Primordial #1

Primordial #1

Image Comics 2021

Written by Jeff Lemire

Illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino

Coloured by Dave Stewart

Lettered by Steve Wands

Mind-bending sci-fi collides with Cold War thriller in this six-issue miniseries by the bestselling and Eisner-winning creative team behind GIDEON FALLS! In 1957, the USSR launched the dog, Laika, into Earth's orbit. Two years later, the USA responded with two monkeys, Able and Baker. These animals never returned. But, unbeknownst to everyone, they did not die in orbit…they were taken. And now they are coming home.

Okay I have no idea what it is exactly I’m reading but I know I like it. Alright so that’s not entirely true because the more I read the more I was beginning to understand and the more intrigued I was getting. Let’s face it though this creative team are masters of creating something outside the box and with enough open for interpretation by the reader and we all know that could be like a game of telephone. So we are inherently instilled with the desire to come back to see what is going on here. I’m totally hooked on this already because the idea that I see behind this is crazy fantastic and the ramifications of what might possibly be has this delicious frightening presence behind it.

I’m thrilled by 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 exquisitely. The character development we see is incredibly intriguing as we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. I am really impressed with the personalities that come to the forefront here. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the characters, the story and the world they live in we are easily drawn into this.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and evolve is extremely well rendered. These layers open up these various avenues to be explored and while some will be, others won’t be and regardless what they all add to the story is some delightful 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 achieved.

The interiors here are bloody mindbogglingly brilliant to see. The style we see matches up with the story to perfection. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work we see is extraordinary. The creativity and imagination that is involved in bringing this to life is brilliantly rendered and a lot of this has to do with how we see backgrounds being utilised throughout. They enhance and expand the moments as well as 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 masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show someone whose understanding of colour is phenomenal.

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Just the idea here and how we see this being brought to life in such an intelligent and fascinating way. The way that this pulls us into the story and engages the readers’ own mind, imagination and creativity is completely and utterly phenomenal. The ideas proposed here are the kind that really engage you and really get those creative juices flowing and to see these masters of storytelling taking on something along these lines is mind boggling to me. With strong intelligent writing and stellar characterisation wrapped up in these mindbogglingly brilliant interiors are the exact reason that we love comics to begin with.