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The Gentleman #1
Publisher: SFC Comics
Story: Greg Anderson Elysée
Art: Massimiliano Veltri
Colors: Marco Pagnotta
Letters: Micah Meyers
Edits: Marcel Dupree

Kickstarter has given comics creators an avenue to help them create books they normally wouldn’t be able to fund themselves and gauges interest in a series going forward. The Gentleman is one such title, it not only made its goal, but doubled it. It’s finally here and the question remains? How is it? Let’s find out!

I didn’t know anything going into The Gentleman but while reading the first issue, the world felt so lived in and developed that I thought this was just the newest number one in a pre-existing series. It lets you know a lot has happened for our protagonist, Oliver, long before we met him. A lot happens in the first issue with plenty of mystery surrounding it. Oliver is a private investigator with the ability to astral project and interact with his surroundings. He gets pulled into a new case that involves his past and a cult he doesn’t know if he can trust. This series feels like an urban fantasy series I would pick up in a heartbeat in a prose form and I eagerly await the rest of this comic series.

The art is colorful yet dark, many beautiful swirling effects and uses of black to bring the mood of the story to life. Whenever Oliver uses his abilities we get a nice mix of light and shadow for his journeys. There’s a dream-like quality when the astral abilities are used and that’s a natural fit for them.  You can read people in this like they are telling you their stories by speaking to you, but it’s just by looking at them. It’s impressive when you see someone and can figure out what’s been going on with them before you even read the word balloons.

This book is very much in my wheelhouse of the type of stories I’m into reading. There are all these relationships and questions I want to learn more about and the characters are interesting and seem like people you would want to maybe meet or avoid at all cost pending on who or what we’re talking about. Hopefully the series gets to be successful enough to make more issues beyond these initial four for the mini-series. If you like urban fantasy stories, be sure to check  it out.

Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net