Ever since I came upon Raymond Mullikin’s Kickstarter for Jonathin Quackup: Issue #3, I have been eagerly awaiting the campaign’s conclusion and the arrival of the digital comics that my pledge promised. I received them earlier this week, and I immediately downloaded each and every issue available. Once I had the three books on my computer I opened the first issue and began looking through the book, for my first pass I was not reading the book, rather I was taking in all the images bound within the comic book.
As I took in the images I was confused by the initial panels, based upon the campaign, and ignoring the cover, I was not expecting to see the main character dressed as the wanderer he would eventually become. I was expecting to see the pure origin of the titular character, which did unfold right after that brief introduction. Before I get too far into the story, let me talk about the quality of the artwork in this tome. The art is very clean and crisp capturing the reader’s attention pulling the eyes away from the words. In fact the comics first full page panel epitomizes, this effect.
This panel not only starts the origin of Jonathin but each time I see the image my eyes are immediately drawn to Jonathin’s face. Each and every time as I widen what I’m looking at taking in the more of the image. The next part of the page my eyes latch upon is the sun, partially blocked by clouds. Then my eyes drift down to the trees that appear to be caught in motion from a gust of wind. The last thing my eyes take in is the other character twirling a sling and the animals that the pair is guarding. The picture is crisp and tells a story without my eyes drifting to it’s accompanying text.
With that being said this is a comic book, and so there is accompanying text which amplifies the provided art. And while that art does wonders to serve a lot of the tale, yet when the reader incorporates the text, a full and satisfying story is found. The characters are introduced quickly and their importance to Jonathin, especially his family, is made clear from the start. Several cues, both visual and written, helped to establish that significance, but the strongest was the use of Jonathin’s cousin Taeheed, who plays a central part in the story of this first issue.
When I reached the end of the book, I immediately wanted to reach for the next in the series, one of the signs of a good series. But after a moment I held back and forced myself to wait. I enjoyed the first book too much to run throughout the series, I want to take my time and savor these books as best I can.