Monday Monday #1 A Rivers of London Story

Monday Monday #1 A Rivers of London Story

Titan Comics 2021

Written by Ben Aaronovitch & Andrew Cartmel

Illustrated by José María Beroy

Coloured by Jordi Escuin Ilorach

Lettered by Rob Steen

An unmissable brand-new era in the life of full-time cop and part-time wizard, Peter Grant. A werewolf is on the loose and will stop at nothing to avoid capture! It’s up to Peter and his cohort of chums to hunt the deadly lycanthrope and bring him to justice!

This is such a great franchise. I’m impressed with the fact that each arc that comes out is new reader friendly and if you feel like you missed something, which you won’t, it gets enough explanation as the story moves forward to put you at ease. This issue sees a temporary replacement for DI Ian Carter whose in the hospital and with fresh eyes comes a fresh way of working for the team. While there may be some adjustment time I already like what we are seeing here. It really does mean that the team have to be on their toes too and if there’s one person in the unit that jeopardises operations well they are more likely to get busted by someone who isn’t as invested or believes in them to not see what’s right in front of them.

I am very much enjoying the way what 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 narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really helps us get a feel for who the characters are as people. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we’re left engaged as to what is going to happen next.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow is very well rendered. The layers of course have the characterisation and the sub-plots some of which impact the main arc while others swirl around it but they all add extra depth 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 extremely well achieved.

I am enjoying the interiors here. The linework is great it’s clean, crisp and confident and with the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is fabulous. I love seeing the backgrounds though we could always see more of them. They enhance the moments and work within the composition of the panels to create the depth perception, sense of scale and he overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see he angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered.

One of the bigger appeals to this book is the fact that while yes they have some fantastical adventures dealing with the supernatural side of the world they are also a police unit and deal with everyday ordinary crimes as well. Granted they never seem to be able to escape the supernatural elements but the cases do start off at the station and I think this is how you blend the two worlds so adeptly. This is nicely written with a great diverse cast of characters and it’s these beautifully solid interiors creating this world and perfectly bringing it to life.