Deathbed
Joshua Williamson, writer; Riley Rossmo, artist; Ivan Plascencia, colorist
Vertigo Comics, 2018
Vertigo miniseries tend to have a fairly deliberate pacing, and employ various blends of fantasy, horror and realism. This one is completely off the wall, in a good way. It tells the story of an epic adventurer named Antonio Luna (who is nonetheless completely unknown) and Val Richards, the woman hired to ghostwrite his autobiography. Luna's stories about himself are completely unbelievable on their face, yet events keep supporting their reality. Beginning with Val's initial interview with Luna on his deathbed--except he lied about his terminal condition to bring out a team of undead mummy assassins.
As he dies, the last assassin tells Luna that their real purpose was to deliver a message. Everyone Luna has known in his long life is targeted for death, so there will be no one to tell his story. Against her better instincts, Val agrees to accompany Luna so she can tell his story. Everywhere they go--Paris, Iceland (where he had inspired a Church of Luna), and finally Nocturna Island, the place of Luna's childhood--they are too late to save the people in his life.
The story concludes on the Moon, which is populated by werewolves (no, really, and they get there via a rocket that Luna built as a child). There they confront Luna's father, Leonardo Luna. It turns out that he chose Val as ghostwriter, based on her only real success, her one published book. As they return to Earth egomaniac Luna finally expresses an interest in learning other peoples' stories, beginning with Val's. The whole experience frees her to finally become the writer she always wanted to be: fearless, and ready to surprise herself first.
It's an unexpected conclusion, one more surprising twist in a series that is full of them. Riley Rossmo's art has a crazed and dynamic energy, featuring visuals and panel layouts that propel the story along at a breakneck pace. I know Joshua Williamson's writing best from his Image series Nailbiter: this mini has a similar crazed motion.
Replies
You had me worried until I noticed this was posted to the "Reviews" forum.
Ha! Didn't even think about that.