Jump into deep danger with Leap M, a one-shot from Action Lab. Available now on Comixology.
Written by Doug Wood, Leap M is the hard-hitting saga of a PTSD-impaired combat Vet in the US. Wilbur is the survivor of a terrible tragedy, but he doesn’t feel good about it. He was dishonorably discharged, his prison sentence was unjust. The one soldier he saved hates him, and another soldier he didn’t save, well, he didn’t save. So much for clarity.
Wood, in this combat-meets-sci-fi story, takes us deep inside Wilbur’s struggle to survive a world where the odds are stacked. Stacks and stacks of attacks and barracks full of memories, shell-shocked, and pockmarked memories of savage survival gone wrong. Wrong moments, wrong accusations, wrong solutions to problems. It ain’t purple prose the way Wood handles it. It’s gritty, abrupt, no small talk. Why say it, when you can punch it?
Artist Matt Battaglia brings out the roughness, the heavy hand at the tiller, mining and laying out the land of the lost, the colour of defeat, the napalm on the figure drawings, the brutal gleam of daylight to the insane. The figures are burly, the minds are squirrelly. Something smells dishonest among the thieves of hope here, and Battaglia documents the storyline in a visceral, vicious uppercut to the outer coat of civility. The visual style could remind us of Frank Miller, Frank Robbins, Klaus Janson. Lines are thick and meant to be broken. The colours are bruised and unpleasant, the snipers of the soul. Impressionistic in a deep and delicious battle-soaked way.
This is a strong read for a strong mind. Delightfully rough and a sign of good things to come from this creative team! Pick this one up on Comixology!
Action Lab, Leap M, $2.99 for 28 pages of content. Mature readers
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