Chicken Devil #1

Chicken Devil #1

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Brian Buccellato

Illustrated by Hayden Sherman

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

Mitchell Moss is about as regular as it gets. He’s married with two children, and co-owns a successful chain of Memphis Hot Chicken restaurants. It’s not the life that screams hero/vigilante...until he discovers that his business partner is in bed with the mob and owes them $2 million. Unfortunately, Mitch is ill-equipped to be a badass—he’s just a guy who makes really good chicken. Can he protect his family from cold-blooded gangsters? Absolutely not.

But maybe the CHICKEN DEVIL can…

So I knew Brian was writing this so I made sure I’d have a copy for myself and boy howdy is this something that I had never thought I’d see a day in my life. Mitchell is kind of a nerd right and he’s not unattractive and right off the bat we get a pretty solid look at his personality. The opening is great as we see him with his family before getting right into the nitty gritty of the story. Once we hit that all bets are off because I am going to place this in the realm of Ozark in its potential for what we may be seeing as the story progresses. The realm just means as strong and interesting as, so not exactly like it.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told, I mean it’s got some absolutely incredible moments. The story & plot development that 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 interactions as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it introduces us to the story, the characters and the world they live in leaves us wanting more.

I greatly appreciate the way that we see this being structured as well as how we see the layers within the story emerge and grow. The avenues we see opening up add some wonderful depth, dimension 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 exceptionally well achieved.

I’m digging the interiors here. The linework we see with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work we see creates this very distinctive style that I really am enjoying. When backgrounds are utilised they do wonders in enhancing and expanding the moments as well 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 to the story. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout is extremely well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts, which are magnificent by the way, and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows an immensely talented eye for how colour works and to maximise its effects.

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While the book doesn’t break the fourth wall I do appreciate seeing all the references to modern pop culture. This does a great job grounding the book in a sense of reality that not only puts it in this era but also gives a nice sense of context. I mentioned Ozark earlier and if you sprinkle in a healthy dose of Animal Kingdom then I think you’d have a greater sense of how awesome this book is. The writing is strong and interesting and the characterisation is sensational and these interiors really set the mood, tone and feel for what’s happening every step of the way.