Lev Gleason Presents #1

Lev Gleason Presents #1

!Comic House 2021

Lev Gleason's Comic House returns to super-hero publishing after 75 years with Lev Gleason Presents #1. This series jumpstarts with Silver Streak: Season 1 Issue 1 by Keith Champagne (Stranger Things) and Stefan Tosheff (Minerva's Map);

Freelance: Season 2 Issue 1 by Andrew Wheeler (Wonder Woman) and Juan Samu (Black Panther);

Captain Canuck: Season 5 Issue 3 by Ho Che Anderson (KING) and Felipe Cunha (Cult Classic);

plus a classic archive adventure featuring the Golden Age Silver Streak! Each mega-sized issue will contain a brand-new #1 issue as well as at least two NEW 20-page stories continuing from the Comic House shared universe! Included in each issue are download codes for digital copies of each issue featured.

I have to say these folks are really trying to get me to change my mind on how I feel about Anthology Series, and fyi it’s working. For me this type of Anthology is perfect, it’s got four stories with decent page counts and it looks like a short graphic novel so yeah this is totally the kind of series I can get behind. Plus it’s a continuing adventures kind of thing so each issue will tell the story to completion and I like that.

I love the way that these are being told. The story & plot development that we see through the sequence of events unfolding as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well throughout. The character development that we see through the dialogue, narration, character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances magnificently flesh these characters out. While each story is done by different sets of creators the formulae remains the same and I like that because it shows that writing follows rules and that strong intelligent storytelling comes with the tweaks in how it’s told. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, the characters and the world they live in we’re so enrapt by what we see it’s stellar stuff.

How this is structured is sensational and how the layers within the stories continue to grow, evolve and strengthen is incredibly well managed. These layers with the characterisation, plot twists and turns of events add so much depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the stories ebb & flow as well as how it moves the stories forward is perfectly achieved.

Each set of interiors are distinct and beautifully go with the story at hand. The Silver Streak, the new one, is a much more modern looking style and goes with these two great lead characters. The Captain Canuck story has more traditional strong, clean and crisp linework that with its varying weights and techniques manage to create some lovely detail work. My personal favourite is the Freelance artwork and how much care and attention goes into what we see and how the detail work and the swimsuits make me realise just how darn good the interior artwork truly is. The classic Silver Streak is amazing because it goes to show that comics really haven’t changed all that much. I adore the attempt to make it real as possible and how clean the artwork is and it really just shows how much incredible talent there was leading the way for what we see in today’s market.

There is one more thing I want to mention and that’s in the Freelance series, that our lead hero and his boyfriend work side by side and fight together is presented as no big deal it simply is. This is how it should be, no fanfare, no fuss just showing it like its as normal as anything else and as a gay man myself I appreciate that because it sends a strong message.

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This my friends is a phenomenal book and it looks like it is going to be a strong series that you will need to have in your reading pile. Lev has gone above and beyond what I expected out of this and you’ll find yourself enjoying every moment of classic superhero adventures!