Kali, an original Graphic Novel from Dark Horse, kicks and punches with power.
Writer Daniel Freedman tells the story of Kali, once the member of a gang in post-Apocalyptic US, until she is overpowered and left for dead. Freedman provides the octane fuel, the supercharged scenes of ultra-violence, abrupt and vicious retribution. Freedman’s dialogue is succinct, brief, immediate. There is no fluff, no guff.
Illustrator Robert Sammelin renders the chaos, the dust of the west, the lanky and limbic Kali. Sammelin gives us astonishingly well-drawn faces, turns of body, twists of motion-filled fighting. The environments, the machines, the drone views, all superb! Figures rest in white surround, attack in formations that lead the eye forward. The figures have ‘weight and mass’, this a high compliment: it lends a physical reality to the drawings. Michael David Thomas’ lettering is similarly strong. Thomas knows where to send the balloon tails, where to surround a figure with brief dialogue bursts, to allow our eye to linger, learning, yearning for more. Editor is Daniel Chabon.
The book reads like a Mad Max: Fury adventure, with Kali bound and determined to win, despite personal loss, person injury, and personal vendettas. The combination of tight scripting, excellent pacing, and powerfully rendered fighting females makes this a story that leaves us breathless, restless, and entertained.
Dark Horse, Kali, $29.99 for 176 pages of content.
Newsdesk