By Dustin Cabeal

As I said on this week’s podcast, this was my first encounter with Ghost Money. Which sucks because it only has three more issues. Had I discovered it sooner, you would likely have been reading my seventh review of the series, instead of the first.

The story is complex. I’m not sure I understand all of it within the context of the story, but it is the seventh issue. Chamza is the daughter of the President to a small and rising country. She was kidnapped and her ransom paid, but instead of being returned to her father, a tricky past has begun to unravel. To give her a bit of a wakeup to the situation, her father has sent her to prison. One of those, off the books type of prisons. It seems that Chamza paid for her friend to be freed and in doing so funded terrorism. Now the American’s want the President’s cooperation. Making things harder is the fact that Chamza’s dad might not actually be the President as her mother’s sordid past has come into play.

There is a lot more to the story. It has a lot of moving parts and characters playing roles that are not 100% clear yet. That’s not me coming to the party late either, it’s a story that’s unfolding issue by issue giving more and more details as it goes. Frankly, the writing is masterful in that I was able to jump into the story on the seventh issue and find my way. Again, I don’t have context for everything, but I have the general idea of everything and that is due to some amazing writing from Thierry Smolderen. The characters are dynamic, realistic and multi-dimensional when needed.

The artwork from Dominique Bertail has a European style to it. I’m sure if I looked it up I would find that this comic was already published in its native country somewhere in Europe. It looked a little like Peter Chung’s animation style, which I liked. There were a few times when the faces were completely awkward and off from the rest of the comic. Otherwise, the art is detailed and has a futuristic flair to it. The art is a big reason I would like to check out more of the series and I hope to see more work from Bertail as well.

Only on Comic Bastards will you find a review like this. I love to jump in on series. The more I review, the less that happens, but occasionally something like this will come along via my inbox and I’ll just take a chance on it. It’s what makes comic books fun. Now, I’m off to go find issues one through six because I need to read more of Ghost Money.

Score: 4/5

Ghost Money #7
Lion Forge/The Magnetic Collection