Suicide Jockeys #4

Suicide Jockeys #4

Source Point Press 2021

Written by Rylend Grant

Illustrated by Davi Leon Dias

Coloured by Iwan Joko Triyono

Lettered by HdE

CHAPTER 4: ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS

After breaking a billionaire whack job out of prison, there are real deal bills to pay. The building is surrounded. There are tanks at the gate. Denver & company - and the aforementioned whack job - have 24 hours to get their shit together and save all of space and time.

This is a fantastic series and each issue has been better than the one before it which is exactly how a story should progress. Rylend has really emerged as one of today’s more interesting writers with a diverse resume and each story has been extremely solid. I’m pretty darn impressed with this book because it hasn’t been easy to get the team together and then to work together to accomplish their goal, they haven’t tested out the capability of travelling to the past to change history. The only problem is that time is running out, ironic dontcha think, as they are under intense pressure from outside sources to give themselves up after having broken someone out of prison. The race against time to change history is on and it is heating up and that’s where we are folks.

I am such 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 are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in continuing to flesh out their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the page revealing more of the story the more we are engrossed in all the drama unfolding.

I’m pretty impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that we see the layers open up new avenues to be explored. This of course adds some wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. These interpersonal relationships are where it all comes from too and I reckon they need family counselling awfully bad. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

The interiors here are spectacular! The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques that we see being utilised to create the detail within the work are extraordinarily well rendered. We see some great use of backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments which makes me want to see more of them throughout the book. They also 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 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 brilliant eye for how colour works and how to maximise its effects.

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The way we see this being written and how the excitement and buzz that is generated through the events we see unfold makes this a terribly exciting read. It feels like it goes fast but it’s just an illusion because the amount of storytelling here is considerable and it all just flows in such a way that we are so engrossed and engaged in the story that the issue ends before we realise it. This of course just means we need to see what’s going to happen next. The writing really is stupendous and the characterisation is strong and interesting while the interiors are bloody brilliant.