Byte-Sized #1

Byte-Sized #1

AWA Upshot Studios 2020

Written by Cullen Bunn

Illustrated by Nelson Blake

Coloured by Snakebite Cortez

Lettered by Sal Cipriano

When two young siblings excitedly unwrap their final Christmas presents, they discover toy robots unlike anything they have ever seen. And with good reason. What the kids and their parents don't know is that their quaint suburban home just became the beachhead for these self-aware 'bots that have begun to explore the outside world. And when one of the 'bots breaks bad, it's going to take a Christmas miracle to stop him.

There are few things in this industry that I look forward to as much as a story written by Cullen Bunn. I mean the man is incredibly talented and there has yet to be anything I have read that hasn’t been amazing in some way shape or form. This one is so far from what I can tell is geared for the Teen + crowd but don’t let that stop you from picking this up, I think it could be great for the entire family to read and then talk about around a device free meal. This is going to be fun to talk about and talking around the table seems to be something of a lost art these days.

I love 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 presented beautifully. The opening and how we follow along is one of those moments that you almost expect to see or hear more about on the news or in your newsfeed. So that the way this is portrayed is as delightful as all get out and it almost feels like one of those films I grew up watching like Flight of the Navigator, Escape to Witch Mountain and Explorers so for me this beyond delightful. The character development that we see is very well rendered as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances they find themselves in continue to flesh them out.

The way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story are emerging you can see how strong this story is from the get to. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is perfectly done.

I really like the interiors here. They have that all-ages animation style to them that makes me think they are computer generated. If that’s the case then I expect to see backgrounds utilised more often throughout because not seeing them then feels a lot more like laziness. After all when we see them they enhance the moments and bring us this sense of size & scope as well as depth perception. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a superb eye for storytelling. I do like the colour work that we see. There is some beautiful gradation going on here and the various hues and tones being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered.

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While I never celebrated Christmas so all I know of it is what I’ve seen through the animated films I watch when I was a kid. So I get the excitement and magic aspect of this after all Chanukkah is very much about magic and miracles. Of course the whole idea here could be done from someone’s birthday as well as the holiday season and that it could be that versatile or that it could be as exciting for a kid to discover a ‘bot on their own and hide it from their parents is also another way to see this. What I’ve just done is show you how I have become engaged in the story and how it takes my mind to various other places. This is the sign of a a good, well written story and when it comes to Cullen there doesn’t get much better.