‘Blinth’ Issue 1 from Scattered Comics
Blinth #1
2015
Publisher: Scattered Comics
Writer: Jason Dube
Artist: Noel Serrato
While I was down in San Fransisco at the end of August I was able to attend the San Fransisco Comic Con for 2 of the 3 days. We did an episode about it which you can listen to here.
On Saturday when I was there as I was about to leave (I thinks it’s only fitting the first review I do is for the last book I got) I walked by the Scattered Comics booth and struck up a conversation with Noel Serrato. We talked about his art, art in general, comic creation process, the Eynes Anthology (gotta promote that book wherever I go!) and more. It was a great conversation. I told him about our little podcast here and that we review comics and talk to creators and such. He gave me a copy of “Blinth” #1 Artist Edition because he was sold out of the regular version at this time.
“But John, what is an ‘artist edition’?”
Well, basically it’s a black and white edition of the comic that removes the color to strip down the artwork so you can see what it look liked before the final colors were put on. It’s usually more of a collectors item and something for people who love to dissect artwork than it is for someone who wants to just read the story, though it works for that as well.
I like artist editions, because as an artist I love to try and get into the head of the artist and see if I can figure out how they do things. I’m often wrong, but that doesn’t stop me. It also helps me grow as an artist to study other peoples work. Reading artist editions are difficult. Every time I go through one to read the story I find my eyes getting lost in the artwork and my brain getting confused as to what is going on.
This is not to say anything negative about the artwork Noel does on ‘Blinth‘, in fact it’s quite beautiful and stylistic. What I mean is this book wasn’t meant to be black and white therefore there are color elements in it that are missing in this edition because of what it is.
“Hey John, can you get on with it? review the damn book already!”
Yeah yeah, I know, I’m getting there! On first read I was confused until about half way through the book when my brain figured out what was going on. Remember earlier when I mentioned that my eyes get lost in the artwork of an edition like this and things get confusing? That’s exactly what happened. I was reading then my eyes void of the color that would denote what was happening in the scenes would get lost in Noel’s inks and line work.
The concept of this book is great. “Can love exist in the depths of hell?“.
Below this point will be spoilers about the book.
Issue one feels rushed, it feels like the concept is there but it mashes what should be two issues together into one issue. The first half of the book deals with Lucifer, Anubis and Bast. It talks of a betrayal and a love that spawned a child, Blinth. The second half of the book covers Blinth growing up with Lucifer as a father figure and him revolting at the end. This really feels like it should have been drawn out into two issues to give a better sense of the characters and to give us more time to learn about Lucifer, Anubis and Bast so their deaths and Blinth falling in love and repeating the cycle would have a bigger impact on the reader.
I am interested in following this series to see what comes next for Blinth and how Jason and Noel see this character move forward. I want to get issues 2 and 3, which you can find on ComiXology so I might pick them up there.
If you are interested in finding out if love can exist in the depths of hell, give Blinth a try. Pacing issues aside in the first issue, it is very intriguing to read and the artwork has more expressions than Jim Carrey.