Swamp God #2

Swamp God #2

Heavy Metal Comics 2021

Written by Ron Marz

Illustrated by Paolo Armitano

Coloured by Werner Sanchez

Lettered by ALW’s Troy Peteri

At the end of the American Civil War, a ragtag squad of Confederate soldiers calls upon the ultimate evil to save the South. Now, the remains of their unit must team with Union soldiers to survive the horrors of the Swamp God.

This is a great book and I think the setting, place and time, have a huge impact on how I feel about this. That it is this era lends a greater air of credence to the story because you would find the legends of the swamp witch being more prevalent and believed. They were more superstitious then and to see that play out as we do this issue just reaffirms what we believe of that time. Without being there and only records or journals for guidance the truth is often blurred into legend and myth. By the way for the record the one dude is right they taste like chicken and I make some mean gator grub. I am very much enjoying the way Ron is telling this story. It's intelligent, interesting and the reader comes into this issue already engaged and invested in what’s happening which simply increases exponentially with this issue.

I am very much 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 we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. This does a magnificent job bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more engaged and invested we become.

I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. These layers do wonders in opening up new avenues and exploring those already opened and how they all add this wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. I have to say the witch and what immediately happened after she agreed on that one condition was absolutely stunning. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is amazingly well achieved.

Oh I am a fan of the interiors here. The linework that we see is strong, clean and crisp and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this much sensational detail work is beyond my expectations. From the swamp life, to the uniforms, to the people themselves what we see is so well executed and that each one is an individual and the attention and care done to ensure that yeah I’m incredibly impressed. That we see backgrounds being utilised to this degree makes me a happy camper as they enhance and expand the moments. 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 masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works and how to maximise their effects.

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The further we get into this issue the more interesting things become. I mean that the last page alone should be enough to ensure that anyone and everyone would be enticed to come back. I love this, it has horror, war, action/adventure and it's all set in a time period of the civil war and the Confederate Soldiers having to work with the Union Soldiers moving forward is going to be something extraordinary to see. Strong, intelligent writing and characterisation alongside some gorgeous interiors make this another home run for Heavy Metal.