Spotlight: Evermore
With issues #1-#4 now available and issue #5 coming soon, this is Evermore by Joshua Gamon.
In post-war London, in a city devastated by plague, an ancient book lies hidden-- one said to be even older than England and believed to serve as a nexus to the fabled world of Evermore. A precious few have gone there, fewer still have ever returned alive to tell the tale. Yet, when the grieving Doctor Fredrick Fellowes visits a dying friend on Christmas Eve, he is gifted the book to give to his young daughter, Abigail. But when the child reads from the tome, she becomes trapped within its darkest recesses. In hopes of ever seeing her again, Fredrick risks everything to venture into the unknown storybook world to bring his little girl home. Here begins the harrowing adventure of family, loss, horror, and magic, done in the spirit and black and white style of the pulp magazines from the 1960s.
Writer: Joshua Gamon
Art: Aleksandar Bozic Ske
Letters: Jerome Gagnon
Starting at the end in this spotlight. The final issue of Evermore is due for release on the 10th of March, and as part of my reading and spotlight on this series, I have only read the four issues currently available at the time of writing. This leaves me on tenterhooks for the final episode of this story.
What comes before is an excellently crafted story, which introduces new characters as we move through this world behind the pages of a book.
The build to this story is magnificent, taking us from the dirty, disease-ridden streets of London, to an other land of madness, blood and monsters. There are heroes and villains on both sides and thrown into the middle of this is Fredrick who is looking to save his daughter from a fate that some believe may save this world from something far worse.
As we trek across the land, we meet many characters, who are something like we have read about before, but there is something more about them, and this adds to the story, as many of the aspects we see here are things that we may have considered, but didn't - for example, the lucky aspect of a rabbit.
This darkness seems to be catching and I enjoy this as you are not sure how you can gauge a certain character's reactions to all of this - although one of Fredrick's reactions in issue #4 seems perfectly justified to me.
The artwork is perfect for this story - there are some brilliant uses outside of the panels here, with arrows, spears and eyes looking towards what is going on in the panel, this is used fleetingly, so not to overdo it, but it works well. The style of the art fits the story, along with the tone, the classic feel to it works well, and it portrays the action and quieter moments in light and shadow well.
This is an excellent series, and I know I don't have long to wait to read issue #5.
Find out more about Evermore on Joshua Gamon's website here, and you can get all the books on Amazon Kindle here.