Story and Created by Greg Anderson Elysee
Art by Antonello Cosentino
Colors by Francesco Montalbano
Letters by Justin Birch
Edits by Marcel Dupree
For Evoluzione Publishing
Oh wow. I decided to write down the first thing I thought as I finished reading Marassa. Wow. It’s a bit of; how can that happen, way to end a first issue, and this is a solid start to a series, sort of a wow. The kind of wow that had me looking back at the art and the writing and wondering how Elysee has had this bottled up and ready to go. The writing style of Elysee is so well balanced between exposition and dialog versus the action scenes and letting the artist team take over that I wonder how many times he had to go over pages to make sure it was perfect. Elysee has several main characters that are all equally important and he gives all of them individual character while keeping them all interesting. Elysee creates mystery and wonder behind some characters while giving others a more thrill seeking and transparent feel, but overall the character development is magnificent. First I’m intrigued, then I’m dazzled, after that Elysee settled me into the story for the deep character development before he turns it all on it’s head and left me saying, wow. Marassa is pretty tough to pinhole into a synopsis but if Sci-Fi action; with space pirates, bounty hunters, and adventure doesn’t draw you in then you must be dead.
I have come to realize that Evoluzione publishing has a certain standard for their art that is probably one of the best and certainly tops amongst indie creators. I know that quality is never an issue when reading an Evoluzione book. Cosentino has a fantastic cartoon style that is borderline realistic, he has well proportioned line and ink work that really sets the stage for the Montalbano to color the finishing touches in. Montalbano has a mostly deep dark color pallet that’s well suited for the dark space drama scenes, but he’s not scared to add the light in scenes that take place on a planet during the day. Montalbano’s choice of color is well placed within Cosentino’s world and background as well as with the dark skinned characters. Cosentino nails the black character skin tone and contrasts it brilliantly with the other characters of dark black and white spots. Together they make all of the characters astounding and fun to look at.
I can’t imagine how hard it is for a letterer to place action letters. Finding the right spot to add that certain something to the book can’t be easy. Birch has gone above and beyond to blend the action letters and give them all personality within the panel. Each different action has a unique feel and goes perfect with the action itself, it’s exactly what I think of when I see the action and it flows effortlessly. There are several different styles of balloons and only the main antagonists is different in the fact that it’s overt, it’s set in white on black and is done to exaggerate the antagonist, a common usage but Birch does it gracefully and beautifully to where I can’t picture it any other way. Birch is truly a master at his craft.
Marassa just launched a Kickstarter so head over and give a pledge for an amazing book!
