When reading comics based in the afterlife, it always seems so Grim. However, the latest BOOM! Studios release gives us a beautiful take on a familiar story.
Jessica Harrow is dead. But her journey has only just begun! Discover the world of the afterlife, where Jessica has been recruited as a Reaper, tasked with ferrying countless souls to their final destination. But unlike the rest of the Reapers, she has no memory of what killed her and put her into this predicament. In order to unravel the mystery of her own demise, she’ll have to solve an even bigger one – where is the actual Grim Reaper?
Written by Stephanie Phillips (Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman) with art by Flaviano (New Mutants), colors by Rico Renzi (Spider-Gwen), and lettering by Tom Napolitano (The Joker, We Have Demons), Grim tells the story of a young woman with a macabre job and a mysterious death to solve…her own!
The Grim Details
The use of color pencil style artwork by Flaviano and the great pace of story telling by Phillips pushes you to turn the page and wanting more story. Lettering by Napolitano at the start of issue one is outstanding. The lyrics of songs playing has you hearing the comic book while reading the lines. The design works wonders.
Phillips tosses in a few jokes for comedy relief in what should be a serious horror book that gives the comic balance. The colors by Renzi have drastic changes that work well with the change of locations.
Grim has been a smash hit already with nearly 75,000 copies of the first issue being sold with an immediate allocation of a second printing only a week later. Since then issue one has gone into a third printing and the second issue has been released. A fourth printing is set to hit local comic book shops on July 20.
Issue one features main cover art by series artist Flaviano, and variant cover art by acclaimed artists Jenny Frison (Wonder Woman), Mike Del Mundo (Thor), Dave Johnson (Superman), and Jae Lee (Dune: House Atreides) with June Chung.
The series is setup amazing as a comic book, but has huge potential for Hollywood as a feature film or television series. Only time will tell!
Read the first two issues of Grim via ComiXology.
