Review: ‘The Author Immortal’ #2 Strengthens The Mystery

Writer Frank J. Barbiere builds nicely off of the set-up of the first issue in the main story. He also dives straight into some tense moments for the cast of characters. Barbiere displays a lot of strength when it comes to making the text portion of the characterization feel distinct for each one. While the back-up story in this issue seems to show how closely Barbiere and artist Morgan Beem are working together. This is because both are at least plotting if not writing the back-up. Whatever the case may be it is at least easy to see fantastic creativity in both scripts. In other words, these two creatives are writing in a way that could produce a very memorable title.

When it comes laying out the pages Morgan Beem could arguably do a bit better at sizing certain panels. This is a debatable problem since select panels sometimes seem a bit too little for easy placement of the lettering. Nevertheless, Beem does a magnificent job with both the interiors and the main cover. Beem’s work with the color palette shows understanding about light sources and skin pigmentations. Not to mention that Beem does very well at drawing and coloring grosser acts one finds the characters doing. As for the cover’s design it is relatively unique in presentation, especially with how it comes across like both a splash page and a cover.

Artist Kate Kasenow and colorist Lauren Affe create strong visuals in the back-up narrative. Their work obviously differs in art style and color range from that of Morgan Beem in the main story. However, these few pages appear very similar in thought process to Beem’s. In the case of Kasenow there is a close match in the way the lines curves. This is despite Kasenow having a heavier ink line than Beem. While Affe uses a lighter palette with a selection that focuses more on the blue part of the color spectrum.

Letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou exhibits an expertise at fitting a significant amount of dialogue into some of the smaller panels. Otsmane-Elhaou also does a fine job at making a rush of words spewing from a character actually evoke that sense when one is reading them.

There are two variant covers. The first is by artist Rye Hickman and the second is by artist Jim Towe and colorist JP Jordan. Of the two designs only Hickman’s truly works since it is not a mandate from Image Comics. Yes, both pieces are high quality in their own ways, but the latter cover pays tribute to an arguably terrible creation. It is also worth mentioning that when companies mandate cover designs it does not allow for as much creativity. Luckily, these covers respectively show great sense of depth, logical proportions, and a have nice hues.

The Author Immortal #2 is out now from Image Comics.