Hecate's Will #1

Hecate’s Will #1

Black Mask Studios 2021

By Iolanda Zanfardino

HECATE'S WILL is the story of a legendary NYC graffiti artist who has decided to retire and abandon her mission of changing the world through art, but, before she quits, she's going to create one final street-art experience: a graffiti scavenger hunt through the streets of Manhattan that will lead her fans to a final message and artistic testament.

As her street-art experiment catches fire with young NYC artists and activists, and while she simultaneously gets roped into working on a rock musical, all of Hecate's expectations and assumptions will be challenged.

But will it be enough to renew the strength of her conviction to remain true to her artistic self?

I really like this issue. The connection that Iolanda is able to create between Hecate and the reader is really rather remarkable. At some point in time many if not all of us have felt like giving up a certain path we wanted to be on because of frustrations, age, rejection you name and we’ve all felt it. Right away we see this decision that she’s made and we understand why it is being made and if we agree or disagree with that decision is another story entirely. But as a reader to be this engaged this quickly in the issue is delightful and really shows you what Iolanda is capable of doing with her writing, and it's very skilled and talented writing at that.

I am very much enjoying 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 are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter and does an absolutely magnificent job with bringing us their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the story, the characters and the world they live in we are drawn into this exceptionally well.

I am extremely impressed with the way that we see this being structured as well as how we see the layers within the story emerge and grow. I am also liking the way that we see these layers open up new avenues to be explored. Somehow I get the feeling these avenues all work to help the main story arc. Regardless, they all add this 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 are impeccably handled.

I am instantly a huge fan of anyone who can do the writing and artwork of their own book. So what we see within these pages is precisely what is intended and the impact this has is amazing. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work is extraordinary to see. I am also impressed with the way we see backgrounds as they enhance and expand the moments as well as how they 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. There is no colour work per se, it’s all done in red with various hues, tones and shades of red so it’s highly dramatic and actually quite lovely.

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This is beautifully written and illustrated with some phenomenal characterisation and an extremely easy flow to the book. This is a spectacular introduction to a story and it really just sweeps you up into this both emotionally and intellectually.