Section 12 Declassified #2

Section 12 Declassified #2

Lenovations Press 2020

Written by Len Mihalovich

Illustrated by Dominic Racho

Flashback by Michael Kelleher

Paintings on Page 4 by Jason Whittley, Shawn Vermett

Mike Hoffman & Delfinral

BarColoured by Nestor Redulla Jr., Len Mihalovich & Lawrence Guerrero

He Likes to Paint

A cafeteria worker wakes up after being in a coma for over 20 years. He doesn't say much but he sure likes to paint. Most of his paintings contain a very familiar logo that attracts the attention of a mysterious caseworker.

I don’t remember how I came about this book, it could’ve been part of a kickstarter reward set or I picked it up at a convention, now that they are back. I was preparing for a convention this weekend when I found that I had this and thought okay let's see what it’s about. I was/am pleasantly surprised by this as well. I don’t know why I don’t have issue one but what this one does is make wish I had it, I found myself intrigued by what I was seeing and reading and it was instilling within me the desire to know and see more. Plus with the events that unfold it really takes things up to another level when comes to the intrigue department.

I am enjoying 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 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. I like seeing how the baseline personalities are being established here and it gives us a solid base to watch as the characters grow and evolve. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story the more we want to see and know.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen are incredibly well rendered. What I like about the layers is you feel like all the characters we meet have their own hidden agendas. The avenues that are opening up through the layers add some great 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 rendered exceptionally well.

I’m pretty darn impressed with the interiors here. The linework we see is clean, crisp and sharp and how we see the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to bring about the detail work that we see is superb work. I’m really impressed with whoever put the pages together to showcase those paintings because how that’s done really expands and enhances that perfectly. The page layout where we see the face overlaid on the page is phenomenal; it leaves such a major impact on the reader. The composition within the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is extremely well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a good solid understanding of how colour works.

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I’m not entirely sure what this is about but based on what I see within these pages I have a pretty good idea what is going on. This of course makes me want to see and explore more because if my suspicions are correct then it's going to be something extraordinary. It has all the makings of this secret organisation that guards it’s occult ties and nefarious activities from the prying eyes of man. Of course it could totally be something completely different and innocent that is half the fun here. With some solid writing and interesting characterisation wrapped up in these incredibly solid interiors makes for some interesting reading. All of these factors also contribute to why I keep saying you should be on the lookout for small/indie/self published books to read.