Review: ‘Dick Tracy’ #18 Gets Experimental
by Benjamin Hall
Summary
The criminals war with themselves for control of the city. Meanwhile Dick Tracy is in jail for murder. Can his friends prove his innocence? Also is Breathless Mahoney as powerful as she thinks?
Overall
7/10Writers Alex Segura and Michael Moreci create a script that has believable dialogue and character actions. Though the plotting seems a bit formulaic in this single-issue form, it may work better in a collection. Yet, that will depend on the formatting of the eventual collection, specifically regarding the location of the covers. The story beats and how they affect character interactions are the reason the plot feels a little paint-by-numbers. Still, there are some interesting flashbacks that flesh out one character’s reasoning for their actions. Thus, while the script is not the strongest, it is arguably still high to medium quality.
Artist Geraldo Borges and colorist Mark Englert are responsible for creating the main cover along with the interior visuals. The cover is rather unique in design, at least as far as covers go. There is a nice use of foreground and background while also leaving some areas of negative space. The cover’s color palette is a very tight range, which enhances how the shadows add to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, one could say that it is not a cover that screams “buy me on impulse.”
The interior visuals feature both standard and experimental art. This is extremely noticeable because of the layouts of several panels on certain pages. Whether this experimentation is actually a good thing will be the decision of each reader. Whatever the decision it is definitely affecting the pacing of the reading experience. When it comes to the more standard art, there are only two panels that could debatably be better: one with a worm’s-eye view, and the cliffhanger, which has a weird facial expression. As for the hues, they are fine if a bit muddy in some panels.
Creative Consultant Chantelle Aimée Osman provides help for the narrative. However, this is rather invisible work, so it cannot be reviewed.
Letterer Patrick Brosseau does well with most of the bolding and sizing of the text. Nevertheless, there are some dramatic moments that have a bit too much emphasis in this reviewer’s professional opinion.
Artist Greg Smallwood provides the variant cover for this issue. It has relatively good depth and use of shadows, but is arguably not that appealing to the eye.
Dick Tracy #18 is out now from Mad Cave Studios.
