Review: LONG LOST #6

LONG LOST #6
Written by Matthew Erman
Art by Lisa Sterle
Published by Scout Comics
Release Date: May 2, 2018

What memories do you have of your child hood? Bright, happy and fun? Or was the magic of being a kid lost under the shadow of another memory that overpowers and defines part of who you are now. Long Lost by Matthew Erman and Lisa Sterle has taken the reader on a fascinating journey to discover what darkness in Frances and Piper’s past hides their happiness. Long Lost #6 reveals new and dark secrets for Frances and Piper as they continue their ever-evolving quest to find their mother and Piper’s Pockets.

Matthew Erman continues to produce nuanced writing that takes the reader along with the sisters as their quest beckons to them to explore deeper. Each issue builds and gnaws (welcomingly) at the reader to look forward to the next part of the story with mysterious and fascinating reveals. Long Lost is not what you expect. Every time you think you know what is going on there is a sharp 90 degree turn that threatens to throw you out of the back of the pickup truck you are bumping down the road in. That’s what makes this story so great. The darkness tickles the edges of your skin but the wholesome humanity of the sisters holds it back throughout the story. It’s not that the sisters are good people, but they are real people. You can relate to them. Their relationship with each other is the only thing keeping them sane and the reader as well. Long Lost’s story could be anybody’s story of examining one’s past and confronting the truth of it head on. Issue #6 takes the reader from what they thought might be a source of answers and dumps them down the deep well of revelation. It’s a beautifully written and paced episode that races towards answers only to let you know the story is far from over. Erman has done such a good job at keeping the readers guessing and wanting to come back for more. He is doing what every good writer should: emotionally torturing the characters they love, so that the readers will love them just as much.

Lisa Sterle continues to lovingly craft this beautiful world of darkness that the sisters are mucking about in. In this issue she gets to spend some time drawing the girls as their younger selves and captures the essence of who they will become perfectly. One of the best things about her artwork is its simplicity. She doesn’t use much to draw the faces, the soul of the characters, but with what she does use she captures the core of their emotions. For this story it works exactly as it should. There is so much darkness and complexity around the girls that their simple features shine forth like a beacon. One may think that simple lines are easy to dry but to capture depth of emotion with a stroke is no easy task. It’s like trying to fit a novel length description of a single moment into the once limiting 140-character Twitter post. She does this in each panel and she does it well. But just as good as the characters are the backgrounds are not to be missed. Woods are naturally full of dark mystery, magic, and life teeming in silence. With each background that Sterle gifts the reader she subtly hints at the depth in the woods. Also, she does a great job at drawing nighttime scenes with beauty and depth even though it is naturally so dark. Overall the artwork completes the story so well and takes the reader’s head to the right place for each scene.

Long Lost is one of the best, complex, and enjoyable comic books being published right now. If you aren’t caught up go and pick the previous issues up now. They can still be found in your local comic book stores and the trade paperback of volume 1 is coming out soon as well. The story is quietly intriguing and full of delicious tension in each issue. The art work compliments the story and puts the reader right in between the girls as the experience these life altering revelations. Read Long Lost now!

The Verdict: 10/10.0

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