Seeing Red #1

Seeing Red #1

Evoluzione Publishing/No Sleep 2021

Created & Written by Marcel Dupree

Created & Illustrated by Mannix Francisco

Coloured by Fahriza Kamputra

Lettered by Marco Della Verde

Ella is an orphan that has been raised by a group of demon hunters called the Kulling. She been trained to kill demons but never raise her blade to a human. Childhood trauma kicked in after seeing a village attacked by raiders, Ella viscously kills the raiders. Breaking the rules of the Kulling means death. Mazos, her adopted father couldn't kill her. He burned her Kulling seal off of her back, leaving her alone, barely alive. Now, she's alone excommunicated out for blood be it a raider, demon, or hunter.

I rather enjoy that Marcel keeps sending me the books he and his company works on because they really are some good solid quality books and stories. This one has an interesting premise behind it and I am looking forward to seeing how this begins to play out more. From what we see during the opening and through to the ending only fuels the desire to see and know more. We get just enough information about this world and how it works that it engages the readers mind and imagination instilling that desire to know a lot more.

I like how we see this 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. I really like the catalyst that sets everything in motion occurring as it just seems so natural considering the circumstances. The character development we see is sensational and as the only person who understands the opening better than anyone she travels with is Ella. Now we do learn a lot about her this issue but there’s still more we don’t know and I have to say that this young woman is rather remarkable. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story and introduces us to these characters we are drawn into this story beautifully.

I am enjoying the way we see this being structured and how layers within the story emerge and continue from parts unknown. It’s these threads that are preexisting that really grab your attention the strongest and that’s a good thing. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is greatly achieved.

The interiors here are really rather well rendered. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring out the detail work that we see is rather stupendous. With how we see the backgrounds and how they are incorporated within the panels bringing us depth perception, that sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous to see. I am a big fan of the creativity and imagination that we see as well, the demon that’s destroyed for example is a big one and then how medieval dress along with the elder who seems to have no eyes, all of these things conspire to really grab the imagination of the reader. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is utterly spectacular to see. The various hues and tones within the colour and how they are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a gorgeous eye for how colour works. The mixture of gradation and colour blocking is really amazingly well rendered here.

Right now this feels less like a RPG style campaign and more along the lines of an alternate history kind of story and the distinction shouldn’t go unnoticed. These are warriors pure and simple and they hunt the demons that roam the world, meanwhile the men of this world are the real actual monsters as raiders who raid much like the vikings of old who rape, pillage and murder with wanton abandon are the ones more deserving of being hunted. I find myself so thoroughly engaged and siding and rooting for Ella that by the last page i’m already eagerly awaiting the next issue. Evoluzione Publishing is a small press publishing house that you really need to be aware of and reading their books every chance that you get.