Grim: Pen & Ink #1 Review

 

Writer: Stephanie Phillips

Illustrator: Flaviano

Letterer: Tom Napolitano

Cover Artists: Flaviano, Andrew K. Currey, Johnoy Lindsay, Jenny Frison & Derrick Chew

Publisher: Boom! Studios

Price: $6.99

Release Date: February 28, 2024

 

Bryan awakens in darkness. He rises from the ground and sees his car crumpled against a tree. Music from his car radio pours through the hole in the shattered windscreen, filling the woods with the haunting rhythms of Blue Oyster Cult. When he climbs the rise toward the broken metal guardrail, a young woman with a scythe awaits. Will Bryan go quietly into the great beyond? Or will he fight for another shot at life? Let's grab our Get Out Of Hell Free passes, leap into Grim: Pen & Ink #1, and find out!

 

Story

Bryan didn't intend to get drunk. He only went to the bar because he heard his ex was there. He realized he was wrong and wanted to repair his relationship with Abigail. Jessica may sympathize, but she's not Bryan's counselor. She will transport Bryan—or his soul—to the next phase of existence and nothing more. 

 

In Grim: Pen & Ink #1, Bryan boards a small, wooden rowboat moored to a jetty. Jessica propels it through the icy water with her scythe. Bryan is confused by what he sees and hears. He’s desperate to understand his surroundings and learn about his destination. Before abandoning the accident scene, Bryan glimpsed his corpse near his crumpled car. Severed from the familiar, he seeks common ground with Jessica.

 

Jessica shrugs off cultural and religious explanations for the afterlife. Death has many names. What seems fantastic to Bryan is her reality. If her realm ever fascinated her, it no longer does. She takes pity on him by clearing up one cultural misunderstanding, however. Jessica is not like Death in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. She doesn’t need to train an apprentice to replace her before taking a holiday. Jessica is one of many reapers tasked with delivering souls to judgment. She will not determine how Bryan spends eternity.

 

While helping us empathize with Bryan in Grim: Pen & Ink #1, Stephanie Phillips also lets us peek behind Jessica's indifference. While used to her role, Jessica feels incomplete. She shares Bryan's confusion and responds to his pleas. Sadly, the soft-hearted grim reaper learns that desperate people will grasp any weakness to regain what they lost.

 

Art

Flaviano’s detailed panels portray the steering wheel and dash with photorealistic detail. The shattered remains of the windscreen look more like intricate cobwebs than glass. Tread marks in the dirt appear where Bryan's car pierced the metal band, leaving the ends of the severed guardrail twisted and curled.

 

Bryan looks slim and stylish as he climbs the rise. Jessica's twisted scythe crackles with energy. The fashionable reaper reclines against the guardrail. White lines fracture the lake’s surface, reminiscent of the shattered windshield. As Jessica pulls the blade through the frozen surface, Bryan glimpses tormented souls reaching toward the surface.

 

Without Rico Renzi’s coloring, Flaviano’s black borders and detailed inking in Grim: Pen & Ink #1 exude luminosity. Trees, people, and even the ground seem to glow. Perhaps it's the full moon, which in this realm defies its Roche Limit and orbits closer to Earth. Or maybe it’s how Flaviano represents the supernatural ether with lines and dots. But even when Jessica escorts Bryan to the waiting area, which evokes Heaven in Bill And Ted Go To Hell restyled as an airport terminal, the uncolored interior suggests a realm of light.

 

Tom Napolitano's uppercase black letters inhabit white dialogue balloons. The font appears easy to read in the shrunken panels. While the same size as the dialogue, Flaviano’s commentary at the bottom of each page is white, lowercase print on black. Perhaps the most mesmerizing aspects of Napolitano's craft in Grim: Pen & Ink #1 are the abrasive font that helps us hear Jessica break the ice and the white lyrics of Blue Oyster Cult that slither across the opening panels. "Come on, baby. Don't fear the reaper."

 

Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

When a desperate man grasps for another chance at life, Death’s servant shares the secret that haunts her afterlife in Grim: Pen & Ink #1. The artist’s commentary enhances this debut issue as Flaviano discusses the author/artist relationship, sources of inspiration, and the differences between working in animation and comics.

 

Rating 10/10

 

This review first appeared on Comic Book Dispatch.