Godkiller: Tomorrow's Ashes #1

Godkiller: Tomorrow’s Ashes #1

Black Mask Studios 2021

Written by Matteo Pizzolo

Illustrated by Anna Muckcracker

Lettered by Jim Campbell

"Fast, brutal, and more than a little sexy." (-Nerdist) IT'S BACK! From Matteo Pizzolo (CALEXIT) and Anna Wieszczyk, the comic that Zac Thompson said "pushed me further than I've ever been pushed" returns to ratchet up the chaos and roar through the comic market, spitting punk rock fury, thundering into your eyeballs and running roughshod across your brains with its often mindbending, sometimes horrifying, always clever & devious tale of sci-fi magic, apocalyptic sex, and subversive mindbombs. “A singular vision full of fresh elegant brutality and dark humor, it’s like some genius commissioned Chuck Palahniuk, Terry Gilliam, and Aleister Crowley to reinvent dystopia fiction.” - Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (filmmakers Synchronic, The Endless)

Oh my stars and garters, glory be, heavens to murgatroyd, exit stage left what a magnificent display of storytelling is happening within these pages. The interiors alone are worth the price of admission but then to see how the story itself plays out before our eyes and the twists and turns galore that persist just keep the reader so enrapt upon the pages wondering what could possibly happen next.

I absolutely adore 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 exquisitely rendered. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is utterly magnificent. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we are pulled deeper and deeper in waiting, just waiting to the next bomb to drop.

I have to give it up for the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and emerge depending on which avenues are explored or opening up before our eyes. It is in these layers where we see the insane characterisation, both words and visually, and those unexpected moments that sneak up on you which change the way you see the book. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

The interiors here are absolutely stunning. The linework is phenomenal and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the detail work is mind numbing. Normally this is the part where I say we need more backgrounds, and honestly the book could use some, however I’m not going to say that. There is this abstract style going on here where the characters are the main focus and how we see the minimalist approach and how that impacts the composition within the panels is amazingly rendered. We get the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope perfectly with how this is being done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a brilliant eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant and how we see the application of it, the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is so damn impressive.

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There are so many moments throughout this issue that give it some gravitas compared to the style of interior artwork I mentioned. I am thoroughly impressed with the level and quality of work we see within these pages in how it brings this story to life. This is as far from traditional as you can possibly get and it is so unique, without like-equal or parallel, in not only its conceptualisation but in just every single way you can imagine.