“We Are The Danger” #1

All’s fair in rock and roll in this latest all-ages series from Black Mask. Read on for our review, which contains mild spoilers

Cover by Fabian Lelay

Written and illustrated by Fabian Lelay
Colored by Claudia Aguirre
Lettered by Taylor Esposito

Starting as the new girl in your senior year of high school is never easy, and Julie Malliari is having a terrible first day- until she meets Tabitha. After a night out at a rock show, their friendship quickly grows and, before they know it, the two form a band with their sights set on a record deal… they just need to win it in a nationwide Battle of the Bands competition. With Tabitha’s rival keen to take the prize for herself, it’s a battle not to be missed… From artist and writer Fabian Lelay (Jade Street Protection Services), colorist Claudia Aguirre (Kim & Kim), and letterer Taylor Esposito comes this exuberant tale of friendship, growing up, and rock n roll!

There’s something extremely inviting and appealing about “We are The Danger” #1, the latest new series from Black Mask studios. Black Mask have been rivalling all the biggest indie publishers recently with it’s series of titles covering everything to horror, politics and the worryingly large overlap between the two. It’s somewhat refreshing then to see a bright, colorful and engaging coming-of-age story released to try and redress the balance in their line.

“We are The Danger” isn’t just the name of the series, but the name of the band that this series centers around. It’s an effortlessly cool name, sitting alongside The Clash at Demonhead pretty nicely, and thanks to Fabian Lelay’s exploration of what goes on in front of and behind the scenes, we find out just how cool – or not – the band actually is. Like most good coming-of-age stories, this one begins with a fresh faced new kid on campus – Julie – drawn into a brand new world and completely out of her depth.

Julie’s invited to a gig by a girl she barely knows, only to find that her new friend – Tabitha – is the drummer of the band playing. After the gig, tabitha gets into an argument with frontwoman Logan and, long story short, forms the titular band with Julie instead. It’s a pretty fast paced beginning, looking to set up the new status quo fairly swiftly in order to introduce all the characters, all the conflict and move us towards “We are The Danger”’s first gig, but that pacing only adds to the fun as you get swept along in the adventure.

With that fast pace comes a bunch of character introductions, and as you’d expect with any new series that centers around a band, this one has plenty. Aside from Tabitha and Julie, we get bassist Scooter, Tabitha’s brother Simon, Dee Dee and an as-yet-unnamed guitarist whose shredding skills stuns everyone into silence. There’s also Logan, Tabitha’s former bandmate, who takes to Twitter to viciously subtweet the burgeoning band just as they’re starting out.

Lelay leans into the all-ages angle by giving all the characters a light, open and breezy dialogue full of quotable lines. He also utilises things like social media and texting in fun, intuitive ways that don’t talk down to the audience. It’s obvious that these things are crucial to modern interactions, but all too often fiction can sidestep them or ignore them entirely. Here, text messages float above the panels and, as mentioned above, Twitter plays an important part in the progression of the narrative, and it’s all done in a natural way.

Lelay pulls double duty on writing and art, matching his breezy script with open and charming art. Claudia Aguirre’s colors are bold and fresh and perfectly suit the bright, music-filled world that Julie is thrown into. Lelay uses manga shorthand occasionally to quickly convey emotions, but he’s also adept at portraying the range of feelings felt by Julie and the rest of the band. Exaggerated facial expressions never feel unreal, and the body language – especially in the scenes where the bands perform – adds to the feeling of openness and easy-to-read style. There’s a scene where Julie plays her original song, and it’s given a dreamlike air to it, with twinkling stars and the Filipino lyrics floating behind both her and Tabitha’s heads.

Music is always tricky to convey in a comic book, but that hasn’t stopped some of the best books of the last decade focusing on music in their narratives. “Scott Pilgrim,” “Wicked + The Divine,” “Phonogram,” and even “Jem and the Holograms” are echoed in “We are The Danger,” but not in any explicit way. Instead, this series merely follows in the footsteps of these books, being perhaps more closely reminiscent of Boom’s “Hi-Fi Fight Club/Heavy Vinyl” from late last year in its lighthearted and colorful debut. As for the depiction of music, Lelay employs a montage of expressive moments, dropping lyrics behind the action, and utilising lens flares and sharp angles. Similarly, Aguirre drops bold, flat colors behind the performers, and while it’s not the best portrayal seen – it can occasionally be a little static, and the lack of sound effects in some panels can lead to it seeming silent – overall “We are The Danger” employs multiple tactics to make the pages come alive.

It’s so gratifying to see so many all-ages books coming out of such high quality. “We are The Danger” is a coming-of-age wish fulfilment tale that sweeps you along in its engaging and entertaining adventure, and it’s hopefully the start of yet another excellent direction for Black Mask. The simplicity of the style and focus on character over intense detail in the panels makes this an open, approachable and – more importantly – fun and exciting series to follow.

Final Verdict: 7.8 – A solid, fun start, with an enjoyable cast and great set-up for future issues.