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He Who Fights With Monsters #2

Ablaze Publishing

By Steven LeitmanPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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He Who Fights With Monsters #2

Ablaze Publishing 2021

Written by Francesco Artibani

Illustrated by Werther Dell’Edera

Coloured by Giovanna Niro

Lettered by A Larger World Studios’ Troy Peteri

The secret agendas of the people of Prague extend far beyond what Dr. Radek has been doing to keep people safe. But in order to rid the city of the Nazis, safety cannot be guaranteed.

In an attempt to protect the people he cares about, Radek is about to discover that sometimes there is more reality in myths than he realized, but it comes with a cost.

There really is something special about this. Prague, formerly Czechoslovakia, isn’t a usual place where we see the Germans rounding up the Jews, Gypsies and Political Prisoners and I like this. There was such a huge region of Europe that was affected by the Nazi’s and it is rather nice to see it hit home where I actually had family both escape and fall victim from. I also adore the idea of the Golem, a creature that’s been rumoured to be created by a Rabbi to protect his people, yeah it’s a childhood fable that I grew up hearing about and to see it in this manner is extremely innovative and a fresh take on the legend.

I am a fan of 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 character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to situations and circumstances which they encounter. This last bit is where a lot of this comes from because there is a lot of imagery and fewer words and it’s powerfully rendered. The pacing here is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more involved and invested we become.

I am a fan of how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. These layers open up new avenues to be explored and this is while we are already exploring some avenues and what this does is add some rich 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 rendered.

The interiors here are absolutely lovely. There is this darkness that permeates the work and this is because secrecy is paramount at this time lest you bring unwanted attention to yourself. The linework is sensational and with its varying weights and techniques it comes across as this delicate yet strong work which creates the attention to detail throughout. How we see backgrounds and shots of buildings are just stunning as they enhance and expand the moments beautifully. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the 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. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a spectacular eye for how colour works.

This is a powerful story for a myriad of reasons. Aside from the heavy subject matter, how we see the introduction of the legend of the Golem and the old man’s insistence that he go to the temple to see for himself is brilliantly handled. With such heavy, heady and hella good writing and this spectacular characterisation wrapped up in these hauntingly beautiful interiors all conspire to bring you one of today’s most intriguing tales.

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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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