Hailstone #5

Hailstone #5

ComiXology Originals/Stout Club 2021

Written by Rafael Scavone

Illustrated by Rafael De Latorre

Coloured by Wesllei Manoel

Lettered by Bernardo Brice

Pishkun

The hunter becomes the hunted as Ross, Tobias and Captain Spencer fight for their lives against Spencer's creation. But all is not as it seems, and Ross still has a chilling truth to face.

What a spectacular series this is. Last issue we left off with something of a cliffhanger ending and that’s right where we pick up here. I’m sad though because this is the final issue of this series and it makes me hope that these creators really love this world they’ve created and we get to see more of Sheriff Ross and the town and its problems. I get it if we don’t get more but from a fanboy’s point of view when we come across something that’s told as well as this has been done we care about the characters and want to see more of them. It really is a great testament to the talent, skill and chutzpah of the creators that they’ve done this level & quality of work here. This is so out there with Captain Spencer’s experiments and it’s horrific to see what he’s done and what he was truly capable of and while it sends shivers down the spine we still can’t get enough of it.

I am loving 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 exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. This helps bring their personalities to the forefront and makes them characters we care about, the pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story the reader is transfixed to the page.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen and this is showcased exceedingly well. I love that the layers open up these avenues that are explored as they add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are really strong. The creativity and imagination we see is phenomenal and especially these metal, animal, human hybrid creatures as they are the epitome of strange and wondrous. The linework we see is strong, clean and crisp and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the attention to detail we see throughout the book is bloody gorgeous. While the backgrounds that we see are quite stylised I do wish we’d see more detailed ones that show the space whether it is open or closed in. As it stands what we see does enhance the mood, tone and feel of the moments and it’s rather quite effective. 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 various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a brilliant eye for how colour works.

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I said earlier that I love this story and it’s true I do. It has so much going for it as it can almost be considered a Western as it’s on frontier territory that is shared by the Indigenous peoples with science fiction and horror mixed in to create a pretty unique niche for itself. It feels utterly eclectic and completely new and original and it just creates this buzz and excitement in the reader. This is exceptionally well written with strong characterisation and beautiful interiors. You really ought to make sure you read this either individually or in the hopefully forthcoming trade.