Review – Spiral #1 (of 4)

February 6, 2016

3–4 minutes

Writer: Magnus Aspli
Art: Emerson Dimaya
Release Date: Coming Soon (Kickstarter is underway now)

If there is one thing I love, it’s a good thriller. A well-executed mystery would be my story of choice, if it’s film noir style then that’s just a cherry on top. So with that in mind, I was pretty psyched when I got a hold of the first issue of Spiral, as it looked like it would most definitely tick those boxes. I could not have been more wrong.

Let me preface this review this with a caveat: This could have been an absolute gem of a story. In fact, it should be. Unfortunately, the reality is that some poor execution in both the writing and the art has ruined what looks to be a great idea. After a couple of painful readings, it seems that the story is about two London families from opposite sides of the tracks. Both families have problem kids; the mob family son is arrogant, and doesn’t listen to his father. The other family has a maverick cop daughter that doesn’t play by the rules. These two characters sound like a cliché, but in truth they are probably the two strongest elements to the story. Presumably, the titular “spiral” refers to the breakdown of both of these families – I’m guessing through the choices of these two individuals,.

If I come across a little hesitant here, it’s because even after three or four read-throughs I’m still not 100% confident I’m right. This comic is truly difficult to read. Not because the story is bad (as such), but because of the construction of the narrative. If I have to read the same speech bubble, or the same panel multiple times before I understand it then I’m not having a good reading experience. Sadly, this happens all the way through this first issue.

It’s not just the narrative that is to blame here either, some of the panel progression makes no sense at all. Once again, I found I was going back to the start of the page for another read, trying understand the logic of what I was being told. It doesn’t even telegraph signs that the story was edited back to fit the issue length. That, at least, would be an explanation why it’s confusing. In short, this review felt more like homework than an enjoyable reading experience.

The art by Dimaya is quite nice, it’s not dissimilar in style to Charlie Adlard’s work on The Walking Dead. The colouring, however, does tend to add to the counter-intuitive nature of the reading progression. At first I thought that the colour hues would help with the transfer between characters. The cop scenes all seemed to be drawn in a blue hue, the scenes with her father in browns, but that theory was quickly quashed a few pages in. As far as I can see it there is no sense of cohesion to the colouring; panels are coloured in various hues with no obvious logic as to why. The story also jumps all over the place, all the time. It’s like being jerked from partner to partner all over the dance floor. Ultimately you are so disoriented you don’t know where you are, or what is happening. We’re all very confused.com.

Honestly, while there’s probably a good idea in here somewhere, I simply can’t in good conscience recommend Spiral. It’s a frustrating mess of an execution of what has the potential to be an excellent story, something which just makes it all the more infuriating.

Rating: 2/5.

ARTWORK PREVIEW
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