From the front cover onward, we know that Rain, the new title from Image, is about love between two women.
But Joe Hill’s story, adapted to comic book (five-issue) format by David M. Booher, is much much more than a love song. It’s a heart-rending account of life under duress, with a wonderful, idyllic, and sapphic scenario suddenly halted.
It all takes place in the US, in Boulder Colorado on a hot August day. Artist Zoe Thorogood, with colourist Chris O’Halloran (letters by Shawn Lee) gives us slim lines, expressive faces, and lots of beautifully environmental scenes. It’s lovely, and even more tragic when disaster strikes.
Rain is carefully constructed to give the reader a sensory picture of the events of August 26. The neighbours, their peccadillos, their faults, their tendencies. The backstory before the rain, the foreshadowing of the dark and stormy downpour.
It’s a new voice for Joe Hill, as illustrated by Thorogood, and bound to attract a curious audience. Thoroughly recommended.
Bonus pages: Chapter one of Unnamed, by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood. Seven pages of darkly engaging, scratchy, ratchety horror. Perhaps a bit misplaced in this brightly lit book but brilliantly executed.
Image, (Syzygy Imprint), Rain #1, $3.99 for 33 pages of content. Teen +
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