I am no stranger to Evoluzione Publishing and when Marcel sends me something it’s almost a solid guarantee that it is going to be interesting. So thinking this is going to be good and experiencing it for the first time are two totally different things, as if you didn’t know that. What we have here is something that captured my attention, ignited my imagination, thrilled my senses and engaged my mind and if you are familiar with me at all rarely do all five come into the same sentence. This only reaffirms to me why you NEED to be reading books that these small/indie publishers are putting out. I know most of you are scared to buy outside the “Big 2” or 3 depending on your point of view but this beats pretty much anything they’ve got going on right now.
The opening here is sensational and it does indeed grab your attention the way it should. One of the strongest aspects about it is that there is little in the way of dialogue or narration. We see what we see and that piques the curiosity to know more. At least it did for me, suddenly I wanted to know more about this and one character in particular. So it does also set up that dilemma we have with certain types of characters, bounty hunters for example. They are out there providing a service and they aren’t technically evil people they just tend to be more violent oriented. So I am not above liking these types of characters and with a whole lot of mystery surrounding what we see it feels as if we’re in for good fun times.
I am now as of this moment a fan of Antonello and Francesco’s. I am a detail oriented kind of guy and I love clean, crisp and sharp linework, full of detail and expression. That is definitely what we get here and the fact that they understand and realise how important the entire panel is makes me terribly excited for what they have in store for us. Also that we see space like we do is a major turn on for me as it feels more like what it should or what we expect to be and that adds to the enjoyment in subtle almost subconscious ways. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a good solid eye for storytelling. There is a great amount of creativity and imagination on display here and thrown in for good measure are familiar elements that makes this more intriguing.
So the way that the characters in this are introduced is sensationally well done. I love seeing characters who don’t fit moulds and are way outside the box. Not all humanoids are going to be like we saw in the past after all. I do like that a mixed couple can have two children one of which takes after each parent so the dynamic is amazingly well conceived. The characterisation throughout is amazingly strong and really establishes the people nicely as well as showing us some personality traits as well as motivations.
This first issue does an excellent job of introducing the reader to this world, these characters and the idea behind the story, see premise. The pacing is wonderful and it is really easy to get sucked right into the story and forget anything else exists.
So there is a Kickstarter for this and it’s here.
Marassa #1
Evoluzione Publishing 2018
Written by: Greg Anderson Elysee
Illustrated by: Antonello Cosentino
Coloured by: Francesco Montalbano
Lettered by: Justin Birch
Reviewer: Steven Leitman
Summary: Princess Mara is a retired space pirate who gave up the life to raise a family. But what happens when her charmingly thieving, troublemaking twin brother, Sa, visits her with the map to their late parent’s lost treasure? An adventure that garners the attentions of other space pirates, bounty hunters, humanoid snake doctors, cosmic Voodoo, and breathing wooden mask babies.
