Silver City, a purgatorial stop in the stages of the afterlife, is just as tough and gritty as the world of the living, and in some ways much, much worse. Some Mild Spoilers Ahead
Written by Olivia Cuartero-BriggsCover by Roberta Ingranata with Bryan Valenza
Illustrated & Colored by Luca Merli
Lettered by Dave Sharpe‘The Arrival:’ After a catastrophic accident at the Los Angeles Internation Airport leaves hundreds dead, including quite a few travelers waiting for their flight within the airport, a young woman named Ru with a troubled past finds herself in dead and there is nothing heavenly about where she ends up. Welcome to Silver City, a tough and unforgiving city-scape that serves as just one of the levels of the afterlife.
Ru awakens in Silver City along with all the other victims of the air crash with no memory of who she is or how she died. Staggering around in a haze the newly dead deal with a quick examinations and bureaucratic nonsense not dissimilar from what the living deal with on a daily basis. Those who work within the government of Silver City examine newcomers to make sure they are truly dead, get them housing assignments, and job opportunities. Along with Ru and many other victims, a young girl named Junie was also killed in the accident. Ru attempted to keep June by her side, but she was quickly taken away by those in charge. Ru also runs into an old friend, ‘Sticks,’ and two other Silver City residents, Victor and Mick.
As she gets pulled further into this new existence many new truths come to light. Victor and Mick do their best to help Ru, even in their own brash way. The equally fun and harrowing aspect of setting a story in a world like Silver City is that it’s the afterlife, but there has been no Western religious judgement forcing the dead to move to one stage or another. There is no heaven or hell. Everyone is thrown in together in this bleak landscape. This fact will surely be an instrumental part in the backbone of the plot in coming issues.
This premiere issue shows Ru’s first two days in Silver City, and it is anything but heavenly. Ru makes her way through the city encountering new faces and trying to get a grip on how to move forward while trying to remember who she truly is and where she came from. We get a brief glimpse of Ru before the accident, through the eyes of June who is listening to music through headphones. What we see makes it look like Ru could have been in a situation that was less than ideal, but neither June or us knows what that could be. In a bit of on the nose writing, June is listening to “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult. Cute, but probably the least clever bit in the whole issue. It would work better if that song hadn’t been used to death in other horror and fantasy works.
What does stand out with Cuartero-Briggs’s writing is her ability to drop us into this new story, this new world and give us a basic rundown of its rules and history. She works in a fashion that moves quickly, gives us a lot of information, but doesn’t kill the intrigue of what’s happening through drowning us in exposition. That said, it is a lot to take in, and the issue moves at a hell of a pace. The way Tim Burton created an afterlife filled with waiting rooms and paperwork in Beetlejuice, “Silver City” #1 drops the reader into something similar; biting commentary, but far less humor, withstanding. We see the moment before the characters’s deaths, and the moment they arrive in Silver City. We are just as disoriented as they are. No time to process anything, and no memory of their actual deaths, the victims shuffle through lines getting checked in. Some react loudly, and violently, not understanding their current predicament.
The world building is excellent that is only helped by a script that moves as well as this one does. This issue is not short on text or dialogue, but readers will not be bogged down by it. It moves the story along as well as the artwork. Artist Luca Merli takes on the work for the entire issue, illustrating and coloring. Merli does a fine job with character designs. No one blends together, either having signature looks, like Ru’s bleached streaks or Victor’s green striped mohawk. While the people making their way through the story look great Merli’s true strength lies in his ability to craft deep and detailed environments. If you look at his artwork outside of comics, he makes striking images of people, but in long-form storytelling through art, his precision for people takes a bit of a backseat to make room for broader, slightly cartoon-ish, sequential art.
Continued belowHis design of Silver City is stunning in more than one way. He creates a varied look, as any city should have. Dungeon-like waiting areas and offices, gray and brown exteriors of Gothic skyscrapers, and brightly lit, beautifully rendered nightclubs. No matter what the space is, it all feels uniform to this plane of existence. Whether intentionally dreary or not, the entire place feels like a single side-step from our reality. It all works together. It’s all so beautiful and depressing. Merli was a perfect choice for this book.
As more tensions, obstacles, and puzzle pieces come into focus it’s clear that the coming story is going to be twisty, wild, and emotionally gripping.
Final Verdict: 8.5, Tragic and gorgeous with a world-building sensibility rarely seen in independent comics.
