EyeOneEye 01 (08/02/20):
The Issue #1 Inquirer
(spoilers)
I'd like to give a quick 'thanks' to Wes at the Thinking Critical YouTube channel, whose recent video on The Kill Lock and original series published at IDW introduced me to these two comics.
The Highest House #1
(Writer: Mike Carey, Artist&Letterer: Peter Gross, Colorist: Fabien Alquier)
The Highest House is a medieval fantasy that follows precocious young boy Moth after he is sold into slavery and sent to work at The Highest House, a castle city compound under the Aldercrest royal family.
Moth is picked up by a taskmistress who starts training him as a peg-healer (roofer). And this first issue spends the majority of a whole page (14 panels) outlining various tools and processes for roofing and shingling and roof repair, which I found fascinating. This excerpt, in combination with the respect given for the gravity of slavery and a consistency with the use of medieval archaic vocabulary and the visuals with cohesive design made the story immediately immersive.
Meanwhile, the first half of the issue introduces Cael Extat, representative of House Aldercrest, who originally purchases Moth. Cael performs "not-magic" magic, and he has taken a keen interest in Moth for some unexplained connection to magic that the child has, finally culminating at the end of the issue with Moth hearing a murderous voice in his dreams. Cael also provides a succinct and effective 1-page history of the world into which we are stepping.
I explained a lot of things in that summary, but I only described select parts of the first issue, and there are a number of other characters introduced and events that passed. This is all in 24 story pages, not some legitimately "over-sized" comic. I will say, too, that I found the issue very readable, generally well-paced, and the panels not crowded.
I am excited about this comic now. In addition to telling a lot of story effectively, it does something else that I don't see a lot: mystery. While the story moves along and things are happening, the magic surrounding Moth is provided zero details or explanation, but it clearly has some major significance to the story, and that makes me want to keep reading.
The art is standard indie fare (similar tone to something like Iscariot), not particularly good, but I don't think it detracts from the story, and the colorist does some beautiful things with textures and color pallettes.
This is a recommend from me. I'm picking it back up right when I finish typing here.
The Kill Lock #1
(Story and art by: Livio Ramondelli, Letters by Tom B. Long)
This is a good comic, but it's missing something.
The premise is the title: the "Kill Lock." The four main characters are criminals and their punishment is exile and to have installed in them the Kill Lock, if one of them dies they all die, and the story follows their journey of survival.
Did I mention that these are all robots? The story takes place in a hyper-classist interplanetary robot society. The four exiles we meet in issue #1 are described as such: soldier, addict, murderer, and child, each with their related crimes, except that the child is supposedly innocent.
The first issue covers a fight with a mechanical parts scavenger but otherwise is almost exclusively exposition.
This comic excels at characterization.
I don't know the characters names or titles. And these characters are faceless robots, although Raomondelli does successfully make them easily distinguishable by size and design. But despite all this, I already have a good idea about the characters.
The "murderer" is an amoral, condescending, quipping prick, akin to a more realistic Rick Sanchez from Rick&Morty. The "soldier" is more feeling and is working to protect the child, physically and psychologically, in an effort to redeem himself for the civilian children he killed in war. The "addict" is the short-tempered straight-man everyman; he's relatable. And the "child" is a robot child, naive and innocent and curious. Although the child is also mysterious, and I suspect a twist will involve him having committed the worst crime of all.
But this comic is missing something.
Since the first issue is tied up in exposition and characterization, the Kill Lock and exile are not particularly pressing issues. The plot of the first issue is a pretty generic introduction: murderer is rude to a guy at the bar, the party gets attacked outside of town, and the reader gets the surprise of soldier stepping from the shadows and proving to be legendarily powerful.
The robot designs are unique, though not quite iconic, and the art generally looks very good and clean. Ramondelli has a lot of experience on Transformers books, and it shows.
All the elements are there, but they don't quite come together and balance out in the first issue.
It's a good comic, and I do intend to continue reading.
