Pistil #0
Publisher: Wicked Tree Press
Story: Jessica Maison
Pencils: Loni Watson
Inks: Loni Watson
Colors: Loni Watson and Mark Mactal
Letters: Mark Mactal
Pistil is a labor of love comic by new creators Maison and Watson, and their passion for the subject is evident in the story and in the main character. The story follows Lita Soledad, a computer hacker and social activist, who becomes the titular Pistil, a vigilante superhero, by the end of the issue.
This is a difficult story, in that it’s a difficult subject matter. Pistil deals with underage sex trafficking, and the social stigma that affects victims of rape, and how that societal pressure can have such a negative impact that it can lead to suicide. While the topic is challenging, at best, it’s extremely topical in the wake of the recent #MeToo movement, and it deals with subjects that affect hundreds if not thousands of girls and women, and which most people are all too willing to pretend don’t exist because it makes them uncomfortable to think about.
The story of Lita is told in an interesting combination of current events juxtaposed with frequent flashback sequences that reveal her background. These changes in time are accompanied by changes in art as well. Current timeline scenes are mainly told with standard comic panel layouts with a limited color palette, black-and-white with just one highlight color, which changes throughout the book (brown during Lita’s more investigative scenes, blue for scenes involving the primary “victim” of this story, and red as Lita first takes action as a vigilante). The flashback scenes, for the most part, are illustrated in a completely different style, with full-page montages that are fully colored, but with a muted palette that gives the scenes an otherworldly, dreamy quality. The coloring looks to be done with colored pencil, by hand, rather than using a computer, which gives the art a rustic look.
The art for the current timeline panel scenes possess a cartoon-like quality, versus going with a more realistic look, which helps to highlight just how awful and painful the scenes are. The artistic style provides a sense of childhood and whimsy, which is ripped away while watching the slow downward spiral in which Lita’s first “cause” finds herself being caught up.
Pistil’s look, and her entire character, is heavily influenced by Latin American culture, and that plays to Watson’s strengths. Watson, a native of northeastern Los Angeles, has several pieces of art on her website that evoke a “Day of the Dead” type of theme, and that style comes through in Pistil’s aesthetic.
While this is a difficult subject matter, it’s an important one. The last page of the comic provides information and support for women who have been victims of sexual abuse, and this type of outreach is so important in our current climate.
The end of the book provides a a few poster-style full-page images of Pistil, by both Watson and colorer/letterer Mactal, bios of the creators, and a short synopsis of Lita/Pistil.
Pistil is available in digital format on Comixology, and print versions are available in several comic book shops in the San Gabriel Valley and greater Los Angeles area, with plans to expand that in the future. Issue #1 of Pistil is scheduled to be released in June 2018.
Disclaimer: I received this comic for review purposes.
Martin Thomas
martin@comicattack.net
