Review – Limbo #5 (Image Comics)

Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Casper Wijngaard, Jim Campbell (Letters)
Release Date: 9th March, 2016

Ooft. Oofting Oooft oof.

This issue started with me crying “finally! I know what’s going on” and ended with me going “wtf just happened?” It’s a state of confusion that I’ve had quite a lot with Limbo, but you know what? I haven’t minded at all because, it’s created by a well-crafted – if more than a little bat shit crazy – story that rocks along at a startling rate of knots.

Dan Watters is playing with our minds with his modern and abstract take on Voodoo and Vodun. The interplay he creates with magic and music is beautiful and conceptually intriguing. Where do the musical notes go when they aren’t being played? Plus, any storyteller that references the Seventh Seal without Bill and Ted-esque shenanigans or ending up so far up their own backside that their checking what they had for dinner three days ago is alright in my book.

Casper Wijngaard… Ahh Casper. You represent Dan Watters’ mad visions with a verve and panache which is truly breathtaking. Wijngaard’s style here is just perfect for the story. If his work were to be judged on the pencils alone, then one would have to say that it’s not the most refined and fluid style in the world. But his work shouldn’t be defined by that single aspect. Casper Wijngaard is one of those artists whose work really comes to life when he adds the ink and then the colours. Oh, and how the colours in Limbo make the pages sing. They are bold and brash and magnificent.

Watters and Wijngaard have really brought this fantastical story to vivid life and I really, really want to know what the hell is going to happen next. I gave issue 2 a rather spiffy 4-out-of-5, and then my brother in arms Ross bumped that score up to a 5-out-of-5 for issues 3 and 4. I have to say that this series started well and has just improved in leaps and bounds as the creative team build and reveal more and more of their tale.

This issue gets a well deserved…

Rating: 5/5.

Oh and the added extra at the end, A Message from Mado? That’s bat shit crazy too.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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