Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Joe Keatinge
Artist: Leila Del Duca
Released: 9th July 2014

After last month’s review of issue #3,  I had a lot of hope that this month’s outing would see this wonderfully weird tale come together. And while that does happen to an extent, we’re still not quite there yet – but given the reveal at the end of this issue, we’re definitely one massive step closer.

There’s just so much to like about this series. The art is wonderful, maintaining just the right balance between the real and the fantastic, with Del Duca’s unpretentious, gauche stylings imbuing every character, every panel, every scene with a distinctive personality, all accentuated beautifully by Owen Gieni’s perfectly weighted colouring.

Keatinge’s dialogue is spot-on too – capturing elegantly a young woman who’s just trying to find her way, and being prevented from doing so at every turn. Her frustration is all-too evident, and her story becomes more and more fascinating as we go along – Kate’s just a lovely character, an actual human, and I can’t commend the creators enough for her.

The supporting characters are well-written too – particularly enjoyable is the anthropomorphic escapades of Ekland and Shaw, and their run-in with a platypus information broker (sounds silly, is, but is also hugely fun!). The issue also opens with a wonderfully tragic backstory to the skeleton butler we were introduced to in the previous issue – played out in the style of a sepia silent movie, it’s a great bit of storytelling. Hell, even the damn comedy sidekick is endearing!

But excellent though all of its constituent parts are, the ‘slow-burner’ tag still sticks this month – whilst we’re a little wiser come the end of the issue, it’s been left on a cliff-hanger, and I guess it’s a testament to the strength of the lead-up that I’m craving more.

I love the ideas being flung around in this book, I really do – I just wish that the story would come together from the disparate array of narrative threads we’ve been presented with so far, and they’re so close. One more issue. I can feel it. If next month’s score isn’t 4 or 5, fully worthy of your attention, I’ll eat my hat.

Rating: 3/5.

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The writer of this piece was: Ross Sweeney
Ross tweets from @Rostopher24