Review: Morte (One Shot)
The zombie revolution continues unabated with another such book hitting the racks. Still, for those that feel a tad bored with this genre, this book offers a different take on the familiar premise.
The book follows the last man on earth as he travels the city, dealing with his own existence and looking for some meaning to the death that surrounds him.
The first thing that you may notice is that this book is devoid of dialogue. This isn’t the first time I have seen this technique used, with my personal favourite being Batman #433 by John Byrne and the incomparable Jim Aparo.  In this book the reader gets a little help with various paperwork giving some hints to what is going on. Other than that, you are in the hands of writer Kevin Joseph’s skilful direction. The collaboration between writer and artist is a thing of beauty when it works. The writer not only supplies the dialogue; just as well in this instance; the writer provides the playbook for the artist to execute, maybe going as far as to set the type of panel structure they want to see. The artist then draws it up. Good pairings have the ability to hash things out, improve on the plan to deliver something that is better than the sum of its parts.
D. A. Bishop provides the art for the book. At first glance, everything is pretty standard fare to be honest. Yet with the lack of words helping to show the quietness of such an existence., Bishop has his work cut out to fulfill the maxim of how much a picture is worth. Bishop has taken the opportunity to throw caution to the wind in a lot of ways. Sure, he needs to keep an emotional aspect to the characters journey and his personal quest and this is an area in which Bishop excels. With no “logues” of  either “dia” or “mono” variety to worry about, Bishop can use the whole page, the whole panel without the need to even consider text boxes, which may have hidden some of the art. The colors of the book work extremely well with, with a turgid, dirty look that fits well and maintains the level of desolation that the main character must be feeling.
This book is a bittersweet testament to the realisation that, at least in this place, this man is actually an island, albeit one, who looks to seek solace in the tidings of the places and the people who may have meant so much. An intriguing read, with quality on show from wordless start to wordless finish.
Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 4 Stars
 [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Kevin Joseph
Art by; D. A. Bishop
Published by;Â Source Point Press
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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