Eclipse #7

By Zack Kaplan, Giovanni Timpano, and Flavio Dispenza

“I have seen evil under the sun; and it weighs heavily on mankind.” This verse from the Bible is an apt description of a running theme in Eclipse. Issue #7 continues to prove that during a natural disaster sometimes humans are the most dangerous part of the experience. It’s a thrilling story filled with action and great edge of your seat moments. Don’t feel safe just because you’re in the dark.

Zack Kaplan’s story continues to be strong. He has taken a life-giving everyday object and turned it into humanity’s bane. As is often the case in evil times some men take advantage of the situation to gain power. The mystery behind the takeover of the city during the event and the men that are not affected by the sun are very intriguing and keep the reader guessing. The story begins very quickly paced jumping from one character in a dangerous situations to the other. Kaplan translates the danger of each situations to reader with little dialogue and excellent script writing. He then lets the reader catch their breath in the middle as we learn some information about both situations. The script is good, but Kaplan seems to excel in the storytelling of the panels without dialogue. These moments have a strong emotional impact that communicate the gravity of the situation. For example there is a sequence when a wall is caving in and Bax sees this and reacts in an instant. It’s a well written moment that has the reader momentarily holding their breath. Action panels written like this really give the sense of watching something animated and not just still images. Overall the writing is excellent and this world that Kaplan has created is very interesting. Even though the sun can kill it was an excellent choice for him to make the men even more dangerous.

Giovanni Timpano detailed work on the settings of this story make looking at every page a joy. He draws everything very dirty looking and run down. It’s as if the world is decaying away under the poison of the sun and evilness of humankind. He excels at drawing the sweeping outside shots of the world and includes lots of little details to bring an authenticity to everything. All the characters are drawn convincingly but if there is one thing that might be a drawback is the shading. It is a little bit too heavy at times and especially distracts from the artwork done on characters. The panel design in Eclipse is awesome. There is a variety of shapes, and layouts which fits in nicely with the heavy action theme of this issue. There are some really good instances where the characters break out of the bounds of the panels as well. The best part of the artwork on this book, though, is new comer colorist Flavio Dispenza. He took over starting in the previous issue and immediately set the bar higher for this book. If there was any doubt that the sunlight was a character before now, Flavio’s colors seal the deal. With his colors the light becomes a knife at times, and at others a monster. Sometimes the sunlight glows with warmth and the next moment it looms over characters like a deadly pair of eyes. A perfect example of this is the panel where tank fire has knocked holes in a wall and the sun rays are shining through like the roving eye of Sauron searching for the Ring. Excellent work.

This book and the series itself is a must read. The art will pull you in and the story will hook you once you get started. If you are looking for something original to read that has action, mystery, and suspense then Eclipse is for you.