Ever been up north in Canada, like a hundred years ago, in the Yukon, digging for gold in the snow? No, me either. But check out The Rush #1, from Vault. It is a landmark, stunning saga of supernatural and suffering.
The language is archaic, and takes ‘a might gettin’ accustomed to’, for sure. Because, like I mentioned, this is a story of a gold mining expedition, long ago and far away. Up yonder, where men get gold fever and lose all sense.
It’s the place called Brokehoof, where a woman has arrived, looking for her son. And looking for her husband too, and she’s no fool. Strong-willed and ready to tell you where to get off. So… fully bodyguarded, in the land of the desperate, where something supernatural has been claiming lives, she tromps through the snow. Until…
The reading is astonishingly good. Writer Si Spurrier (Judge Dredd, X-Force, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, etc) manages to give voice to creaky character and semi-frozen-solid mood, embuing the gold diggers and eccentrics with their own uniquely mumbled slang.
Nathan Gooden (The Gifted, Deadeye, The Killbox, Barbaric etc) and Addison Duke (colourist) manage to combine an 1899-appropriate rendering style with a poetic sense of drama. Puffs of smoke, purposely chosen vantage points, pints of spilled blood. A quiet northern-exposed lighting that binds the living and the snow; sepia-tinted reminiscences of steamer voyages and saloons. It’s wonderful, and I think you should ought to have a look at this here book for yourself. Fantastic letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
One of my top choices for 2020.
Vault Comics, The Rush #1, $3.99 for 31 pages of content. Mature
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