With a Robert Sammelin cover that manages to combine ‘good girl art’, a pose reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World, a gothic plantation mansion, and a Frankenstein’s head, we’re off to a strong start with Scout Comics’ Swamp Dogs #2.
Writers J.M. Brandt and Theo Prasidis drop us into the Louisiana bayou, where Ayana and Violet are airboating. Well, actually lying around in the midst of the swamp, talking, kissing, maybe getting some sun. Mossy, damp swamp scenes abound. Slap a bug, why don’t we? And then there’s the hungover members of a metal band driving their minivan around. Looking for a place to shoot a video.
Things percolate in the midday sun a great deal. We learn so much about the band, about the airboaters. But even with the continual character dialogue, there is a ramping up of suspense. Things get strange and twisted about midway through the book, and never look back. “Knock knock, who’s there?”
Artist Kewber Baal (with greatly swampy thick colours by Ruth Redmond, joined by strongly considered letters by Steve Wands) has the right touch for Swamp Dogs: slasher-film cheeriness, with an underbelly of creepy rippling through the calm waters. The closeups on the characters are instructive to the reader, the splash pages are bloody well done.
It’s getting good, it’s chatty as heck but creepy-crawly too, so grab a hold of this here issue and see what you make of it!
Scout Comics, Black Caravan imprint, Swamp Dogs #2, $3.99 for 26 pages of content.
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