GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ Comic Review: Grim Leaper Issue #1 | I Smell Sheep

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Comic Review: Grim Leaper Issue #1

Writer: Kurtis J. Wiebe
Artist: Aluiso Santos
Cover art: Aluiso Santos
Image Comics
Cover price: $3.50
Release date: May 30th, 2012


A brand new series from the mind of critically acclaimed writer KURTIS J. WIEBE (GREEN WAKE, PETKER PANZERFAUST), GRIM LEAPER is a gory romantic comedy. Lou Collins is caught in a cyclical curse of violent, gruesome deaths and new beginnings in the bodies of strangers. With no clue why, Lou desperately searches for a way to break the curse and cross over peacefully to the other side. Then equally doomed Ella comes along. It's a love story to die for.

A love story to die for. That's the tag-line for this four-part series from Image Comics. My hokey senses were tingling when I looked at the cover, but there was something to the puntastic title--Grim Leaper, get it?--that enticed me.

The story revolves around Lou. Lou's dead. At this point you might be thinking, oh great, another zombie comic. Nope, this book is way trippier than that. Ya see, Lou died a couple months ago, but instead of floating off to the pearly gates or fading into oblivion, Lou leaped into the body of someone else. What's stranger is that he barely has time to get comfortable in his own skin--or whoever's skin it is--before the specter of death rears its head again and Lou dies a horrible death all over again. Think Quantum Leap meets Final Destination.

Lou doesn't know why he keeps getting resurrected, or why he always winds up in the same small town, or why it feels like he's being given a second chance to do something but keeps getting killed before he can figure out what it is. It's like there are two cosmic forces playing tug-or-war with poor ol' Lou's soul. He's utterly alone, whether in limbo or back on Earth in someone else's skin. And then he meets Ella and everything changes.

By the time I got to the final panel of this book, I was hooked. The balance of suspense and snarkiness is done really well, and this first issue sets up the players and the stakes perfectly. what took me a little while to get used to was the artwork. The character designs had an overtly cartoonish feel to them that really dampened the grim subject matter. But as it wore on, it seemed the choices in point-of-view improved greatly and the liveliness of the characters shone through much better. The settings also built up well with varying shades of reds, blues, and greens, depending upon the scene.

The whole boy-meets-girl story ought to be very fun as the series goes on, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the second issue to pick up where things left off. Lou took a bit of effort to root for, as he's a tad dickish in the beginning, but he's downright likable by the end of it. Wiebe and Santos have something with a lot of potential here. I just hope the schtick doesn't outshine the story.

4 Sheep




Guest Reviewer: Gef Fox
rabid reader, wrabid writer
Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction
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Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productio
ns, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.


3 comments:

  1. this looks like my kind of story! thanks for the review Gef :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're quite welcome. Expect a review of the second issue soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes but are there any vampires?! lol j/k not really.

    I did like the show quantum leap when i was younger so this might actually be a comic I can get into. Nice job. :)

    ReplyDelete