Headspace #1 (Monkeybrain/Comixology)

Rating: 4/5 – A REALLY different look into the mind of a killer.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.

Ryan K. Lindsay tells a different kind of story here and it’s really best experienced if you DO NOT read the summary description of the issue on the Comixology page selling it for the (quite reasonable) price of 99 cents.  It reveals a key piece of information that, while very cool, is best experienced in reading the issue.  I got an advance preview of the issue and read it cold, not knowing what to expect.  In going back to write the review and add in the link to where you can (and should) buy the issue I saw the description and thought to myself that I was very glad that I did NOT  know what was given away in sentence 1 when I read the story.  But seriously, go buy this issue, just DO NOT read the description:
http://www.comixology.com/Headspace-1/digital-comic/77259

Let’s get down to it, while dancing around that key spoiler…

This story is broken up between 2 art teams: We open up with Eric Zawadzki drawing & coloring a scene set in Carpenter Cove.   The Sheriff, Shane, is exiling Linda from town in a row boat, pushing it away from the dock and off into an expanse of ocean. Cut to a scene with art by Chris Peterson, colored by Marissa Louise.  This focuses on Max, he’s on the run from some stereotypical men in black suits.  Then back to Carpenter Cove, a VERY interesting place, as we discover throughout the issue in the scenes set there.  While popping back and forth between the two settings, we find Carpenter Cove to be a fantastical place ably illustrated by Zawadzki’s fine lines while Max is inhabiting a far grittier world well suited to Peterson’s heavier blacks.

Using 2 artists with their different styles give a great visual cue to the reader as the story hops back and forth between Shane in Carpenter Cove and Max in his suburban/urban environments.  Shane upholds the law, Max is by all accounts a killer.  How are the stories of these men and their unique settings related?  There’s the spoiler…  And something best discovered in the reading of the issue, not in reading a review (or a marketing blurb).

Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
https://comicspectrum.com/ Covering the full spectrum of comics culture

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