Destiny, NY #1

Destiny, NY #1

Black Mask Studios 2021

Written by Pat Shand

Illustrated by Manuel Preitano

Lettered by Jim Campbell

There Will Be Time

Set in a version of New York City where magic is a real and accepted part of life, Logan McBride struggles to find purpose. She was the subject of an incredible prophecy when she was a child, but fulfilled her foretold destiny when she was just thirteen. Now in her twenties, Logan navigates through graduate school for Prophecy Kids while searching for her place in a world that tells her sheʼs already finished. Slice-of-life romance and drama meets the mysterious intrigue of urban fantasy in DESTINY, NY!

What a charming and enchanting first issue this is. One of the things that Pat is able to do is take a book like Strangers In Paradise and add mystical or supernatural elements, in this case witches, seers and such, and make feel like an everyday normal thing. It just is and he writes people so well that they just happen to be capable of some really spectacular things. I love reading his work because that’s always consistent no matter the genre or the characters, we feel like they are friends of ours, real people.

I love the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information while constantly moving things ever forward is exceptionally well done. The character development is so mindbogglingly brilliant! Not only do we feel like these are real folks but the dialogue and how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances really fleshes them out further. The pacing here is amazing and as it takes us through the pages introducing the characters, revealing this world and the story and we get lost in all of it.

I am really enjoying the way that this is structured and how the layers within the story emerge and actually grow a lot stronger than I would’ve thought they would. It really is so gosh darn easy to get lost in the characters and their lives and that everyone appears to be somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum with no fuss or fanfare is beautifully done. The way everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is utterly delightful.

The interiors here are magical, yes I went there. Black & White is the hardest medium to work in, in comics as there is no forgiveness and if there’s the tiniest mistake we’ll see it so the gumption to do it is admirable. Even more admirable is the fact that what we see is completely and utterly mindbogglingly gorgeous! The linework with its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level and quality of detail work is astounding. That we see backgrounds being utilised to set the stage but they bring some really nice depth perception, 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 remarkably talented eye for storytelling.

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Pat is a brilliant storyteller and if you’ve never been introduced to his work this is the perfect place to begin. His talent and skill and pure imagination is so easy to see through his work and to be able to connect and be engaged as we are at such a high level is more than impressive. This is a modern story set in a world where everything is possible and still has all the joys and problems of our world to boot. This is a spectacular book that you need to be reading and if your store doesn’t have it then have them order it for you, you’ll thank me for it.