First impressions matter, and this goes triple in when the book being judged is a comic book issue. So, what was our first impression on Masters? It was: “ok…. we like where this is going….” and we are pretty sure that if you know any of these artists, your impression will be the same, and it will only keep getting better. Welcome to Masters by Chris Imber, Matt Reid, J-Man, Chris Jenkins and King,
This collection is presented, at first impression at least, as a dark (ish) and twisted action styled comic (with burgers) drawn in neat lines.
The foreword is something you don’t want to miss out, trust us, lol.
One thing that you will notice about this comic at first glance is how much colour there is in the black and white panels. Yes. That’s right. There are black and white panels and entire pages, but, the textures, shadowing, the depths and the contrasts in these two colours make you not miss the colours, whatever they may be.
When the colours come however… that’s another story entirely, haahahahha, your eyes will be bouncing from one point to the other taking it all in because of the amount of detail that those former elements are enhanced with them, even the glint of the sword is mesmerizing. Excellent work!
Something really important in comic is texture, and another thing that is severely undervalued in comics when it comes to quality is backgrounds. The artists nailed it on both! Not only giving it a “classic” comic vibe to ir, but also keeping it clean and also, not too clean. In this frame you can see a few examples of this:
See how the light pannel is just perfect and realistic to the t? Notice that shadow on it as it’s crossing visual planes with the machine? THAT, would not be made by someone who is not paying attention. That was by design. And then look at the notes and how they are pinned in a used board, you can see that the board was used due to the irregularities on the area, and yet the pins are at different angles, that is impressively detailed work right there! And then you put in the shadowing… ha! Perfect!
Comedy is infused in this comic in every 4th or so frame, if you pay enough attention, but some are really obvious, you will be laughing about the absurdity of a lot of stuff written in here.
I will say that besides (mostly) the main characters, every other non-villain is a comedic punch line, which makes this comic extremely enjoyable to read, but there is one character that deserves the trophy of absurdity, and that is Detective Hunting. That man is worthless at everything and makes no sense at all. For a detective he has no clue at all of what is happening nor why, and his conclusions are always misdirected to the wrong side. House bush fires? “People should water their plants more often“, not some arsonist, not some prankster, but dry plants. HAHAHHAHAH, and then you will read the moist buns references, hahhahahhhha, priceless!
So, what is this comic about? This comic is about a contest between the sons of an immortal deity where they have to fight between each other through their chosen champion, on Earth, where the last standing wins. No time, nor collateral damage limits. One of the daughters of such deity, has chosen, a knight, that so far, has been very successful in protecting her, but times have changed and it’s clear that the other champions have evolved in their ways, to the point that they refine their skills on humans. Yes, they have become serial killers.
Emile, the main champion is quite… knighty in his ways, all about being honorable and being a brute force of nature relying solely on sheer might and morals to defeat the others, and these others have magical powers, so you might expect some… disparity of power in there. Did we say that it’s a death-match? Yes? Ok. Mind that.
Our main character, the cook, gets… cooked in the middle of all of this because of a toy, and then get’s even deeper into this galactic mess when he himself becomes an unwilling champion of the tournament.
Besides the humour, the eye-popping designs and details, the colours, what else do you, comic fan reader, will get in this original first issue of this comic? Well, to start, you will get 2 extra issues inside it. YEAP! You will read not only the initial issue, but two more chapters of it in a single swoop! And it doesn’t stop there, the authors tell you a little bit of the process and the changes they made, be it in design, colour or characters during the making of this comic and why they decide to do it. It’s like getting a backstage ticket to the original raw comic. It’s a gold trinket.
Our opinion? Or my opinion personally about the future of the comic? Promising. There are many elements that can and will surely be explored in this comic and there is still a lot that can happen after the tournament is over. We still have to discover our main villain, the hooded guy that floats and uses fire and air, and heck, we can even get a backstory on Emile! This is very interesting, so if you are looking for a funny, extremely well made comic in terms of graphics, with a nice, action-crazy story, Masters is the comic for you. Highly recommend this eye-candy. Grab yours and support the next issue on Kickstarter.
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