Savage Circus #6

Savage Circus #6

Heavy Metal Comics 2021

Written by Brendan Columbus

Illustrated by Al Barrionuevo

Coloured by Candice Han

Lettered by Dave Sharpe

The town of Basin Bay is under attack! A heist underway by a group of thieves! Strange creatures on the loose! The police are outnumbered! How is the mysterious man named Lewis Savage going to help turn the tide?

Well this is one of those hugely interesting and highly frustrating books. We just don’t get to see enough here pure and simple, I want more pages and yes I may be greedy and a bit emotional but this is so blasted good that I want to be able to read more. When this comes out in trade, which I hope I get a copy of, form I am sure it’s going to be an even better read then it already is and at this stage it’s an I can’t put it down until three or four reads are done. The way that we see this being told brings out so much adrenaline and tension within the reader and this is because of how in sync the writing and the artwork are and how they can create such an emotional and physical response within the reader.

I am loving the way that this is being told. The story & plot development 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 dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is phenomenally rendered. How we see these being done really brings out some great personality traits within the characters. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the events we’re caught up in this high tension, adrenaline fuelled encounter.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is magnificently rendered. The layers really open up some interesting avenues to be explored. The wolves and Lewis Savage for example or why we don’t see more of Brady when his cold wet body is pulled from the water. All these add this wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story and it's glorious to see. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is flawlessly achieved.

Big big big fan of the interiors here. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work is utterly bloody brilliant. From the fur on Brady’s jack to the fur on the wolves or the way we see the scratches on the ice, the little details we see make this huge impact. Backgrounds that we see are well rendered and even if it’s blank we still see the stars or the ice, something so it’s not just a blank background is exceptionally well done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. How we see the composition within the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational understanding of how colour works and how to maximise its effect on the pages. How we see Brady’s face is a great example of this.

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This is a phenomenal story; it just has everything you could want, except the male nudity that should come with Brady. I adore the creativity and imagination we see throughout and the page borders are one such example. The action, the intrigue and even romance plus there’s just this whole tension building aspect that comes with how well this is being told. The writing is utterly sensational and the characterisation is sublime and all of this is wrapped up in these brilliant interiors and on the whole this is what a cinematic story is.