By: Ed Brisson (creator/writer/letters), Johnnie Christmas (creator/illustrator) and Shari Chankhamma (colors)
The Story: Lucas continues to tighten his grip on the children, but the outside world may show up and cause problems.
Review (with SPOILERS): This is a really strong series. I can’t believe that it isn’t getting a little more chatter because it’s almost everything that I want a “pre-apocalypse” story to be. Seriously, check the series out. It’s even a $2.99 book and the trade is coming out in the next month or so.
One great thing about Sheltered is how rapidly it rips through the story. We’re only on the fifth issue and so much has already happened. We saw the kids kill their parents. We saw the two girls suspect that something fishy was going on and end up getting locked in the underground bunker. We’ve seen Lucas (the leader) start to exhibit all sorts of creepy “cult leader” vibes. We’ve seen Lucas start to murder other kids who dissent. All in the first four issues!
Thematically, Sheltered shares some DNA with a series like The Walking Dead. Sure….there are no zombies in Sheltered, but the basic stories are similar. TWD has (unfortunately) settled into a really slow storytelling tempo where storylines drag along for a year or more. Even though TWD can still bring the noise once or twice per year, I honestly prefer the faster paced tempo of a story like Sheltered. I guess there is a concern about “running out of story”, but these sorts of post-apocalyptic tales can really run forever if the writers are clever. Just keep changing the setting and giving the characters new events to react to.
Of course, that assumes that there IS some sort of apocalypse. The major event of this issue is the arrival of some ADULTS from outside the compound. I’ll be very curious to see what news they bring of the outside world. Lucas has been telling all the other kids that the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan in the cities and “they need to be ready”. As readers, we’re being conditioned to think of Lucas as a nutter, but I think it would be interesting if he was correct – then you get to have all those fun ethical debates about whether he was really right to ration the food and kill the heretics….maybe the group needed a strong, harsh leader to get them through the apocalypse? Either way, the visit of outsiders is just another way to bump the equilibrium of the compound and I look forward to it.
The other events of the issue are also pretty snappy. We basically see Lucas going around being all cult-leadery: Making people do crappy jobs, breaking up budding romances because they “can’t risk pregnancies”, etc. It still remains to be seen if Lucas is just a control-freak/asshole or if he is insane or if he actually has a credible plan. I also like the little windows we’re getting into the kids who think Lucas is NUTS. It’s what life must be like for people who get sucked into a cult and then don’t know how to extricate themselves safely.
The art is very solid and effective. In many ways, this comic reminds me of The Walking Dead. The art in TWD is never art where you think, “HOLY crap! That is an awesome page!” But then you consider what’s important in a comic like TWD (or Sheltered) and it’s the characters. And the characters in Sheltered are more about how they look than what they’re saying. Johnnie Christmas has made all these folks seem like real characters in just a few issues. They act, emote and generally seem consistent from panel-to-panel. I think it’s wonderful art from a storytelling and character-building standpoint. The only (minor) quibble I have is that Christmas occasionally lets a character become a little too cartoony and unnatural looking. I love cartoony art, but I’m not sure it’s thematically appropriate in a comic like Sheltered.
Conclusion: A wonderful issue and a great series. Make sure to check this out if you enjoy apocalyptic fiction.
Grade: A-
-Dean Stell