Dead End Kids: The Suburban Job #3

Dead End Kids: The Suburban Job #3

Source Point Press 2021

Written by Frank Gogol

Illustrated by Nenad Cviticanin

Lettered by Sean Rinehart

Three teens. One job. No hope. After the disturbing events of the last issue, Ray-Ray and his goons are closing in on the kids. Now, they need to get rid of the money... and fast. Torie has a plan. A really bad plan. Witness a heist unlike any other as the follow-up to 2019's indie hit barrels toward its final bloody chapter.

I like these arcs from Frank as they demonstrate the bonds of friendship. While it’s true that friends grow apart there are some experiences that when shared will bond you for life and even if it’s too painful to see one another you still do because they are the only ones who can understand how you feel and who you are now. This is what Frank has created here with these kids, no matter where they go from here and what they do they will forever be family and there’s nothing like finding the mishpucha you’ve made compared to the one you’re born into. I am honestly impressed with the way Frank is able to do this with these characters and its why we came back this time and hopefully we’ll come back again.

I like how 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 in such a way that it constantly moves everything forward. Also the fact that we see the thought process behind what the kids do makes believing them and in them all that much easier. The character development never slows down for an instant. How we see the dialogue alongside how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter continually help them grow and evolve as people. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story that by the end we’re left with that overwhelming desire to know what’s next.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow and change is some really remarkable bit of storytelling. Each of them has this little piece of them that helps them be strong and to see that reminds us all of what us strong. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is delightful to see.

The interiors here are really nice to see. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create some really fine attention to detail is superb. That we see backgrounds being utilised as we do not only expands and enhances the moments but it provides us with depth perception, a 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 very talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is phenomenal! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised ot create the shading highlights and shadow work is exceptionally well rendered. That we see colour being utilised to create definition and even musculature, in the dogs at least, and those shrubbery is out of this world in how we see the application.

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Source Point Press is one of my favourite publishing houses because of the diversity of what they offer and the quality of storytelling they bring to readers. What Frank and Nenad do here is extraordinary and it’s as engaging as it is entertaining to say the least. Friends are friends forever when they’ve bonded like this and I look forward to seeing how ht is concludes next issue.