Writer Bob Salley
Artist Nathan Kelly
Colorist Don Mathias
Letterer HdE
It’s been a true pleasure watching the cream of the indie community rise to the top. Since I have been a part of the indie community there have been a few people in particular that have made strides and branched out with their art to become, like I said, the cream of the crop. In the case of excellence in indie comics I can say for sure that three of the four artists on Drexler have proven to be some of the best in indie comics and the one person I’m unfamiliar with has only added to the excellence of Drexler and has certainly held their own with three of the heaviest hitters in the indie game.
Drexler is the second comic Salley has done outside of the Salvagers universe that I have thoroughly enjoyed and I would hold it up with the highest of standards for any comic book, not just indie comics. I think Salley has really become a wonderful storyteller that knows how to balance the visual with the dialog and captions. The idea of Drexler is terrific but not completely over the top and it starts out reasonable while it leads the reader into the bigger picture. Drexler seems to be some sort of high tech monster/possibly alien hunter who is beckoned back to his troubled home town to fight a mysterious threat. Salley adds depth to the characters as well as the storyline and intertwines them with a masterful writing style. As I said, I’ve been thoroughly impressed with all of Salley’s efforts outside of Salvagers and I can’t wait to see where Drexler goes for issue two and three.
From what I’ve seen of Kelly he doesn’t have a portfolio that stretches for miles, in fact, the only thing I have seen from him is Snarl, but Snarl is still one of the best indie comics that have come out in recent years. Snarl was in a league of it’s own and it really forced the hand of other indie creators by raising the bar and upping the game. I feel like Kelly’s style is closely comparable to Eduardo Risso of 100 Bullets fame, their styles look fairly similar but both artists have their own little nuances that make them stand alone. Out of all the artists Mathias is the one I’m least familiar with, I don’t think I’ve seen his work even though he has worked for the likes of Dark Horse, but I can say with certainty that he deserves praise for his coloring on Drexler. The colors are phenomenal and truly a wonderful cap to Kelly’s art. Every color is exactly perfect, the night time scenes are grey but light enough to still see perfect, while the daytime scenes are slightly brighter but still colorful and beautiful. What a team these two make. I hope to see them together again, if not for other projects, at least to finish the next two issues of Drexler.
Not sure what to say about HdE that I haven’t said before. He is the best. He does so much more than just lettering, and of course, he is the best at that as well. HdE picks the best fonts to fit the feel of the books, he distinguishes between inner monologues and captions by color coordinating accordingly and making them stand out from each other. His technical skills are on point I also happen to know that he is a masterful editor and wordsmith. He assists the writers in editing when needed and always makes sure that the dialect and verbals from characters fit as well as the captions and exposition. HdE makes sure the final product is as good as it can be and I’m not sure you can ask for much more than that from anyone.
Drexler is in the process of finding distribution and will be available soon on Comixology.
