In Antarctica #1, a mystery thriller from Image’s Top Cow imprint, Hannah searches for her father. Dad’s failed to return from an Antarctica research station, where he was doing secret squirrel stuff. Mum’s the word, but there is no mom in the picture. All through her youth, Hannah sees her father come through the gates to their house for brief periods of time, and then disappear again. Until he didn’t come back at all.
Writer Simon Birks takes us down the alley to the under-quarters of Hannah’s life-after-dad, where she becomes all-too-familiar with street trade. It’s a trade-off for Hannah, scraping by, day-to-day-devastated by her father’s absence. Through a series of ultra-fortunate coincidences, Hannah then finds herself in Antarctica, engineering herself into the mystery of, yes, her father’s disappearance. The story is elongated and roundabout, but the individual moments are excellent. Simon Birks’ dialogue is short and barbed throughout, his scenes nicely compressed to enhance the personal drama.
Artist Willi Roberts contributes nicely shaped line work and plenty of mood-mystery colour to the pages. Roberts pays careful attention to the environments and backgrounds, keeping his distance from the figures, pacing them at arm’s length in medium shots. There is a lot of variety applied to the panel borders and the play of panels on the page. Lettering is by Lyndon White, edits by Elena Salcedo.
The first issue sets the tone, arranges the furniture, and gets the fire lit under the plot. Let’s sit by that fire and see how the creators kindle the mystery in the second issue.
By the way, in addition to the story, this first issue includes semi-spoilers: rough sketches of characters we have yet to meet, and other drawings that reveal future developments. Hmm.
Antarctica #1, Image Top Cow, $3.99 for 24 pages of story, Rated Teen
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