This month I am posting a review of a different self-published comic book each day for the rest of the month! Here is an archive of the books reviewed so far!
Today I'm featuring Terry Moore's Echo #11 (out today!).
It's remarkable to me just how consistent Terry Moore's Echo is.
Every issue is drawn beautifully by Terry Moore.
Every issue is filled with some interesting insights into the characters.
And every darn issue cuts off abruptly like a pay phone when your money runs out (how long before that reference is completely obsolete?)
I really think this book is wonderful, and Moore is doing probably the best work of his career on this title, but it's continually amazing to me that every issue just seems to cut off. The comic is 18 story pages rather than 22 or whatever, but page length does not really explain it, I don't think, as Fell, Phonogram, Casanova, etc. would all feel the same way and they do not.
Echo really reads like a long form story that Moore cuts off every 18 pages, whether it really works as a cut off point or not.
Obviously, that's an exaggeration, as yes, the cut-offs usually do happen at some sort of dramatic point in the story, so I am sure that there is a rhyme and reason to Moore's actions, but boy, it really never feels like a natural rest point.
I apologize for harping so long on this point - it really just stands out because the rest of the comic is near perfect.
In this issue, we see a little bit more of the scary bad guy (he's the guy on the cover), including (for the first time) a demonstration of his gross power (it involves sucking the life out of people and sort of exploding them). Moore's typically calm, sedate art style works wonderfully with these gross scenes because they leap out at the audience more when they come from Moore's typically reserved style. A real effective case of playing against type by Moore.
Meanwhile, Moore's bread and butter has always been his handling of people's emotions and the interactions between people, and that is on display here as well, with some great interactions between our heroes Dillon and Julie. I especially love how Dillon's reactions just match reality so darn well - he reacts like a normal person WOULD react to such insane situations. I particularly dig his reaction when Julie reveals that she has some connection to Dillon's dead girlfriend Annie (whose mind/spirit/whatever sort of lives on in Julie through the experimental armor that is stuck to Julie - the same armor Annie was wearing when she was blown up in issue #1 - the same armor the crazy bad guy has some of). His response is not, "Oh, okay, so my dead girlfriend must be living on through you." No, it's "How do you know that?! You must be a spy! You were spying on Annie and me!"
Top notch work there by Moore.
This is a great comic book that's well worth a Recommenda
If you would like to participate in the month with your self-published comic, there might still be time (depending on how fast you mail out comics). Just check out the Review Copies section to see where to mail a review copy of your comic.