Comics

Review “Shutter” #1

Published

10 years ago

April 9, 2014

Joe Keatinge and Leila De Duca breath new life into globetrotting adventure comics with their gigantic and imaginative world. Kate Kristopher may be bored with the world around her, but from everything we see, she has no reason to be. “Shutter” makes a solid effort to define itself in a genre carved out by timeless classics like The Adventures of Tintin and for the most part it succeeds.

WRITTEN BY: Joe Keatinge
ART BY: Leila De Duca
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: April 9, 2014

This comic begins by instilling a sense of wonder, adding a sense of bewilderment, and topping it off with a sense of casual complacency. You watch as Kate Kristopher is introduced into a very wild world from an incredibly young age and you’ll be in awe of the universe around her. She lives in a fantastic age filled with weird and marvelous creatures, but she claims her life is boring.

It’s hard to see. She has been on numerous fantastic adventures. The brief glimpses of her exploits that we’re treated too seem more exciting than I could possibly fathom. She’s Johnny Quest but grown up having saw enough to live a thousand lifetimes her world is far from ordinary, but doesn’t seem to faze her anymore.

The looming specters outside of the pages seem to characterize the story more that Kate herself. It’s a beautifully balanced script that shows something missing outside of the primal appeal of adventure, but it’s not quite clear what that something is just yet. It seems rooted in her relationship to her father, but surely there is more to it than that.

Leila De Duca will by all accounts blow you away. Her art is wildly imaginative and pulled off seamlessly. It’s actually quite stunning to see the scope of the world she has created here. Everything is completely outside the ordinary but manages to have a casual complacency about it. You’ll see a spaceman from 50’s science fiction serials sitting on the subway, and a business minotaur in a suit. Only to be juxtaposed by a swash buckling Kate swinging off a sinking ship as its attacked by a Chthulu like monster. It’s hard to fathom, but De Duca makes it look easy.

There is a lot about the power of childhood here on these pages. A child raised in constant danger comes to thrive off of it. They feel lost without it, and that certainly resonates with Kate. “Shutter” will surprise you. It’s not about all the beautiful and fantastic creatures on the page instead it’s an oddly heartfelt look at a woman’s loss of innocence and wonder in a world literally brimming with adventure.

Powerful and exciting with a flavor of the mundane “Shutter” sadly takes its time in this first issue to develop it’s characters and world a little too much without a real focus on what Kate’s story is actually about. For now though, #1 offers a tantalizing tease of the larger world to come.

Rating: 3.5/5 Skulls.

Related Topics:Image Comics Joe Keatinge Leila De Duca Shutter

Zac Thompson

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Comics

‘Witchblade’ is Getting Resurrected This Summer in New Comic Series from Top Cow and Image Comics

Published

1 week ago

April 18, 2024

Meagan Navarro

Witchblade, the popular comic series that initially ran from 1995 to 2015 and launched a TV series, is getting resurrected in a new comic series from Top Cow and Image Comics. It’s set to unleash heavy metal, black magic and blood this summer.

Look for the new Witchblade series to launch on July 17, 2024.

In Witchblade #1, “New York City Police Detective Sara Pezzini’s life was forever fractured by her father’s murder. Cold, cunning, and hellbent on revenge, Sara now stalks a vicious criminal cabal beneath the city, where an ancient power collides and transforms her into something wild, magnificent, and beyond her darkest imaginings. How will Sara use this ancient power, or will she be consumed by it?”

The series is penned by NYT Best-Selling writer Marguerite Bennett (Animosity, Batwoman, DC Bombshells) and visualized by artist Giuseppe Cafaro (Suicide Squad, Power Rangers, Red Sonja). The creative duo is working with original co-creator Marc Silvestri, who is the CEO of Top Cow Productions Inc. and one of the founders of Image Comics. They are set to reintroduce the series to Witchblade’s enduring fans with “a reimagined origin with contemporary takes on familiar characters and new story arcs that will hook new readers and rekindle the energy and excitement that fueled the 90’s Image Revolution that shaped generations of top creators.”

Bennett said in a statement, “The ability to tell a ferocious story full of monsters, sexuality, vision, and history was irresistible.” She adds, “Our saga is sleek, vicious, ferocious, and has a lot to say about power in the 21st century and will be the first time that we are stopping the roller coaster to let more people on. I’ve loved Witchblade since I was a child, and there is truly no other heroine like Sara with such an iconic legacy and such a rich, brutal relationship to her own body.”

“The Witchblade universe is being modernized to reflect how Marguerite beautifully explores the extreme sides of Sara through memories, her personal thoughts, like desire and hunger, in her solitude and when she is possessed by the Witchblade. So, I had to visually intersect a noir True Detective-like world with a supernatural, horror world that is a fantastic mix between Berserk and Zodiac,” Cafaro stated.

Marc Silvestri notes, “This is brand new mythology around Sara, and I can’t wait for you to fall in love with her and all the twists and turns. Discover Witchblade reimagined this summer, and join us as we bring all the fun of the 90s to the modern age and see how exciting comics can be. I can’t wait for you to read this new series.”

Witchblade#1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, July 17th, for $4.99 for 48 pages. And it’ll come with multiple cover variants.