Advance Review: ‘Mugshots’ #1 Turns Out Right

Writer Jordan Thomas is not clear in this first issue on the time period — which the solicitation says is “2008.” Yet, this is an extremely minor complaint in comparison to what flaws could exist. Fortunately, Thomas’s scripting seems solid and tight while being accessible. One of the strengths of Thomas’s writing is how he creates realistic sounding dialogue. Thomas also correctly uses tropes and clichés without overly relying on them. It is also worth mentioning that Thomas creates a sense of past history with each conversation the characters have. This sense of personal history helps make them relatable.

Artist/colorist Chris Matthews is responsible for the visuals when it comes to the interiors and cover A. The interiors and cover A both show a style that resembles the work of artist Darwyn Cooke. Specifically Matthews looks to be taking inspiration from Cooke’s adaptations of the Donald Westlake Parker novels (The Outfit [2010]) (The Hunter [1962]). However, Matthews has enough differences in style so as not to be copying Cooke. One of these differences is thicker inking. Another difference is how Matthews goes for rounder shapes. In other words if one enjoys the artwork of Darwyn Cooke than one will enjoy the visuals by Chris Matthews.

Letterer Lucas Gattoni does a great job at both sizing and positioning the text. Yet, Gattoni’s greatest contribution is arguably the use of design and colors around text boxes to show who is talking while they are off-panel.

The variant cover for this issue is the creation of artist Fran Galán. It features a more realistic take on three of the characters than Chris Matthews does. Two of the characters’ respective poses resemble a police mugshot position. While the third’s pose is reminiscent of a noir style detective. Finally, the coloring is fantastic in execution with a nice selection on display.

Mugshots #1 is due out on May 8th from Madcave Studios.