First Review of GOOD SAMARITAN: UNTO DUST!

Fellow comic creator and Vermont resident Brandon Barrows just sent along his review of my new book Good Samaritan: Unto Dust with art by Federico Guillen. His review was apparently rejected by another site which seems to have blacklisted reviews of the work of yours truly...

Good Samaritan: Unto Dust #1 Review

Glow-In-The-Dark Radio Comics

“Unto Dust, part 1”

Story & Letters: Mike Luoma

Art: Federico Guillen

The first issue of the new series by Mike Luoma, “Unto Dust” #1 was not quite what I expected from the cover.

The main character, a Catholic priest named William Sullivan is apparently a super hero on the side. While spending his days ministering to his flock and helping those in need, he spends at least a night a week wearing a domino mask, flying, glowing and fighting apparitions bent on bloodshed.

Luoma has set us up with a mystery almost from the get-go. The time is 1965 and much is changing in the world in general and in the Catholic Church in particular. There is a new pope, new church officials at many levels, and new policies such as the vernacular liturgy. In the midst of this, we have a super-powered minister out on patrol running into fights with demons and stumbling across the bodies of murdered altar boys.

The story is very solid, though I admit that at times the action on the pages was less than clear. During several of the fight scenes, I felt like I was watching a poorly edited movie that something unintentionally cut. I knew what was going on, but I felt like some details were missing. Whether this was the way it was written or the way the artist chose to present it, I couldn’t say. This was only an issue for the two fight scenes, however; the rest of the story was crystal clear.

I was drawn in at first glance by the art, which has a much more realistic bend than the other Glow In The Dark books I’ve read in the past. The artist, Guillen, is fairly talented and his work was a good fit for the book though at times it seemed a little thin. I got the impression that he was used to coloring his work, or having it colored as, while the art itself is good overall, the use of pencil shading (rather than adding depth with ink) is quite heavy as if the artist planned on these spots being inked or colored over. I found it distracting in places as seeing those sometimes extraneous lines took me out of the story.

All in all, this was a very solid comic I will definitely read the next issue. I’m told it’s currently available at IndyPlanet.com so go check it out for yourself. 

 Thank you, Brandon!

The official release date is October 20th, and pages will be appearing online as well. Watch this blog and other spots for news of the release as we get closer!