Lot 13 (USA) di Steve Niles

[Azrael]

Preview: Lot 13 #1 di 5

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WRITTEN BY: Steve Niles
ART BY: Glenn Fabry

[Azrael]

Apparently Steve Niles and Glenn Fabry's "Lot 13" was a mini-series that was going to be published by Wildstorm before it merged with DC. It's good to see that DC committed to publishing it under their banner (though it does seem more fitting for Vertigo) as it's got a ton of potential, but the first issue has a few rough edges that are frustrating and I hope to see smoothed out in the second issue.

Niles and Fabry right out of the gate begin with a horrific couple pages set in the past that make it absolutely clear what kind of a book your reading. And despite then jumping to the present day, they keep that tension and tone wonderfully. Like the best of scary movies, Nile and Fabry have primed their readers perfectly for horror and thus everyday things seems like terrors just waiting to happen. Fabry's art is incredibly detailed and naturally quite creepy (which I intend as a compliment) and the understated colors by Adam Brown (except the jarring use of red) are a great choice.

Unfortunately, there are a few odd moments that really pulled me out of the story, which in scary stories, as we all know, can be a killer. There are a few forced things that I have trouble ever believing would happen, like kids riding the back of a closed moving van full of boxes. Plus, I've never seen moving vans like that have a window in the rolling door and I've moved across the country twice. In fact -- how does a rolling door close with a fixed piece of a glass in it? Since when can an entire family of five fit all of their stuff in one small moving van? The mother references being 36, but later the husband says they've been waiting 30 years to buy a house of their own -- so they've been waiting since they were about six? Yes, a couple times small details that felt wrong yanked me out of the story being told. Additionally, there is a moment when something horrifying and/or supernatural and unexplainable happens and the characters just kind of blink at it and move on. No discussion of what they have seen, no extended surprise that it's disappeared before their eyes, nothing. Two panels later, they check into a creepy apartment building with apartments to rent by the night and send their children each into their own apartments. It was right about there that my suspension of belief fully snapped.

This is only the first issue and there are enough good things at work here that there's plenty of time for the creators to turn it around and make this a solid little series. However, I hope in future issues they can pay more attention to the little things that really make a book work, otherwise this mini will end up feeling a bit ill-conceived and sloppy. The concept and talent here deserves, and can deliver, more.

3/5

CBR

[Azrael]

Lot 13 is a brand new Vertigo horror series from the creative team of Steve NIles and Glenn Fabry. The comic opens with a suitably grim prologue set in 1670, involving a family being put on trial for their own murder/suicide pact. The plot then jumps to the present day, where a family making the move to a new town, only to arrive and discover the that the house is still being fumigated. With no motels around, they head back towards the highway to find somewhere to stay for a few days. As luck would have it, they find an old apartment building offering daily and weekly rates. However, it's not long before creepy goings begin occurring and the family learns that the low price of their rooms really was too good to be true.

Niles does a great job of pacing this issue—opening with a gruesome intro that sets the mood of the story, before slowing things down a bit to introduce the reader to the cast of characters. The characters are all highly likeable and well characterized, though tend to fall into cliches a bit, e.g., the emo/goth daughter leaving behind the one boy that's ever understood her. The issue features no narration or monologue, with Niles keeping the script to only dialogue. While there is some light exposition in the dialogue, the plot is mainly conveyed by Fabry's eerie visuals.

The issue is creepier than it is outright scary, setting the reader up for things to come in subsequent issues, with glimpses of ghosts and terrifying messages. The plot is mostly very good, but does depend on a few obvious horror cliches, like the family just happening to find a low-cost apartment building in the middle of nowhere and deciding it would be a great idea to stay there, despite the fact that it looks creepy as hell. There is also a strange moment where the father runs over a small boy and his body rips apart and is scattered all of the road by their van. They get out to investigate, but the corpse has disappeared. A minute later and everyone has completely forgotten the event and seem to just be getting on with things. It's a jarring moment in an otherwise great issue.

Glenn Fabry's artwork on this series is just magnificent. It's been a long time since he's provided interiors on a book, and Lot 13 show that he's still in fine form. He illustrates the issue in an almost photorealistic style, with incredibly intricate pencils and detailed linework that gives all of the visuals a very creepy feeling. The realistic quality of the artwork also acts to make the gory scenes of the issue that much more visceral and gruesome, like he's depicting an event that actually happened. It's a little unsettling in places. Fabry's character and model work is second to none, and each member of the family is like a fully realized character with their own range of emotions and body language.

Fabry is a little reserved with his inks, preferring to convey texture and shadow with pencil shading and what seems to be charcoal shading. He utilizes inks only to make certain objects stand out in contrast from their backgrounds, and for doing fills and heavy blacks.

Adam Brown does a great job of coloring Fabry's linework, utilizing a muted and subdued palette to give the final artwork almost painted quality to it that suit's Fabry's artwork to a T.

This time of year is a very busy period for horror comics, with the shelves overflowing with miniseries and one-shots looking to take advantage of the Halloween rush. Lot 13 #1 stands out from the pack though, more intent on delivering a solid foundation on which to build future issues than providing cheap and tawdry scares for thrillseekers. This series has some definite potential, and I look forward to seeing where Nile and Fabry take us next.


8/10

Newsarama

[Lanterna_86]

letto il primo numero...non male alcuni disegni sono inquietanti....aspettiamo il diramarsi della storia per capire bene...

[Azrael]

LOT 13 #5
Written by STEVE NILES
Art and cover by GLENN FABRY
On sale FEBRUARY 27 • 32 pg, FC, 5 of 5, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS
• The Nelson family's sojourn is almost over—but will they make it out alive?
• "Only the Devil knows for sure."

[elcaracol]

Mi sono abbonato. Vediamo.

[Un Fumettaro]

Che Fabry fosse divino era assodato. Ma stavolta ha un colorista davvero superbo.

[Un Fumettaro]

Davvero un bell'inizio, attendo trepidante i prossimi numeri

[elcaracol]

Uff.... io non l'ho ancora.... (per ho visto qualche pagina del preview... e già quello...)

[Azrael]

Preview: Lot 13 #2

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[Un Fumettaro]

Anche questo secondo numero termina con un ottimo cliffhanger.
Sarà un'attesa estenuante fino al prossimo mese.

[elcaracol]

E' una mini o ongoin'???

[emmeemmeesse]

Mini di 5.

[elcaracol]

Mini di 5.

Ok. Thanx.

[Un Fumettaro]

Un po' di matite dalla pagina FB di Fabry:

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