Review: ‘The Seasons’ #1 Brings The Creep And Beauty
by Benjamin Hall
Summary
The private eye business run by the Seasons’s parental figures one day leads to them becoming orphans. Now they are adults and a terror is coming for the Seasons Sisters. Can one of them save the others and the world? Also what is up with the clown on the cover?
Overall
9/10Writer Rick Remender conceives a mostly great script. The only obvious disagreement one may have with it is on the first page. This is because it is only a bit of text and no visual Remender is apparently doing to add to the fairytale aspect of this work. Despite this intriguing choice possibly being a problem Remender otherwise does a great job establishing the horror and whimsy. Though he has massive help from the rest of the creative team to accomplish this effort. Still without his word smithing this issue would be hard to decipher the goings on of.
Artist Paul Azaceta is responsible for creating the interior art and the main cover. The interior art evokes artist Winsor McCay and animator Hayao Miyazaki in both the styles, atmospheres, and sense of movement. While Azaceta is definitely trying to homage the former sense of creation it is unclear whether he is consciously doing so for the latter. Azaceta showcases a great talent for crowd shots that contain a lot of detail. This is also true when it comes to extreme close-ups which are arguably harder to pull off since they can usually make a viewer uncomfortable. When it comes to minimalism Azaceta uses just the right amount. It is worth mentioning that he seems to use minimalism to further aid his depth and the sense of motion.
As far as Azaceta’s cover design goes it is creepy in a way that is reminiscent of McCay’s darker work. Although the creepiness is overt it also seems somewhat subtle in a deceptive way.
Colorist Matheus Lopes showcases an impressive wide selection of hues. Nevertheless, it is arguably the brighter scenes that may be the highlights of this issue.
Letterer Rus Wooton uses a variety of fonts that suit each form of text. Yet, the more stencil-like typeset may debatably cause eye strain for some readers.
The variant covers are the respective creations of artists Jordi Lafebre, Kent Williams, Wes Craig. Both Williams and Craig go the creepy route for their designs while Lafebre goes for a more whimsical adventurous one.
The Seasons #1 comes out on January 29th from Image Comics.
