Sam and his Talking Gun #01

Sam and his Talking Gun #01

Scout Comics 2020

Written by Drew Ferguson

Illustrated by Lee Ferguson

Lettered by DC Hopkins

Sam stands in a room full of bodies, blood, and broken things. The only thing on his mind? Colt. His brother, blood or not. Colt, who killed the only other person Sam had left. Colt, who broke Sam's mind, and left the shattered pieces in an asylum. But Sam is back. He has his talking Gun. And no matter the cost, no matter the consequence: Colt has to pay.

Well this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a gun that talks, sentient weaponry has been around in comics for quite some time. So while this is fun and dare I say cute, I cannot wait to learn more about the why and how of it. By not giving us the backstory of the gun and why it talks does absolute wonders in guaranteeing that the reader is coming back. Piquing the curiosity as it does and engaging the readers’ mind doesn’t hurt either. Sometimes in comics we either see too much or too little in the first issue but what we encounter here is just right.

I am a fan of 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 extremely well. With how we see this being structured and how the layers within emerging creating a sensational and dynamic mood, tone and feel to the book. The way we are introduced to the characters, the story as well as this huge twist in the story is done in such a way that has a very seamless transition from moment to moment. The character development that we see is very nicely rendered. We learn more from how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter than through the dialogue and I have to say I am more than okay with that. The pacing is fabulous and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way we’re in for a stellar treat.

I like how we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow. This has a very unique and distinct way of being told and Drew really makes it work beautifully. It also doesn’t hurt that his father is illustrating the book so that the wordless moments are as immaculate as the written ones.

The interiors here are beautifully rendered. The linework is gorgeous and the strength that we see is fabulous as the varying weights are being utilised to create this phenomenal detail work. The one thing I want to see more of are backgrounds. We just don’t see enough backgrounds, I can overlook the lack of varying techniques in the art but without backgrounds I am a little disappointed. Now the utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong and talented eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is fantastic. The choices are interesting, in the best of ways mind you. The various hues and tones within the colours that are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is exceptionally rendered. Now here is where we see different techniques being utilised in how the colour is layed down as we see blocking, gradation, blurring and dots or pointillism, which was made popular in Pop Art. This makes how we see the interiors infinitely more interesting.

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Once again Scout comics continues to demonstrate a high level of diversity in the books they bring to shelves and you never really know what genre you are going to get until it is read. Sometimes the genre’s mash-up and other times it feels like there isn’t one to properly describe the story. So jump on in here and take a walk on the wild side but don’t be the old lady and eat someone else’s porridge, break their chair and sleep in their bed because three bachelor bears aren’t to be trifled with.