Wiebe and Santos keep the gore, the romance and the gory romance coming in this, the penultimate issue of “Grim Leaper”.
Written by Kurtis Wiebe
Illustrated by AluÃsio SantosLife’s no picnic. Still, Ella and Lou find some quiet time for romance. Too bad death proves to be a frequent third wheel. Don’t miss the issue that changes the game for our star crossed lovers forever.
And so we come to issue three of Wiebe and Santos’ enigmatic series. Lou, who has up until now been repeatedly dying and waking up in the body of a new person, is looking for Ella, who shares the same curse. They’re in love, of course, and despite their situation are determined to spend some time together. As you might expect, they encounter some difficulties in doing so.
A nuanced and character-focused issue with a truly eye-grabbing climactic scene, the only real problem here is that it’s forced to do so much in so little time. This is a four-issue mini, so the fact that the storytelling is compressed is no surprise, but — as mentioned below — not all of the elements of this story hold up well to compressing. Otherwise Wiebe and Santos are doing their usual fine job here, continuing to build on a story that’s both brutal and touching.
Spoilery discussion below!
In this issue, we finally see Lou and Ella taking control of their destinies. In addition to finding each other (which winds up being surprisingly easy this time around), they determine to take back some of the agency that the curse has taken from them. This means taking advantage of what little time they have together by means of a good talk and a zoo-picnic, and for the first time we get a really good look at these characters and their motivations.
The main problem with this series has been that Lou and Ella fall in love with each other really, really fast. This is obviously a function of the compressed action (there’s little room for character development) and Wiebe seems to be addressing the problem in the issue. Over the course of their picnic-date we get a little backstory on Lou and Ella, and discover that they have more in common than their curse — when it had almost seemed, during the first two issues, that this was the basis of their attraction to each other. Nope, turns out they both have pretty troubled pasts, and were never very good at dealing with people, making their successive stays in other people’s bodies more of a learning experience than anything. And so both characters seem to have developed some insight into the person they were before the curse, standing back critically from their old selves and acknowledging character flaws. Lou had mentioned in the previous issue that he was beginning to feel like a stranger to his original self, and perhaps the implication here is — thematically speaking — that you have to figure out some of your own issues before you can ever hope to connect with someone.
While its compression takes away from its realism (the characters spill their guts to each other (har) a little too readily) this is the most absorbing conversation we’ve encountered in this series so far. It really is nice to spend a quiet moment or two with characters who have — up until now — been mostly running around getting killed by things.
Speaking of being killed by things, the climactic crocodile scene that follows is the best exhibit of Santos’ talent so far. Frustrated by the fact that they don’t know how they’re going to die next, Lou and Ella climb over the barrier of the crocodile pit and embrace as the reptiles chow down on them. Santos’ art can be a little alienating at first (Strong lines! Mustard yellows! Laboured shading!), but his boldly drawn faces are particularly effective here, making it clear that Lou and Ella are really, really in to each other. Their goofy lovestruck facial expressions, persisting even as the crocodiles tear their bodies apart, are both touching and (let’s face it) hilarious. In other artists’ hands they might have come across as straining (“Look how edgy my comic is!”) but Santos’ focus is squarely on the warmth and sense of connection that motivates this encounter.
Continued belowWith all the focus on character in this issue, it looks like the major questions left to be answered are issues of plot. We still don’t know where Lou and Ella’s curse came from, who’s behind it, or what it’s for, meaning that there are some big reveals to come for sure. But this issue’s cliffhanger — with Lou having returned to his original body — seems to suggest that all along there was some kind of agenda behind a curse that we now know to have been limited-term.
If you aren’t reading Grim Leaper already then it may seem a little silly to jump on this late, but in the case of this issue, the backup story alone is cause enough to pick it up. Written by Multiversity’s own Jeremy Holt and illustrated by Chris Peterson, this technological romance gives us a look at Siri’s kinkier side. I won’t say any more than that (it’s only five pages after all and I don’t want to give away the whole thing!), but both the writing and the art are sharp and unnerving. All in all it’s pretty messed up, making it the perfect complement to yet another helping of Wiebe and Santos’ gory love story.
Final Verdict: 8.5 — Buy
