Vinyl #05

Vinyl #05

Image Comics 2021

Written by Doug Wagner

Illustrated by Daniel Hillyard

Coloured by Dave Stewart

Lettered by Ed Dukeshire

It’s time. Madeleine’s bunker of abominations comes face to face with Walter’s blood-crazed psychopaths.

I am head over heels for this book. Aside from the premise which is kind of like a stroke of genius it is the way that this is being told that sends me to the moon. For me personally the fact that Dennis was being held captive and missed out on this epic team-up to free him is another huge factor in my enjoyment of this. I mean Vic has been there for all of it but poor Dennis is still figuring out what the heck is going on and doesn’t understand the extent or depth of what is happening around him and for some odd reason I find this incredibly alluring. Dennis has this set in stone notion about Walter and from everything we’ve seen and learned about him that notion is nothing like the man himself. So yeah I'm all about how we perceive this and how the characters perceive what is happening around them. While I am being honest I’m still pissed about the twins because those two are awesome and I really wanted the next generation to be around longer though this creative team would make me happier than a man on his wedding day if they did a story about them.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is exquisitely rendered. 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 such a magnificent job on their personalities and making them feel like they are real people. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the moments and I was enraptured by the whole book.

I am enjoying the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. Seeing how the layers keep opening up new avenues to explore is phenomenally well done and that it adds so much more depth, dimension and complexity to the story is amazing to see. The way that everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is immaculately achieved.

I do very much enjoy the interiors here. Yes it’s a tad simpler than I would expect but it is so expressive and brings so much feeling and emotion to what we see that it’s glorious. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail within the work is extremely nice to see. The use of backgrounds could be stronger but what we see does expand and enhance the moments nicely. 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 remarkable 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.

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So many highlight moments throughout this issue that are bittersweet and yet make me smile. I am loving the dark humour that permeates the story as it suits my personal perspective on humour. The way that this is written is flawlessly done and the characterisation is truly inspired while these interiors bring it all to life with such apparent ease that it makes this a pure joy to experience.