![]() Meant as a tribute to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Ross revisits an existing Fantastic Four story from the 1960s and ties it into the characters’s grand histories and other storylines. A special event book written and drawn by Alex Ross, this Fantastic Four OGN may have missed your local comic shop simply because it wasn’t released through Marvel Comics, but rather Abrams ComicArts as a ‘Marvel Arts’ release. Here’s a book that was completely unexpected, and quite possibly, under read. From the ground up, “The Orchard Mythos” feels like something designed as a playground for Sorrentino to stretch his talents in whatever way he sees fit, and it is such a joy to behold. And I feel like he’s well-matched with colorist Dave Stewart, who shares so many storytelling sensibilities. In the fourth panel of the comic, he is already telling readers John’s fate for those paying attention. He’s an artist that loves the power of panel composition and uses it to its full advantage. I can see why letterer Steve Wands is also the book’s designer, because it is an intrinsic part of the storytelling.īut it is Sorrentino’s work that gets me the most. The opening pages of the book before the comic begins are a carefully constructed part of the experience. The way “The Passageway” is constructed, it simply had to be an OGN. In case you don’t know, “The Bone Orchard Mythos” is a series that will span OGNs, short stories, one-shots, miniseries, maxiseries, and possibly other formats. I was also impressed by “The Passageway” because of its presentation. There are so many moments when John sees something and then reacts, and that’s all we need to know for this story, but the reaction also tells us “just you wait, there’s more to this…” and the book is confident enough in its storytelling to leave it at that. And when I say “silently asks questions,” I mean the question isn’t in the speech balloons, but in the art itself. It silently asks questions, not too many to overwhelm the narrative that spans just this book, but just enough that however “The Passageway” plays out, we will want more-in other words, a book that is paradoxically both satisfying and unsatisfying. Part of the reason Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino’s “The Passageway” was one of my favorite OGNs of the year is because it’s an introduction to “The Bone Orchard Mythos” universe and the way it handles those introductory elements.
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