‘Twilight Zone: Shadow & Substance’ #1 Comic Review

Meet William Gaunt. William is a disturbed, yet successful, fiction writer traveling to his hometown, a small locale named Scoville, for a book signing and ends up taking an entirely different trip backwards in time, becoming an active spectator of his own troubled and abusive childhood. Immediately upon his arrival, William notices that nothing’s changed, followed by a snowball of familiar events culminating in a run-in with his childhood self and abusive, alcoholic mother.

If that premise sounds interesting or compelling, it’s because it is. People often reflect on regretful decisions, childhood tragedies, or lost loves and wish that they could have tweaked a minor detail here or inserted a major plot twist there in order to arrive at a different outcome.

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In this first issue of Dynamite’s Twilight Zone on-going series, writer Mark Rahner presents us with a dark picture of what having the opportunity to affect the results our past losses might actually look like. In that sense, the story succeeds and builds towards an intense and emotional cliffhanger that, though predictably timed, invests the reader in the protagonist and the story enough to want to pick up the next issue to find out what happens. Well timed characterization presents itself early on in the story in the form of running, almost one-sided, telephone conversations between William and his overbearing, displeased wife that contextualize his relationship with growing up in Scoville while also driving the events of the story towards the affecting and poignant climax.

Where the story falls short at times, however, is in its pacing. Rahner has too much story and not enough time to tell it, which appears to result from the inherent limitations of the 22-page format, with scene changes that don’t have enough setup and some occasionally confusing dialogue that leaves the reader hanging. These problems don’t make for a bad story, but they do make for a couple of jarring transitions which generates a slightly less engaging story than desired.

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One of the major challenges when illustrating outside the “flights and tights” genre is keeping recurring characters recognizable from page to page without the aid of loud costumes or brightly colored skin, and artist Edu Menna delivers nicely here. Despite one or two odd camera angle choices, Menna’s art is both consistent and expressive, servicing the story well with generally solid storytelling from panel to panel and a solid grasp on emotive facial expressions. Because there’s not a lot of action to draw in a story of this nature, Menna also does his best to keep the page layouts creative and visually exciting. There’s also a very effective color palette shift from bright whites and cool blues in the intro to muted reds and dingy greens, courtesy of colorists Thiago Ribero and Impacto Studios, who do a great job of creating an uneasy atmosphere upon William’s arrival to Scoville.

Adapting a series that was made for the moving image is no easy task, and while not reinventing the wheel, Rahner and Menna give the reader a fresh and unique perspective on the old premise of “if you could do anything differently, what would it be?” It’s not perfect, but it’s a relatable and intriguing story with enough emotion behind it to make up for a few minor pitfalls.

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