By Dustin Cabeal
At the end of every year, we roll out our list of the best and worst comics. It’s a tricky thing because where do you draw the line. Some titles have completed, while others are just starting, but show fantastic promise. There is a time in the past in which I picked a book for one of my best of choices that had just started, and while that first issue or so were great, the series quickly tapered off. Since then I like to give a series a few more under the belt before putting them on my list.
With Sink, I didn’t have to do that. I knew by the third issue, which I technically read second, that I was reading the best comic of 2017. With Sink bleeding into 2018, there is a strong chance it could find its way on my list again.
The fourth issue of Sink is fantastic in that it ties everything that’s happened in the series together. Now, that doesn’t mean that you need to have read the previous three issues, but if you have, it’s a wonderful treat. The clowns are the focus of this issue. Apparently, they’ve been grabbing too many people, and a lot of kids have gone missing. Rather than acknowledge them, our quaint little town has chosen to ignore the problem and silence the rumors. Four students decide to skip school and go hunting for the clowns that have taken their friend. What they find isn’t quite clowns, but it certainly fucks them up.
This issue has a couple of different layers unfolding at the end of the story. Parts that connect with the other elements. What will likely be underappreciated is the fact that this is layering is the same way that John Lees layered the elements that tie to the other two issues. Just consider the thought and planning that went into this issue to not only layer and connect the story like that, but to essentially have six different layers of connecting story. It would be my prime example of why comic books are greatly underappreciated forms of storytelling. To do something similar with TV you would have a room full of writers working weeks and weeks upon a script and yet Lees has done it by himself.
Well, that’s a bold statement. Lees’ has created this breakout story with Alex Cormack, an artist I fully expect to be scooped up by the big publishers any minute. It will be at a huge loss to the indie community when this happens, but I can’t think of a better artist for it to happen to. My gripe with kids in comics is that they so rarely look, move or act like children. They speak well above their world experience and look like shrunken adults. Here’s the test, draw a beard on a child in a comic book. If it looks natural, it’s a shrunken adult. If it looks like a kid wearing a beard, then congrats it probably means that Cormack illustrated the kid. Cormack’s artwork continues to be masterful. His colors along with Lisa Moore, give this book a ton of personality.
Sink continues to be the best comic being published. It’s a long year, and there are titles nippy at its feet, but so far Sink hasn’t missed a beat, this issue included. If you haven’t read the rest of the issues, then fear not, they are all technically stand-alone issues. Yes, they’re better read together, but what isn’t? My point is, you can start with this issue and go back and get the rest after getting hooked.
Score: 5/5
Sink #4
ComixTribe