If I had say one thing about “Sundowners” #1 it’d be that it’s engaging. I was sucked in up to my neck in curiosity from the first page. On the second page I was blown away. I can’t imagine any sensible person flipping through the first couple pages of “Sundowners” and the not immediately purchasing it, and hell, it only gets better from there.
WRITTEN BY: Tim Seely
ART BY: Jim Terry
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: August 27, 2014
Reviewed by Torbin Chimners
We’re introduced to an incredibly unhinged and manic man named David, who you would probably expect to see breaking down at a group session about government conspiracies. He prattles on about how he’s a great listener to the woman he’s meeting while, expectedly, not doing what he professes to be so good at. What happens next is brilliant, it’s like if you take all of the things a crazy homeless man could feasibly say and then make one of them true.
It’s through this we’re introduced to our four, possibly deluded, heroes. They’re all genuinely interesting characters in their own right. Each is chalk full of their share of quirks. When I say quirks I mean they’re all insane. It’s not explicitly stated but none of them seem to actually have powers and instead, are all suffering from a cavalcade of mental disorders.
When you think about it, these are the kind of people in real life who would dress up and try to fight crime. It’s never a ‘normal’ person. The other worrying thing is the voice of reason in this scene is David who was previously borderline deranged. It’s hard to make sense of and trust what’s going on around you in “Sundowners,” it makes you look at each scene differently, it’s engaging. It requires you to actively participate in the narrative.
Jim Terry’s art is marvelous, it reminds me of a more detailed Mike Allred. His visual composition and storytelling are both superb. Sean Dove’s colours are gorgeous, especially during Citizen’s story. The night feels incredibly alive with light during this sequence.
Sundowners is a, excuse the cliché, a refreshing take on superheroes. It’s off to a great start with a lot going for it: tremendously flawed characters that are a joy to read, intrigue pouring out the seams and exceptional visuals. I’ve never been ‘into’ much of Tim Seeley’s past work but this book has made a fan out of me.
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Torbin Chimners AKA Torin Chambers is a rad dude from the nineties who does film stuff or something. Thomas the Tank Engine is his favorite transformer. Find him on Twitter: Vulgar_Rhombus