Comics I Need to Read: RISING SAND

Hey folks! It’s Me! Mexi! Here to talk about Comics I Need to Read! The column where I read a comic by a little known creator!

While I generally find comics to read for this column on my own time, there are times when I do get email requests for me to check out webcomics or printed works. While I don’t always review the comics requested for this column on here, I do love getting the requests and I do read the comics requested for this column by viewers like you if I believe they fit the requirements I gave myself for this column. I love getting these sorts of requests and I really do encourage whatever readers I have out there to email if they do find something tantalizing to read! And man, do we have a good one here! Without further ado, I read:

Rising Sand by Jenn Lee and Ty Dunitz

A dying land filled with ash. Four races that can barely keep their tension towards one another in check. A young one-legged girl who travels with a large man back to his homeland to see whether or not he will be welcomed with open arms. Rising Sand brings to life a far-gone world that seems to be on the brink of disaster, a dark apocalypse looming in wake behind their donut-shaped sun.

Rising Sand is a slow burn to the plot, building a world around its characters first before introducing the main journey to the readers. I like how Lee and Dunitz choose to build their world. The segments of lore under each new page fill in parts of the world they may never get to in the main plot or add accents to the partially explained or simply mentioned elements of the world.

Not only does the world building keep the reader engaged, but the well-rounded characters make you care about what little plot is in the story at the moment. The main characters, Dal and Qeb, are a well-written odd couple of a pairing. They complement each other in being the complete opposites of one another yet still caring about each other, forming their own chosen family over the families who have rejected them. While I’m not quite sure where the plot is going, Qeb and Dal make me want to stick around and see what’s in store.

I like how the religions of the world impact the characters. I like how Qeb’s attire and how he speaks is shaped by the culture in which the religion he believes in created. I like how Dal’s appearance and her rejection of her culture’s religion impacts why she is in the state she’s in and why she travels with Qeb instead of living with her biological family. I find it intriguing how much culture does shape the characters within the comic and I look forward to seeing more of it.

 

The art is truly stunning in this comic. I find the most captivating scenes to be the ones where Lee and Dunitz provide complex imagery, like seeing Dal’s reflection in a steaming bowl of delicious looking soup or the fish-eye reflection of Sorril in the necklace.

The detail within character design alone is astounding, especially for characters like Qeb. This built man wears intricate jewelry, from gold-plated weights on his wrists with intricately carved gemstone on its sides to his large, gold-plated stretching earrings. I appreciate the kind of attention to detail they have for most, if not all, of the characters.

 

The coloring is gorgeous. I love the warm color tones that shade the entire comic. It gives the comic the desert feel it desires and the oranges feel striking. I find the usage of lighting realistic in how it bounces off of characters and objects. It feels like Lee and Dunitz took their time to figure out how a light source like a gaslight would light up a room.

Many people don’t think much about lettering. They just do whatever passes as minimal effort, which in most cases is fine. But I love the fact that Lee and Dunitz do use the lettering and its bubbles as accents to their work. I like that you can tell what language the bubble is in depending on whether it has a red or a blue tab to it. I like that Lee and Dunitz leave the reader to figure out that each tab represents a differing language. I like that they try to do interesting things with speech bubbles whether it’s the intimidating inverted colors of Qeb’s speech or the creative shaping of the bubbles themselves.

You should definitely check out Rising Sands. It is a beautiful, thought provoking tale about the end of the world, religion, and found families, and while it is still a pretty new comic, I believe there’s a lot of interesting things to come and I know I’m looking forward to reading more.

You can find Rising Sands here.

Next month, I’ll be reading:

A Dance with Death by Crystal Yates

If you want to read along, you can check out the webcomic here.

If you have any thoughts on Rising Sand or have a creator I should try reading, please, email me at mexigremillion@gmail.com. Who knows? Maybe I’ll talk about your thoughts or read something by that creator!

See you next month!

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