John Carpenter's Tales of Science Fiction: Hell #8

John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction: Hell #8

Storm King Comics 2021

Written by David J. Schow

Illustrated by Andrea Esparza

Coloured by Sergio Martinez

Lettered by Janice Chiang

All Hell breaks loose, in the thunderous conclusion of the saga of the Underneath! The survivors of the CalEx strike team have one hole card left to play... Meanwhile, the demons of the underworld have a workable invasion plan to dominate the surface of the Earth once more... and only our team, with the uniquely alien Kartkas, can stop them.

Whelp here’s the spine tingling finalé as the team has to regroup and find their way out of the Underneath. I am so in love with this book! The writing and illustrations that we see are immaculately rendered and it has this air of near believability to it that makes a lot more sense than Dinosaurs still living between the Earth’s surface and its core. The journey that this takes readers’ on is thrilling, surprising and emotionally charged with plenty of twists & turns, not to mention revelations galore ride through some of the toughest terrain against the most fearsome foes that you could possibly imagine. Also with Kartkas we see that they can make their way to the surface and why he’s a half-breed which has complications of a totally different way.

I am in love with 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 does a magnificent job in spotlighting these ever changing and evolving personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story, not to mention the ending, we are kept on the edge of our seats.

I am greatly appreciative of the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that we see the layers as they open up new avenues to be explored. With this being the final issue we only see a few touched upon but they all add this great depth, dimension, complexity and engagement to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how we see it move the story forward are impeccably handled.

The interiors here are bloody mindbogglingly brilliant to see. The linework is exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality in the detail within the work that we see is utterly mind blowingly extraordinary. How we see backgrounds enhance and expand the moments as well as how we see them 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 is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a brilliant masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a masters eye for how to use colour to its fullest. The creativity and imagination we see within the denizens of the underneath is simply stunning.

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Each arc of this series is as amazing if not more so than the one that comes before it. This is without a doubt the most consistently amazing series to hit stands and probably the absolute flawlessly rendered book you aren’t but should be reading. With some extraordinary writing and this utterly brilliant characterisation wrapped around these mindbogglingly sensational interiors turns this from a simple story into the stuff of your dreams and nightmares that you cannot get enough of.