some do have good solid homes though and it’s their lives outside the home, school is the best example of how to give a teenager nightmares and extreme anxiety disorder, that give them grief. So the way that Massimo starts us off here isn’t pretty but then it isn’t supposed to be and it works so very, very well.

I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development see unfold through the sequence of events as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. I do like that we see things happen as they would in any normal teenagers life, the catalyst is fear and anger which is why we have that teenage angst terminology. The character development is really strong and how the characters interact with one another and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter really help to define who they are becoming, becoming because it seems these abilities are a surprise. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and introducing the characters it does wonders in drawing the reader in.

I like the way that this is structured and how the layers within the story emerge and in some cases continue from before our reading this. I like that because it makes it feel like this world has been fleshed out well before the portion we’re seeing. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow and how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

I am fan of the work we see on the interiors here. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring the detail work to this level and quality is extremely well rendered. I love the style, it’s got this sketchy kind of feel that we’d normally see with black & white books but here in full colour and it’s simply amazing. That we see backgrounds so prevalently utilised throughout makes me a happy camper as what they do the scenes is phenomenal. It also brings us some great 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 masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work that we see is rendered exceptionally well. How the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully done. That we see this originality and craziness in the colours at times is what makes those moments pop really well.

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Okay so this Asylum and the creeps tracking the kids make me laugh and this issue shows exactly why or Markus shows us why. This is an incredibly engaging issue that is smartly written and introduces a couple of characters that we want to know better. Massimo is a pretty brilliantly talented writer and this is just another branch of the tree he’s able to showcase. With interiors that match the writing we’re in for a hell of a good time, now if we didn’t have to wait over two months for the next issue.