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“Calamity Kate” #1

By | March 15th, 2019
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

With “Calamity Kate” #1, writer Magdalene Visaggio and her artistic team show us how it’s done, kicking off this Dark Horse mini series with a wildly entertaining and highly efficient debut. (Warning: contains minor spoilers.)

Cover by Corin Howell
and Valentina Pinto
Written by Magdalene Visaggio
Illustrated by Corin Howell
Colored by Valentina Pinto
Lettered by Zakk Saam

Kate Strand reboots her destructive life and moves to LA to be the superhero she always wanted to be – Calamity Kate: gun-toting monster killer. With her latest career change, she faces new challenges, relationships, and competition; desperate to show she’s worth a damn in a world overrun by zombies, vampires, demons, goblins, and the ultimate monster bounty: the Seven Fabled Beasts of Yore. From the Eisner and GLAAD Media Award-nominated writer of the breakout hit “Kim & Kim” and DC Comic’s “Eternity Girl” with Gerard Way, and artist on IDW’s “Ghostbusters” and “X-Files,” comes this modern-day adventure of heroes and monsters.

For fans of writer Magdalene Visaggio’s work, the opening pages of “Calamity Kate” may seem vaguely familiar. In the wake of an emotionally devastating divorce, titular protagonist Kate Strand has quit her job, packed her stuff into a vintage Lincoln Continental and set out for L.A. There, in that completely understated way which Visaggio has perfected, Kate plans to pursue her lifelong dream of hunting monsters. “Well,” her former best friend Vera replies without batting an eye, “it’s not like we have a shortage of monsters out here. Goddamn vermin.”

Like other Visaggio heroes, Kate is flawed and imperfect, a wounded soul compelled to confront her inner demons even as she physically battles the external forces who threaten to overrun a similarly flawed civilization that seems to perpetually teeter on edge.

Naturally, the overly enthusiastic Kate has arrived at the Vera’s doorstep at 7:00 a.m., in the midst of Vera’s daily struggle to get her six year old daughter Jade ready for school and out the door. On the one hand is Kate’s unbridled, rugged individualism, on the other is Vera’s role as a caring, nurturing parent – opposites that attract. Even so, juggling her single parent duties and the unexpected arrival of her former BFF and roommate, Vera sharply reminds Kate that they haven’t seen each other since Jade was born. “You didn’t even come to Matt’s funeral,” she says. “I had just lost my husband and you couldn’t even be bothered to call. That hurt.”

This is the power of Visaggio’s writing and expert storytelling. In the span of just eight tightly written, wonderfully illustrated pages, the theme is clear and the stage is set. No lengthy backstory. No information dump. No awkward, clunky flashbacks and overwritten dialogue. Just a tightly focused narrative that knows where it wants to go and doesn’t waste time getting started.

Visually, Visaggio clearly trusts her talented collaborators. In fact, sizable chunks of the story are told with very little text. Visaggio sets the course, but illustrator Corin Howell and colorist Valentina Pinto steer the ship. Howell’s inks are fluid, energetic and efficient, with just the right amount of detail. She establishes each setting nicely, before moving on to focus on facial expressions, body language and action. Emotions are clear and compelling, without ever feeling rote. Howell’s well timed, sparing use of motion lines also adds a graphic layer of energy, excitement and camp, a wonderful counterpoint to the book’s emotional undercurrent.

Pinto’s colors tend to be rooted in earth tones, underscoring the book’s generally realistic style. Kate’s fiery hair burns a bright red-orange and the monsters are decidedly green, but the muted color palette is world’s away from the neon tones of “Kim and Kim.”

Ultimately, some of Visaggio’s ingredients may feel a bit familiar to those who’ve read her other work, but the way in which she combines, remixes and reimagines those same elements feels simultaneously refreshing and like an evolutionary progression. In some ways, one could argue, Visaggio has told a version of this story before. That said, her craft is ascendant. It feels stronger and more accomplished that it may have even a year ago. It’s storytelling stripped to the bone, without distractions or tangents, less indulgent, but more powerful.

In the end, of course, the strength of this series will come down to our connection to its wonderfully flawed, quirky protagonist and how likable she becomes over the course of the story. Wisely, so far Visaggio is less concerned with the intricate mechanics of world building than she is in developing a core, tightly knit ensemble of well-rounded characters that we actually care about. It will be interesting to see how Visaggio tries to maintain the character driven focus even as the Seven Fabled Beasts of Yore begin to appear and epic battles ensue.

Final Verdict: 8.7 Writer Magdalene Visaggio and her creative team waste no time at all jumping right into the story with “Calamity Kate” #1, a character-driven book that follows a modern day monster hunter who simultaneously battles her own inner demons.


John Schaidler

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