CREDIT: Aftershock
Rating: 4/5 – Becoming a Reader of World Reader.
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
Aftershock continues to create series in a wide range of genres and subject matter and World Reader is no exception to that rule. World Reader is an entry in the science fiction genre, specifically around space, alien life, and even the supernatural in a first issue that delivered on making me care about the main character, as well as the “worlds” she explores. World Reader is written by Jeff Loveness who is currently writing Marvel’s Nova series, with art by Juan Doe who is no stranger to Aftershock with his work on the dark and gritty American Monster. In addition, Rachel Deering handles the colors which definitely give this book a look all its own with a deep and dark pallet full of reds, greens, and purples.
This book stood out for me because of the art and colors. It’s a “trippy” looking book as main character Sarah and her team visit worlds that have died. Loveless does a nice job in the opening few pages of explaining all we need to know about Sarah with limited dialogue. I guess Sarah can best be described as a medium, as she attempts to communicate with each world’s dead population in order to find out what happened to them. On most of the worlds she’s been to the dead don’t talk back, but the dead on the world in this first issue do and it’s not what she was expecting. Loveless nails the pacing on this issue by giving us all we need to know, introducing us to a “villain” and then setting the stage for the rest of this series.
World Reader does exactly what a first issue should. Although Juan Doe’s art may not appeal to everyone, it’s definitely art that is worthy of attention. In the back of the book there’s a behind the scenes section that details the process from script to final page. While I normally don’t read the scripts, seeing how Doe’s pages go from interpreting the script all the way to Deering’s lettering and colors was an interesting experience and I’d love to actually see more of this. I’ll be back for more of World Reader, and you should give it a try too!
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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