Dancing With The Dragon #1

Dancing With The Dragon #1

Scout Comics 2021

Written by Rob Mackinnon

Illustrated by Luca Casalanguida

Coloured by Natalia Nesterenko

Lettered by Joel Rodriguez

Connor O'Sullivan is a hapless limo driver on the run from the Triads. It probably wasn't the best idea to take over his dead customer's shady business. However, for a poor Irish immigrant trying to provide a better life for his girlfriend, it seemed too good to pass up. After some initial success, Connor thinks this is his ticket to living the American Dream, but he's just been dancing with the dragon!

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. In this case Connor wants to provide a better life for his girlfriend, she moved to America for him so the least he can do is give her a more lavish lifestyle. Hey may be Irish but for the most part he isn’t a bad boy, and this fact becomes increasingly clear with the more he tries to be one. Personally I am so wrapped up in this already because he’s a guy we can all relate to. He’s a good guy who thinks the easy way out is going to be easy, naive yes but hey it is what makes him so likeable and honestly that’s the most important aspect of his character. If we don’t like him then we don’t wanna read about him.

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is impeccably rendered. The character development that we see through the narration, dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. What this does in such a magnificent manner is bring their personalities right to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it introduces us to the characters, the story and the world they inhabit we’re drawn in like moths to a flame.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and strengthen. What these layers do is open up these great avenues and some of these are going to be explored and others won’t be but they all add this great 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 impeccably achieved.

I’m pretty impressed with the interiors here. The linework is strong, clean and crisp and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this marvellous detail work that we see throughout is extremely well rendered. I really like the way that 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 show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours are being utilsied to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered exceedingly well.

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An offer too good to refuse drops into Connor’s lap and he decides to run with it. His goal is to give Blythe the life he thinks she wants. While a part of her is encouraging this I do believe that she would simply be happy to live their life the way they are so long as she has him in her life. Circumstances however have come along to spice things up and now we’ll see if the pair has what it takes to get themselves out of the mess they’ve made and these Triad folks are no joke and not one you want on your behind. So sit down, strap in and get ready for one hell of an action packed wild ride. All this is thanks to the smart intelligent writing, crystal clear characterisation and bloody fabulous interiors.