BACKWAYS ARC 1 review

(Review by Melody Werner)
Backways is a supernatural fantasy comic published by AfterShock Comics that began in December, 2017. Written by Justin Jordan and illustrated by Eleonora Carlini, it follows a young woman who must traverse through an odd, whimsical, fantastical otherworld known as "the Backways" to find out where her girlfriend is, and reunite with her. If that hasn't already lost you, then great. I say that, because Backways is one phenomenal comic that I think you're gonna want to check out.

I've never heard of Eleonora before reading this, but I was wowed the entire reading experience. In fact, it was the cover of #1 (you can see below) which really drew my attention. This is a series which would've more or less lived or died on the visuals. And holy fuck does it live -- I'm calling that this will be in my top 5 best looking series I've read this year. Not only is it gorgeous aesthetically and in terms of raw visual power, it's also got wonderful character and world design. Everything looks ragtag and haphazard, which is the point. The colors by Silvia Tidei match the beautiful lines that Carlini drops. The covers are supoib. The letters and other visual touches are all polished as to be expected from AfterShock; Marshall Dillon does almost all of their lettering from what I can tell and the guy is masterful in the field. All of this comes together to create a marvelous looking title which is as easy on the eyes as it gets.

Justin Jordan, as a writer, is someone whom I hold an immense amount of respect for in terms of craft, but also find to be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes, as with The Legend of the Luther Strode and The Death of Love (which I won't be reviewing because Donal DeLay can go fuck himself), his writing is just good or okay. Not exceptional, not emotional, not deliciously satisfying. Other times, as with Dead Body Road... oof. Others still, like The Strange Talent of Luther Strode (which you might recall me waxing lyrical over. Just as an FYI: I may not be as loud about it as I was a few years ago, but I will still fight anyone on it), Sombra, Urban Animal, The Curse of Brimstone, and yes, Backways too, he shows himself to have the skills to put him on the upper echelon of writers. When Jordan knocks it out of the park, for me, that damn ball is hurtling at faster than light speeds. The greatest writing strength of Backways is its world. This is a setting I cannot wait to dive into deeper and deeper. It has immense history, it skirts around the trite as fuck "Humans just cannot comprehend the paranormal" bollocks we so often see trotted out to lazily give a fantasy world some sort of grounding in reality.

The characters are undoubtedly likeable, including the main character Anna. Make no mistake, she is no Jane Doe; she doesn't let anything, anything get in her way of getting back with her love and she has some short but poignant character building moments which show you WHY she cares so much and why you should too. Coyote Bones is also a standout character with a lot of personality, she's definitely the most entertaining character in the series, though she has depth too. Even the antagonists are either extremely interesting or very, very intimidating in their awesome power. The dialogue is witty and fun, the narrative is an engrossing thrill ride, and the pacing is lightning fast, and the conclusion is generally pretty satisfying while also leaving you wanting more. It does feel a tad bit rushed, but overall I enjoyed it enough that it didn't ruin my experience.

The first five issues of Backways are some of the best comics AfterShock has put to print. Tons of fun and adventure; I really hope it's doing well sales wise since I think this team's got a lot more stories to tell with this world. And even if they don't (we will get at least another arc, they tease it in the final issue, though when that comes out is anyone's guess, since we now know that Carlini is on Go Go Power Rangers for the foreseeable future and Justin is always making himself busy with every publisher under the sun--the harlot), what we've got is still absolutely, positively worth picking up and giving a look. It's cracking. Backways arc 1 gets a 9.5/10 from me.

Must-read

Summary:
Glorious art, top-notch writing, a fantastic remarkable first crack of the whip; let down by a kinda unsatisfying conclusion (which your mileage may vary with--I've heard of others feeling a bit miffed over it). I eagerly await the next story in this series and will be looking into picking up a trade collection of it in print since this is a title certainly deserving of shelf-space.

(Originally posted: 6/8/2018)