Clans of Belari #1

Clans of Belari #1

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Peter Blackie & Rob Blackie

Illustrated by Daniel Maine

Coloured by Carlos Lopez

Lettered by Taylor Esposito

PRIMARY LAWS OF THE BELARI SYSTEM:

1.) No person or Clan may exit the system.

2.) No person or Clan may do the Designated Work of another Clan.

3.) Clans may not merge.

4.) Any person that breaks a Primary Law shall be made Outcast.

On the far side of the galaxy, an isolated branch of humanity is trapped in a feudal dystopia. Order is maintained by a system of oppression, until an orphaned girl and her incorrigible adoptive father sow the seeds of a revolution and unite the clans against a fearsome alien threat.

I knew I was going to read this, it’s from Aftershock after all, but I wasn’t prepared for just how interesting and fascinating this turned out to be. The opening is fantastic and I like seeing a man with a conscious and the Captain’s was two-fold here even if the second one took him a minute. Still what he does from there makes me like Greely all the more and its nice to see that not only does he go back for her but he basically becomes her father from that day forward and it is what makes reading this so gosh darn good.

I really like 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 exceptionally well. The character development we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter is portrayed magnificently. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story, introducing us tot he characters and this world we’re pulled in beautifully.

I really appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. The layers are where we see the strongest characterisation happen and how it shows the twists & turns that take us through the avenues to explore. These will either work with the main arc or swirl around it and either way it adds extra depth 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 achieved exceedingly well.

I am a fan of the interior artwork we’re seeing here as well. The linework is strong, clean and crisp and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is astonishingly good. I love, love the backgrounds we see being utilised throughout the book! The way they enhance the moments is utterly brilliant and 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 show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is absolutely brilliant. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised ot create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows the eye of a someone who inherently understands how colour works. From the sky you see the greens of the forest or the whites and blues in the ice mountains and those shades tell you all you need to know about how good Carlos is.

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I want to say this is an unexpected treat but with the level of quality that books from Aftershock have it really isn’t unexpected. What is unexpected is just how darn interesting and fascinating this has turned out to be. Te’a is a great young lady and that she’s been raised by Greely and the rapport these two have show that family and the bonds of a father and daughter doesn’t always have to be blood relations. With strong writing, great characterisation and brilliant interiors this is should be flying off the shelves.