Review: Ghosted in LA #10
STORY
Today I review a comic created by Sina Grace, whose work I must say I haven’t enjoyed on either Ice Man for Marvel or GI Joe for IDW in recent years. While I was not a fan of his previous work there were times it showed some promise. With this in mind I was, however, curious to see what he would do with an IP that was completely his own invention, to craft as he would without the baggage of decades of continuity and fandom to worry about.
Unfortunately there is no sort of preamble to let a new reader like myself know what is going on in this comic, making it something of a difficult jumping on point. As a child I rarely had difficulty just getting into a superhero comic as past authors were pretty good about getting one up to speed within the pages or a short info blurb on the first page to introduce one to the basic idea. A comic of this sort is a requires a bit of work to get into especially in a story like this that starts in the 60’s but then fails to let you know that it has shifted to the present day a few pages in. I don’t mind rereading complex comics to dive deeper into the themes or plot of a story, but this is no V For Vendetta. This time jump is necessary to the plot ans so while it does warrant some forgiveness it was nevertheless handled a bit clumsily. One simple box of text could have made this a smooth reading experience.
We are treated to the premise and at least the names and the general idea of a number of characters. Several ghost haunt Rycroft Manner, currently overseen by a young woman named Daphine and the oldest of the ghosts Agyness (Agi), who has mysteriously disappeared through a supernatural door. The gang of ghosts and Daphine are trying to rescue Agi but some of the sequences make little sense. Daphine has to change her clothes after somehow blundering into a plant. Its not shown how this occurred, it just suddenly happens in a panel and since Grace is both writer and artist the blame for this bad storytelling falls squarely on his shoulders. The scene serves no purpose and adds nothing to the tale. Another confounding moment happens after one of the ghosts is possessed by some sort of evil force and then attacks Daphine. When the spirit is driven off Daphine is very shaken up and its suggested that she go to a party that she was scheduled to go to for her own safety. So what does she do, she goes and changes clothes in the company of just one ghost, and neither she are the ghost consider that this ghost might suddenly be possessed at any moment. This is very convenient so that she and this ghost can express their feelings and make out. That’s right, they take the time to make out even though just a couple of pages ago Daphine was terrified for her life, and even a bit suicidal, and all the ghost were demanding she leave for her own sake.
Despite this, no one floats into her room to see what’s taking so long. Such forced convenience is rather unforgivable. You don’t present the reader with potentially lethal stakes and then put the brakes on that for a little bit of slow romance. It just breaks the flow of the story, first Grace presents the reader with an eminent threat and then the next scene indicates that everything is basically under control. Its a conflicting narrative within the same scene and it just doesn’t play well. It’s not all bad mind you, I did find myself wanting to know what was going on and there is even an interesting subplot developing with what appears to be an exorcist ala Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
ART
Grace is a competent artist and I really have no major complaints other than that awkward moment with the plant. Its easy to illustrate your own story I find and he does the job well enough. He’s not a dynamic artist or a cinematic one but I appreciate the fact that all of his characters look like individuals.
FINAL THOUGHTS
If this comic interests you I’d recommend finding the back issues and starting there, otherwise I don’t consider this a good jumping on point.
SCORE: 2 out of 5
Writer: Sina Grace
Art: Sina Grace
Colors: Cathy Le and Natalia Nesterenko
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