Redlands Volume 1

Redlands is a horror comic about a redneck place in Florida (Redlands) being run by three witches who are there to get vengeance on anyone in the town who is racist, sexist, etc. Right away they murderer a bunch of racist cops and decide to take over the town of Redland (issue #1). The story then moves to political thriller, mystery, and crazy witchy magic. The story is often intriguing, strange, disturbing, confusing, and insane.

The concept is interesting but the execution is flawed. Nevertheless, there was enough intrigue for me to enjoy this volume and for me to pick up the next one.

If you're going to write a book about bad people doing bad things to other bad people, you have to throw me some sort of a bone to engage me, be it humor, a charismatic villain, or over-the-top action and/or violence. I found nothing here to draw me in or make me care whether any of the characters lived or died.

Started out fairly strong story-wise, but then got mired in its own struggle to present several themes at once.

Is it a book on feminism? On racism? On female-empowered magic? On misogyny?

I can tell you this...for a horror book, there is very little horror. And, while I have absolutely nothing against sex (both the good and the bad are shown here), it feels somewhat gratuitous at times.

Then there's the art. It's fucking terrible. One of the first things learned in art is to draw with confidence. Don't sketch, with tentative little strokes that go together to show something that looks furry with all those tentative lines. Draw with confidence, a single, bold, confident line that says what it needs to say. Characters need to be show more distinctive, to make it easy for the viewer to discern who each one is at a glance. Different hair colour doesn't count.

Vanesa Del Rey draws like someone who's just begun thinking of taking art. Her characters are stiff, and indistinguishable from each other, unless one is fat and one isn't. Or the colour identifies them.

So, while the story is too ambitious for the number of pages its given, the art is as unambitious as a quickly roughed out sketch on the back of a discarded envelope.

And, of course, I broke my own rule and, buying into the hype, bought the first two volumes. I have another 144 pages to go through. Let's hope the story finds its groove and the art...well, it's too much to hope another artist will take over, so let's hope Del Rey improves. show less

Great. Especially if you like the emotional whiplash you get from bouncing between the poles of loving and detesting the main characters. I'm very glad I picked this one up.

I'm not super down with the witchcraft and the lack of clarity about who is good, but I definitely got caught up in the town.

4 stars for the art and especially the coloration, but 3 stars for the story.