All Hallow's Eve # 1 Review

I took a chance on a brand new Comixology submit comic called All Hallow’s Eve.  Here’s the issue’s solicitation blurb from the book’s Comixology page:

“On this All Hallows' Eve, one man will face the reckoning of his atrocity. As Jonathan Dodsman drinks cider and engages in the idle talk of the rich, the wrath of his victim will soon be upon him. A young girl has come for Dodsman's soul.”

Sounds interesting enough and ‘tis the season, after all.

This is writer Trevor Luckman’s first kick at the can and like most rookies, he takes quite a few risks that most veterans aren’t willing to take.  His dialogue is dense and fogs the page with bubbles.  Right off the bat the villains of the piece talk about how to treat slaves, but they don’t use that word, they use that other word.  You see, risky.  On one particular panel he has eight exchanges of dialogue between two characters, undreamed of in any mainstream comic not written by Bendis.



 

It’s a revenge story and we don’t actually see the revenge taking place, but we see that the right person will be delivering it, so it’s satisfying.  Luckman plays with pacing the way a 10-year old plays with matches, bookending a brisk middle section (where you’ll find all the fun stuff) with those dense exchanges mentioned earlier.  Yet through it all he doesn’t get burned.

Fellow rookie, Dave Mims’s artwork is distinct, whispy, light and sketchy.  For some, the artwork may be a sticking point for all its scribbly eccentricity, but the storytelling is clear and direct and that’s the most important thing.  Some scribbles on the ground behind the characters with some straight lines sticking out of it is clearly a grassy field with a fence sticking out of it, a circular scribble with smaller scribbles inside it, hanging above the characters heads is clearly the moon, and so on.

The story itself is solid and clearly told, a good job for a couple of first timers.  It’s got all the set-up a reader needs without the boring, drawn out origin story thrown in.  It’s simply a matter of, “this is the world, these are the characters and this is what they do”.  The why and how can come later.  You don’t get the feeling that the storytellers have any giant “event” type storylines up their sleeves, but if you enjoyed the scenario you’ll come back for more.