As a girl whose origin differs vastly from yours or mine, Zelda is a rather normal girl, all things considered. Born in a dreamworld that can be simultaneously fantastical and terrifying, she sells dreamland trips to the rich and the bored, hooking them onto the fix of the surreal like a drug dealer who knows just what kind of excitement these spoiled fiends really want. Sometimes the fantasy worlds they invade are in color, sometimes in black and white; other times they're both flashy and non-chromatic.
Writers Jason Latour and Ivan Brandon's new series, Black Cloud, is an imaginative combination of the multi-dimensional universe to such an extent that it comes across like a hybrid of Shutter (another Image comic) and Vertigo's Fables. Their original idea is complimented by Greg Hinkle's (coloring by Matt Wilson) terrific illustrations, an artwork that resembles a memorable grown up cartoon where the line that separates fantasy from reality is thinner than the strands of our heroine's hair. Zelda eventually gets hired by Mayor Havemeyer, a politician whose ambitions are so grand he's even willing to have his own son sent to the dreamland just so his re-election can proceed without complications or any family scandals.
Black Cloud's premise is surely alluring, and its charming heroine, along with her otherworldly abilities that transcend our own, is Image's new It Girl. Whether or not her name will live up to the grandiose status associated with it, however, remains to be seen.
B+
No comments:
Post a Comment