REVIEW: Black Eyed Kids #1

Buckle up folks, Aftershock Comics is at it again with a stunning new installment, Black Eyed Kids. This first issue is written by Joe Pruett, lined by Szymon Kudranski, and colored by Guy Major, and it couldn“t have been better! I have so many good things to say about this book, but I am going to try to keep this review concise.

First of all, Szymon killed it on the linework. His style for this issue is a weird mix of Klaus Janson and Jacen Burrows, so needless to say, it was amazing. Not only did he do a great job of matching the mystery from the scripts, but he also added some flare of excitement during the brutal action sequences. And his smooth transitional scenes make this issue incredibly easy on the eyes. This of course is also due, in no small part to the colorist, Guy Major. His use of dark cyan“s during the plot build, and yellows/reds/oranges during the beats was genius. He told a huge part of the story, even if it was incredibly subtle.

Secondly, accompanying all of this talent was an organized script. For this book, Joe did not pull any of his punches. Every speech bubble, panel, and scene was brutally true to it“s tone, showing that Joe obviously has this whole story planned out. This leaves us, the reader, with a sense of trust that we are being guided with a purpose and destination. Which is oddly comforting, especially when watching children perform unspeakable acts of horror.

By the end of reading this issue, all I wanted was more. More answers, more story, and more art. Seriously, this book had everything: a well thought out plot, a consistent pace, clear yet mysterious art, and tone setting color. Black Eyed Kids #1 easily earns 5 out of 5 stars. PICK THIS UP!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Publisher:Â AFTERSHOCK COMICS

(W) Joe Pruett (A) Szymon Kudranski (CA) Francesco Francavilla

Author Profile

Dylan Hicks

I just graduated from MSUD with my BAS in Mathematics. I live in a small 1 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend, and our two cats. I work full time for NTIA-ITS as a Computer Scientist. All I really do is engineer mathematical models and write code all day. I took up this second job at Comic Crusaders as a way to become more involved with the comic book community. Since I was a child I have loved comics. I grew up reading Spider-Man, Shi, New Mutants, Spider Woman, and Gen13. As I got older, however, my tastes started to shift from almost exclusively Marvel to various independent labels. Now I read a huge variety of comics: Valiant, Black Mask, Aspen, Avatar, Image, Dynamite, Boom, Aftershock, etc.. If anyone wants to know, my favorite publisher, hands down, is Valiant.
I am also working on writing a few comic books myself. I have about 4 ideas in the fire, but only 1 of them is really getting anywhere; I have 6 of the 10 books finished. In addition to writing, I am also a practicing colorist. If you want to checkout any of my writing samples, or coloring samples, please check out my DeviantArt and let me know what you think.
dirtgrubdylan.deviantart.com.
Some more about me? I love black metal and video games. I usually spend most of my time hanging out with my girlfriend. We have been together for 6 years, so at this point she is basically my best friend. But when I am not with her, I get together with my friends to drink some beer and play some Magic, the Gathering. And, as pretentious as this is, I am also working on starting my own engineering firm. So that involves me reading a lot of textbooks on Mathematics and Computer Science.
So yeah, if you have made it this far thank you very much! I am crazy excited to start my career in writing. Let's see what I can do with this.