Chariot #1
AWA Upshot Studios 2021
Written by Bryan Edward Hill
Illustrated by Priscilla Petraites
Coloured by Marco Lesko
Lettered by Andworld Design
The Chariot was a Cold War-era secret government project to provide its star agent with a weapon unlike any other in the form of a supercharged muscle car. It sank into the ocean decades ago, and the agent along with it. Now, a petty criminal looking to reform his life has stumbled upon the Chariot, and he's about to find out that the agent's consciousness is still controlling it in this synthwave thriller.
I like Bryan, he’s a good guy and has some really nice storytelling chops and so with him writing this and it coming from AWA Studios I knew I was going to be reading this. What I hadn’t expected was to fall in love with it before we see the credits page. The opening here is completely and utterly sensational and it has this Speed Racer influence that I see with a completely no nonsense horror-thriller overtones that make this a bonafide hit already! There is this electricity running through these pages that is so palpable that it infects the reader with this adrenaline rush and you don’t want it to stop!
I love, love, love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The opening doesn’t reveal much and that is more than okay considering it draws the reader in and makes them WANT to know more. Then to meet our main man Jim, his wife and son and we see the situation he’s gotten himself into. All this conspires to add this depth and complexity to the story that elevates the premise into something so much larger than expected. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing this world, these characters and the story itself it creates its own energy that loops from the pages through the reader and back to the page again.
How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story start to emerge create that depth and complexity that you aren’t always aware of but completely appreciate seeing it happen. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is sensational. This is the kind of book that just takes you by surprise and leaves you breathless as a result.
I believe this is my first exposure to Priscilla’s work and I have to say I’m mightily impressed by what I see. The linework that we see is extremely nice, it’s strong and yet soft when it has to be and the way that we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is sublime. While I wish we would see more backgrounds being put to use the way we see the composition within the panels and the judicious use of backgrounds really make the story quite effective. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solidly talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is really nicely rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully done. Also the creativity and imagination we see is marvellous, that painting in the hospital for example is a wow moment.
This is so much more than I was expecting and hoping it would be. There are references here that I didn’t anticipate and yet I may see them because of who I am and what i’ve seen in my past, regardless it is what makes this personal to me and that’s immeasurable. Find out what you connect with in this story and then tell us what that is.
About the Creator
Steven Leitman
Just me talking about the comics I enjoy reading, ones that you might not know exist and spotlighting the indie creators that excite me.
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