Death Vigil #2

By Stjepan Šejić

Death Vigil creator Stjepan Šejić is a man of many talents. Not only can he draw like nobody’s business, he also has some great writing chops, full of humor and emotion. Just look at some of his spare-time DeviantArt work. For this new series, Death Vigil, Šejić does it all. Writer, artist, colorist, letterer; the works and boy does it make for one hell of a complete-vision comic. From the fantastic character designs and subsequent colors of said characters, to the funky and different speech bubbles that Šejić has been using for some of his DA work, as mentioned, that make it into this new series. They’re small, white breaths of fresh air when you compare them to pretty much everything else in comics. Small thing to be excited about, sure, but it adds a nice little Šejić flare to the book—particularly the awesome skeleton bubble from the first issue. Yeah, you heard right.

Everything Mr. Šejić does just appears to be so effortless, which is once again the case with the visuals in Death Vigil. Expressions are flawless; the monsters are creepy and expertly designed and the weapons and use of purples really make everything pop on the page. He really has a style all his own, and it’s one that really grows on the reader. The more you see his work, the more you’ll fall in love with it—you’ll most likely be convinced after just two issues here, considering the complexity and craftsmanship of Death Vigil.

This issue also has a sizeable information dump for those that might have forgotten from the last issue, or even to those that might pick up issue two without tracking down the first one. While to some it might seem like overkill, to others it’ll be an interesting reminder and expansion on what we learned with the oversized first issue. Šejić has an interesting concept here and like his work with his other creator owned book Ravine, he’s clearly spent some time crafting all the little elements of the story and histories of the characters and factions.

It’s fantastic to see a creator so invested in his story and even cooler to see one able to literally do everything involved. Hell, he might have even stapled all the issues himself because that’s how involved and invested in this story he is. Death Vigil is another great title from Top Cow from a great creator really letting himself loose on the world of comics. The only downside to this book is once you read it, you might find yourself less impressed with everything else out there.