All this month I'll be reviewing different comic books by African-American creators, based on submissions from the actual creators of the comic books themselves. Check out the archive to see what books have been spotlighted so far.

Today we look at Offset #1 by Delvin Howell (writer), Tristan Roach (artist) and Jenny Chiu and Ludwig Olimba (colorists)...

Offset follows in the strong tradition of young people discovering that they are part of something grander, something...supernatural. Our hero Kyle discovers it for sure one night while walking home...

But obviously, he knew about it in his heart ever since his mother died. After all, the guy DOES carry around a piece of sugarcane everywhere, so he must know that SOMEthing is out of the ordinary.

Tristan Roach's art is an utter delight in this story. The colors from Chiu and Olimba perfectly match Roach's dynamic style to create a bright but still somewhat off-kilter experience.

Howell develops Kyle and his supporting cast well, and the regional accents sounded good (sometimes such an affection can be kind of cheesy - but it really worked in this book) but the first issue is mostly a spotlight for Roach's powerful depictions of both suspense (waiting for the shoe to drop) and action (the fights once said shoe actually dropped).

Howell did a great job of pacing the story, as you know enough to care about what happens next, but not enough so that the whole mystery is already ruined. There's still a lot of to learn about Kyle, and I'm interested in seeing what happens next.

Check out Beyond Publishing Caribbean for more info (and a chance to buy a copy of Offset #1).