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Duplicant #1

Second Sight Publishing

By Steven LeitmanPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
1

​Duplicant #1

Second Sight Publishing 2021

Created & Written by Karla Nappi

Illustrated by Marianna Strychowska

Lettered by Josh Reed

Duplicant is a thriller about the forces conspiring against the one man who offers hope during a pandemic. That man is Matt Travers, a scientist who creates duplicate organs that saves humanity from the organ failure contagion... only their high cost forces people into indentured servitude. In answer to this, a dangerous black market arises which is run by a religious fanatic and Matt's former mentor. Following Matt's life-changing encounter with a "Duplicant," a recipient of his technology, he comes to question everything he knows as he strives to learn the truth behind his encounter.

This is an amazing new science fiction story that almost literally comes out of nowhere and is one of the most interesting new stories whose premise is downright scary in today’s world. This could be science reality after all we’re seeing 3-D printing doing some really amazing things including building parts to put into the human body so how long until there’s a way to recreate human body parts, sans cloning which is still a possibility, to replace those of sick and infirm?

I love 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 first page kind of skims the pandemic and ignites that interest and intrigue factor surrounding organ failure as a disease and it makes you want to know more. The character development is great and between Pam, Matt and the Preacher Man we get this great solid feeling of who each of them are in a short amount of time. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the world, the story and introducing the characters it creates this fuller more realised and believable world.

I like seeing how this is being structured and how the layers within the story are emerging and how they are playing out already. There are multiple points of articulation here and it’s amazing to think that at some point they will all combine or at the very least cross paths. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story ever forward is utterly delightful to me.

I do like the interiors that we see here. There is something about new artists who want their people to be done right and so the backgrounds end up being a more detailed and impressive looking compared to the characters. This isn’t a bad thing because the contrast it creates is actually really nice here. The linework we see and the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work that we see is nicely done. How the composition within the panels are able to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is strong. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solid eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered as well. The use of colour blocking and how the various hues and tones within the colours to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is nice to see.

There are some real world attributes to the reactions we see from those towards the folks who get the replacement organs and it’s kind of sad and makes me angry but it’s too realistic to not recognise. There are some interesting ways of paying off the procedure and there are some really questionable actions taken and I have to say the blending in the story of real versus fiction are walking such a tightrope that it keeps you riveted to the page. These are some creators to keep your eyes on folks trust me on this.

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About the Creator

Steven Leitman

Just me talking about the comics I enjoy reading, ones that you might not know exist and spotlighting the indie creators that excite me.

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