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Creative Team: Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Writer), Som (Illustrator), Patricio Delpeche (Colorist), Becca Carey (Letterer), Andrea Sorrentino and Dave Stewart (Cover Artists), Fernando Rosales (Logo Designer), Grace Park and Nancy Mojica (Designers), Ramiro Portnoy (Editor)
CROCODILE BLACK Published by BOOM! Studios
FIRST THOUGHTS
CROCODILE BLACK has been an insane ride from the very first issue, and it only ramps up in this issue.
READ LAST ISSUE’S REVIEW
THE STORY
Phillip Kennedy Johnson comes out of the gate in this issue with some intense narration from Danny’s reading of Leo’s journal. Johnson reminds the reader that this story isn’t just about Danny’s experiences, but how his family is dealing with him being missing.
There is no rest for the reader as Johnson just keeps going from intense scene to intense scene. It escalates the tension as Danny’s mind continues to fracture.
Johnson’s ability to make you feel the emotion and the anxiety in this issue is amazing. Danny’s sister is doing all that she can to hold herself together while dealing everything falling apart around her.
DON’T MISS SPACE GHOST!
From Danny being missing, a mother who’s an emotional wreck, and a father who doesn’t understand the trauma that his family has been going through because he doesn’t want to think it’s real, it’s been a lot. This is just a master class of how to raise the reader’s stress level without showing any of the brutal action sequences Danny finds himself in.
THE ART
The art in this issue, as well as this whole series so far, is stunning. Som and Patricio Delpeche’s teamwork as illustrator and colorist is just on another level from so much that’s on the stands. Danny’s mental health is tearing his mind apart and the visuals that this art team is putting on paper carries the reader through it with him. Even without the words on the page, this visual storytelling would weave an amazing, emotional struggle. But then Becca Carey comes in and lays down the dialogue and the creepy lettering designs as events unfold from Danny’s mind. This is just a stunning book that can only be done this well in comics.
FINAL THOUGHTS
CROCODILE BLACK remains one of the best books BOOM! Studios have published this year, if not the last few years. Phillip Kennedy Johnson has created an amazing story of mental health being torn down from the inside out and Som, Delpeche, and Carey bringing that story to life in a way only they can.
RATING – Easily a 9 out of 10
