The Rush #2

The Rush #2

Vault Comics 2021

Written by Si Spurrier

Illustrated by Nathan Gooden

Coloured by Addison Duke

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

1899, Yukon Territory. Nettie Bridger's desperate journey to the goldfields of the frozen north has ended in tragedy. But Nettie won't believe it. Can't believe it. Her son is alive -- somehow -- somewhere -- and she won't stop hunting until she finds him. The valley has its monstrous guardians, and the miners have their secrets, and in this crucible of gore and gold the flickering flame of a mother's love is barely enough to melt the ice.

I am enamoured with stories like this because it feels like we’re dealing with Native gods and monsters. These are in the arctic area and the Eskimo people so these are beings we know so little about and that’s part of the fun, learning about things you might not know about. A supernatural horror thriller set in the Yukon in the nineteenth century yeah that alone should be enough of a draw for anyone to be picking this up. Add into the mix a mother searching for her son and things take another twisted turn the story takes and with her there’s a lot more than meets the eye. Si’s imagination and creativity combined with this talent and skill are way off the charts with this one folks and I cannot recommend that you read this highly enough.

I am loving 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 narration, 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 keeping their personalities in the spotlight. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we are left spellbound by the events that we see.

I am very impressed with how we see this being structured as well as how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that we see these layers opening up new avenues to be explored. Whether or not these avenues will be explored or not isn’t relevant because they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The way 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 bloody brilliant. 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 creates a very distinctive style that I’m low key obsessed with. How we see the plethora of backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments beautifully as well as 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 creativity and imagination that we see and how realistically the era and locale is portrayed is pretty stunning to me. The various hues and tones within the colours creating the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a brilliant eye for how colour works and how to maximise their effects.

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There is something magical about this book. It has all the right elements of the unknown, horror thriller moments and a mother’s undying love of her son that mixes together in this cold forbidden place that ignites the readers’ own imagination and creativity. The writing engages the reader beautifully while the characterisation is flawlessly rendered and the interiors here just brilliantly brought to life.