Witchblood #4

Witchblood #4

Vault Comics 2021

Written by Matthew Erman

Illustrated by Lisa Sterle

Coloured by Gabe Contreras

Lettered by Andworld Design

The Showdown in San Sangre! Atlacoya, Yonna, and the newly introduced Texas Red square off against the vampiric biker gang The Hounds of Love.

Neon witches, vampy bikers, and tears from the loneliest cowboys.

Witchblood, now with horses!

This is the issue we’ve all been waiting for, the origin of witches and in a surprise move the origin of vampires as well. How’s that for a midnight double feature picture show. So we’ve got two hunters, one witch and a vampire biker gang and it does sound like the beginning of a joke but alas it’s just the first page of the book. What this issue hs going for it is a lot of storytelling and whether you the vampire gang or not you do have to admit they’ve earned a bit of respect for what happens within these pages. There is so much information being thrown about here and honestly I wouldn’t have thought things were ever going to be this complex and complicated so congrats to Matthew on taking this to places that not one single person would’ve either thought to take them or thought to go on their own.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter is magnificent to see. There’s a lot of stuff happening and don’t discount the dialogue because it’s what makes this issue what it is. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we find ourselves drawn deeper and deeper into this world.

I really like the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen and newly emerge. The emergence of new avenues to explore and the ones already in play, along with the characterisation is what makes the layers within the story so gosh darn strong. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is so well achieved.

I am not the biggest fan of Lisa’s work, it is cute and works beautifully on an all-ages level but I think it’s a little one-note for a story like this. Personally I’d love to see her take on Josie & the Pussycats I think her style is suited for that. She does have a keen eye for fashion as the outfits on the hunters demonstrates. There is a lot of creativity and imagination on display when it comes to the elemental transformation we see I just wish it had more depth. One of the best images we see is the floating castle and that has a lot to do with the colour work with the lights in the windows giving us that depth and dimension to the image. I wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised as well as they do so much to enhance and expand the moments that we see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a decent eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered throughout. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is achieved extremely well.

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This is one of those cases where while the art may not be my cup of tea it is the writing that definitely steals the show. What Matthew manages to do with the writing here is so extraordinary, intricate and fascinating that he manages to surprise us at every turn. The complexity and layers within the story keep the reader guessing and engaged in some truly magical ways, pun intended.