Comic Review: Grit #2 (Scout Comics)

Grit #2, already available, takes us back into the forest. Not just any forest, though. This Scout title will have you twisting your brain around the trees…

It’s a treat to read Grit. This issue, written by Brian Wickman, brings Old Man Barrow, stuck in the midst of a woodland massacre, into contact with a mysterious wanderer. And she wants answers. Plus, dressed in a hooded robe, she is mysteriously more than meets the eye. Or the hatchet. Together, will they hatch a plan, or bury each other in the lonely swamp?

Wickman keeps this book mystifying. If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself treading softly, trying to keep your bearings. Not worried about the safety of the characters so much as trying to understand what the devil is going on; just who are the players on the chessboard, who is keeping score? Elusive, and compelling.

Illustrator Kevin Castaniero draws a mean bad spirit and adds sinew where the fights occur. His atmospheric forest is a true surrounding, and each panel is constructed to carry us further into danger and bad juju. The characters have just the right degree of exaggeration, and it’s no exaggeration to say that a kind of beauty, of hush, envelops the quiet moments, where Castaniero has lulled us into studying a countenance, much to our guilty pleasure. Warts and all, these people, these spirits, these landscapes contain visual magic.

Likewise, colourist Simon Gough has the critical chops to carry across a strange blend of colour on his palette: glowing blue shadows, hot red devils, fetid mossy meadows, with an eerie touch of pale yellow in the sky.

Check out issue 2 of Grit, and check out my review of issue 3 too! *No worries, no spoilers!!

Scout Comics, Grit 2, $3.99 for 24 pages of content. Mature