Wednesday, July 2, 2014

FEATURE REVIEW: DEAD LETTERS

DEAD LETTERS
Created and Written by: Christopher Sebela
Art by Chris Visions
Publisher: Boom! Studios
ISSUES #1 - 3

Imagine waking up in limbo, no memories of your past other then it feeling ‘familiar’ when committing crimes, becoming a pawn in a war between two mob-like families and being courted by God’s personal assistant.

That would make for one hell of a day wouldn’t?

In Dead Letters that is exactly the case, Sam is in a ‘holding place’ for souls it has yet to be determined where they will be going, and may end up being worse than hell.
For me, Dead Letters works. It just speaks to me.

Essential, though a crime story, it is about a character thrust into a world beyond his making, trying to find himself, while playing all sides to his own end – which for the moment is to keep himself safe.

The scariest aspect of all this is that Sam feels most at ease when killing, even though he remembers nothing of his past before arriving here.

The writing is solid, gritty and dark. Sam quickly becomes a nicely-rounded character. The time is taken to let the story breathe, and unravel over a good pace. As Sam learns, we learn.

The artwork is gritty, dark, moody and dull (in a good sense), with nothing and no characters truly defined. It all works in the favor of the story. The artwork has a confused, off-kilter, yet familiar at-the-same-time feel to it, which actually mirrors Sam.

Over all Dead Letters is off to a good start in its first three issues and I plan on staying along for the ride.

I suggest you hope on board as well.

Rating: 6.75

Ace.

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