A Comic A Day in May – Day 1: The Plight #1

Desert Whale Comics bring us the first issue of their comic The Plight as writing duo Richard Allan & Greg Liddle team-up with artist Tommy Cree.

We follow the fairly normal life of Cal Parsons with a new discovery at work and a loving family life coasting along quite nicely but the world’s fate all rests in the hands of the gods. The downside is that the God’s treat this like an elaborate game to be decided by a hand of cards and this is where things start to run against poor Cal.  God himself faces off against the Devil and a loss sees things begin to spiral out of control for the higher powers and the rest of us as a result.

The discovery at work sees the need for an official announcement and his co-discoverer Arnold is beginning to be swayed by his cantankerous old bastard of a Dad to lean on Cal and claim the discovery for himself.  Arnold’s Dad is on borrowed time though as the Grim Reaper is hovering over him as he continues to work through his collections list but there’s s surprise turn of events for God, Cal & his family.

That family element is built-up well and it’s only when the crushing finale that you realize just how well that’s been done.  A subtle element of the storytelling from Richard & Greg and with the combination of the otherworldy powers flexing their control it’s all a pretty slick first issue.  Artistically the page layouts are simple but effective affairs given the subject matter of the two key elements of human & gods and while the art slips to being a bit sketchy in places with it’s perspective it’s solid for a first issue…..the cover alone shows you the heights that he can reach though so there is massive potential from the whole team.

A solid start for the first issue and with brief glimpses of the second issue popping up on Twitter I’m hoping it’s not long before we get the next.

Keep track of The Plight over on the Desert Whale Comics Facebook & Twitter pages.

7/10

G-Man