Dark Horse Comics releases a mystery and crime comic about the main character who is going back to the past to find the killer in Past Tense the graphic novel. Whatever happens, if you take a mystery genre and create a story about a criminal who is working in the past, then later in the present a tour guide using some camera drones just to see every history of the videos that the drones have recorded in the past, with a lot of advanced technology that the company produced, you get this comic right out of your childhood imaginations. Who would have thought that someone would make a comic about the past? It’s really too random to make something this good to be true, however, this comic is all about taking you back to the past just to see some crime scenes back then. The comic is written by Jason McNamara and illustrated by Alberto Massaggia. Jason is a storyteller with experience in print, digital, and animation. As an author, he has published comics by Image, Dark Horse, Stela, AIT/Planet Lar, and Cognito Comics. However, his dream project is to write a graphic novel sequel of Halloween 3, a film about a toy salesman who is mysteriously attacked by some trick or treaters which were hostile.
The front cover of the comic looks like you’re seeing another episode of Law and Order but in a warm and cool color version all over the background. It shows a woman who is staring at you over the whole comic cover, and for some reason, there’s static all over the background. Well, there’s not much to say on this front cover, except the whole background is taking all the reddish color than the blue one.
So the whole shit show of a comic called “Past Tense” is about some workers who are watching some videos from the past which include President John F Kennedy who is having sex with some hooker, and somehow the “attendant” actually censored the nudity as if the creator didn’t want to add something like that in the first place. So the plot goes that the story takes place in 2038 in Nevada, and somehow a company called Past Tense has some opportunities for the main character to work there. The company focuses on having video footage from the past by sending camera drones that can portray some historical events from the past, and somehow it has some benefits to help people from experiencing pain, and trauma, even finding out the killer for the police to take care of business to arrest the criminal.
However, what intrigued me is how the mugger from the recording in 1986 is actually the old man who is alive today. What makes this comic so good to be true is that Past Tense has so many clients to help them refresh their memories just to watch videos of them from the past which are recorded in the database. However, what makes this comic so creepy is someone who is watching her inside her room sleeping because suddenly a camera drone just slipped by and watched her in secret. And later on, some roommate just got killed in a fatal traffic accident according to some detective who informed her at home. And the whole comic goes on searching for the same old man who killed so many people in the past and put him to justice which is the main character’s focus right now because she lost her job, became homeless and somehow she’s looking for clues to know where is that guy is hiding now.
The comic is all thriller biased to use camera drones to look into the past, and understandably, it’s much more different than the other comics that you’ve read. Most of the comics that I’ve read are all mystery, crime, some vigilante superheroes, but never have I read something about a killer who is still alive after killing so many people in the past. I can’t think of any other comics who are actually manslayers and still are today. The old man Silas is like one of the serial killers like Jack the Ripper, except most of the time, he’s identical to an elderly old man right now with a scar on his eyebrow.
As for the art, the only thing I do like is how these characters are identical from the past and into the present. As I explained earlier that the young killer Silas from the past has turned into an old man right in the present who is about the retire soon. And all the other videos that I’ve seen he seems to be younger than in his 30s and is trying to scare everybody. And whenever I get to see the next chapters, I really do like how the artist has created one of the panels with a television-like background. It’s almost like you’re going to different footage from a security camera. And with all the red and black background all over, that is very satisfying, because red and black are my favorite colors. So Past Tense is an interesting comic to read, if you rather want to see some disturbing moments recorded from the past, then this comic would make worth your day.
Newsdesk