Goat Man & The Bunny Man #1

Man Goat & The Bunny Man #1

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Story & Written by Joe Brusha, Ralph Tedesco & Dave Franchini

Illustrated by Guillermo Fajardo

Coloured by Ulises Arreola

Lettered by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios

Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, the Loch Ness Monster. All are age old folklore fodder, but could they actually be real? In recent years the myth of Man Goat and The Bunny Man has grown locally, and many have claimed sightings of the two unique creatures; yet no concrete evidence exists…

And that's exactly how they want it!

Dealing with the things nightmares are made of so we don't have to - deranged mutants, satanic cults, demons, summer vacationers - Man Goat and the Bunny Man protect us from the evils that hide in plain sight. But they don't want your adoration, they just want to be left alone!

Well I thought I would like this one and I was right I do like it a lot more than I was actually expecting to. Which in and of itself says a lot. The opening here does exactly what it is supposed to do and that’s grab the readers’ attention straight away leaving them with the desire to know more. I love when a book grabs you like this one does as quick as it does it because that heightened desire makes the read that much more fun.

I like 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 extremely well. That we don’t learn more about Floyd and his blackouts keeps the reader engaged and with what we do learn about him he becomes that much more intriguing. The character development that we see is great and I really like the deflection we see from Phil about who he is and how insecure Floyd is when not in a blackout. The pacing is great and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, this world and introducing the characters it creates its own kind of charm.

How we see this being structured is nicely done as well and with the layers within it emerging for us and how we see things playing out it really captures the interest and intrigue levels of the reader. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow while it also moves the story forward is really nice to see.

I have to say the interiors here are bloody brilliant! The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level and quality of detail in the work is utterly astonishing to me. That backgrounds seem to be integral to the story is marvellous and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book is fabulous. 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 we see is outrageously good as well. The way that the various hues and tones within the colours are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great knowledge of colour and how it works. Plus the overall creativity and imagination that we see is off the charts.

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So many things going on here and so much to appreciate, enjoy and question all at the same time. There is a really great dynamic happening here between all the characters we’ve met and those that are only hinted at or hot on their trail for one reason or another. So there’s really something new to learn each time you take a read through and what better testament to fine storytelling is there than that?