Reviewed by Jeanne
Ellie is not having a good day. Bills are due, well, okay PAST due, the
landlady wants the rent, and when she goes into work, she finds she is now
unemployed. Desperate, she tries her
hand at several jobs and manages to fail spectacularly. As Ellie says, “Why am I so bad at adulthood?”
Her day may not get worse but it is about to get weirder. As she walks down an alley, there’s a guy who
looks as if he’s wearing a jack-o’-lantern for a head being attacked by some
sort of dog thing with horns and a mane.
Impulsively, Ellie leaps in to help—and suddenly there’s blue fire
coming from her hands. Together they
manage to subdue the dog/lion whatever and Ellie gets a job offer as a
paranormal investigator.
And by the way, his head IS a pumpkin. And his name is Ichabod.
That’s the opening sequence for Third Shift Society, a
graphic novel that began life as a web-comic.
Meredith Moriarty, Eisner Award nominee, does both the art and the
script. Ellie is definitely in for the
ride of her life as she meets other supernatural beings, friendly or not, and
helps Ichabod solve cases. The artwork
is wonderful, very expressive and vivid. I liked both the style and the color
palette. The characters are well
developed, especially Ellie who is an appealing heroine: brave and impulsive, but with a good heart. This
is probably a good place to mention that she’s also a bit gullible. It’s very
easy to get drawn into this world of curses, vampires, demons, and things that
go bump in the night.
More and more web-comics are making the leap into print, and I
definitely approve. I now have several
favorites which began life online such as Breaking
Cat News, Swan Eaters, and Lore
Olympus. I had never heard of this
particular web-comic until the book came out but I have now become a fan. A second volume is in the works and I’ll look
forward to reading it.
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