Advance Review: Jock Takes ‘Gone’ #1 To The Stars
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
Some sweeping visuals depicting the haves and have-nots of an alien world as well as the inner workings of a starship are high points that set this new series apart from what else is out there. The plot is not the most inventive, but it centers around a young girl you can’t help rooting for.
Overall
9/10Upstart publisher DSTLRY burst onto the comic scene last August with its collection of short stories called The Devil’s Cut. The oversized book was chock full of quick tales meant as an amuse bouche. With this week’s release of its initial ongoing series Gone, it’s time to serve the first of the publisher’s many planned courses.
The story, written and illustrated by Jock, was teased in The Devil’s Cut tale Stowaway. This more fleshed out yarn tells the adventures of 13-year-old Abi, who has been stranded on a luxury starliner while searching for food for her pregnant mother. The girl is on the run from not only the ship’s crew but also a group of terrorists whom she sneaked onto the cruiser.
As a creator, Jock seems to be stepping outside of his comfort zone. While he’s known primarily as an artist, he recently wrote and illustrated the DC limited series One Dark Knight, and now does the same for Gone. He maintains his MO as an artist known for dark, moody imagery but also gives his characters a level of detail not found in his Batman work, for example. While his Batman can appear as a well-outlined ink blob, Abi and the others in Gone are a bit more defined. Not much, mind you, but it’s definitely a style change for Jock.
What will really catch readers’ eyes – while earning Jock even greater notoriety – are Gone’s splash pages. In one, he illustrates a futuristic city set on an alien world, with majestic-looking spaceships hovering nearby – all while Abi is standing in her neighborhood’s slums. Later, as she is trying to elude the star cruiser’s security team, Jock shows Abi working her way through the ship’s bowels in a double-page spread. Those pages alone make the book worthy of attention.
As a writer, Jock isn’t big on exposition. We know little of Abi, her planet or the terrorists’ objectives. None of that is necessary to tell a great story, but it does add a layer of disorientation for the reader. Beyond that, the story isn’t breaking much new ground, though again, that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.
If Jock is able to sharpen up the story a bit and add some unique plot elements – while maintaining his sweeping artwork – he’ll have a major hit on his hands with Gone.
Gone #1 will be available for purchase on October 25, 2023.
