Title: Shutter Vol 1 | Series: Shutter | Issues Collected: 1-6 | Authors and Illustrators: Joe Keatinge, Leila del Duca, and Owen Gieni | Publisher: Image Comics | Pub. Date: 2014-11-5 | ISBN13: 9781632151452 | Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy, Graphic Novel | Language: English | Triggers: None | Rating: 4 out of 5 | Source: Library
Shutter Vol 1: Wanderlost
INDIANA JONES FOR THE 21st CENTURY! Marvel Knights: Hulk and Glory writer Joe Keatinge teams up with artist extraordinaire Leila del Duca for her Image Comics debut in an all-new ongoing series combining the urban fantasy of Fables and the globe-spanning adventure of Y: The Last Man. Kate Kristopher, once the most famous explorer of an Earth far more fantastic than the one we know, is forced to return to the adventurous life she left behind when a family secret threatens to destroy everything she spent her life protecting. Collects Shutter #1-6. – Goodreads
Shutter Vol 1 Review
Shutter Vol 1 has an interesting storyline of mystery, adventure, and drama. One young heiress finds out she’s not nearly as alone as she thought she was. Not that’s necessarily a good thing for her – or anyone else.
The world in Shutter is a familiar one, at least anymore. Multiple races of aliens and humans live side by side is an often portrayed science fiction/fantasy dream. In Shutter, it’s a glorious world filled with all sorts of interesting life forms, including the somewhat typical race of cat-people. (Though in this case they’re lion-people and they’re gangsters. Keatinge, Gieni, and del Duca get points for the sheer amount of ways they slightly twist cliche appearances in science fiction and keep them interesting. Even Kate Kristopher’s cat is a Felix-esque robot that immediately charms and seems to be her version of a teddy bear.
Kate is a walking trope. Explorer/adventurer turns her back on what she used to do, settles down into a normal life, and then things go to hell. And then you find out there’s even more to it than that – book has gotta have a sob story in there somewhere, of course. Suddenly she’s back in the thick of things, but obviously, her untold number of years away haven’t really lessened her skills at all. But, tropes exist for a reason. They work frequently, and that success is continued in Shutter Vol 1.
I liked that Kate is adult enough not to blame everything on her little brother. No, she shouldn’t blame anything that happened on him, but we’re all human and sometimes resentment is ladled on the closest available person. I’m kind of curious to see how the relationship we start to see form in this book pans out in the rest of the series.
The illustrations are decent in Shutter Vol 1. Not my favorite, but I can study them for a few minutes without getting bored. The coloring work is well done. Especially on the lion-people. The panels are very easy to follow.
Overall, Shutter is a solid graphic novel from Image Comics. I’ll be checking out more in the series.