Death by Life #2

Death by Life #2

Antarctic Press 2021

Written by Anthony Zicari

Illustrated by Claudio Sepúlveda

Realising he has done something he should not have and that his body is changing as a result, Death tries to escape his reality. But his appointed overseer, the archangel Miridia, forces the truth out of him. Meanwhile, Death's situation has attracted the attention of others, including a seraph who comes to interrogate Deaths's little sister.

I was highly intrigued by the first issue as this wasn’t anything like I was expecting and it certainly isn’t like anything else out there on stands today and that for me is utterly brilliant. The idea that Death is with child and when this child is born his journey will end is a radical development that I think is a pretty genius idea. The opening here is phenomenal and that we see Death smoking, I mean why not he’s dying, and having a conversation with some dead blokes brings us so much information, joy and a shake your head in near disbelief moment that is inescapably one of the more interesting aspects of the story.

I am very much enjoying 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 is phenomenal thanks to the monologuing, dialogue, character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. This fleshes them out beautifully and you feel like it’s only just begun and have that desire to learn more about them. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story it keeps pulling us in deeper and deeper and at times we’re mystified and others left with wide eyed awe.

I am thoroughly impressed with how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen. There are little bits that further the characterisation and Miridia’s battle with what crossed over add depth and complexity to the story beautifully. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

I like the interiors here. The creativity and imagination that is on display is so beautifully rendered through the imagery and how creative we see not only the aftermath of Death’s business and his lack of hunger to Miridia being this amazingly stacked angel with some incredible posing. Also that we see what’s inside Death the way we do is phenomenal. The linework is strong, solid work that with the varying weights and techniques highlights some exquisite attention to detail. I wish we’d see more backgrounds I mean that two-page spread with Death’s sister shows why I know it can happen and why I think we should get more. Regardless the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is quite effectively rendered. 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 gorgeous and the choices we see and how ethereal they can be is unsettlingly gorgeous. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really is stupendous.

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This is such an amazing little story that seems to come out of nowhere and is so extremely well put together and executed. This has some massive universal appeal through how we see the story unfold and how it affects each of the characters that we meet. It is one of the more outside the box thinking books that showcases why Indie Publishers should have more spotlight on what they are bringing to the party.