Grim Leaper #2 Review
Writer: Kurtis Wiebe and Ryan K. Lindsay
Artist: Aluisio C. Santos and Daniel J. Logan
Colorist: Aluisio C. Santos and Jordie Bellaire
Reviewed by David Short
For those of you who missed Grim Leaper #1 you missed the beginning of a love that is meant to be—and the Final Destination esque deaths of the two main characters. What would be a ho-hum love story is turned into something interesting by throwing a Quantum Leap like wrench into things. Both characters are seemingly cursed to die only to come back as a different person in their hometown. Lou Collins believes himself to be alone in that regard, but it isn’t until he comes across a young lady that seems to be suffering from the same affliction in a bar that he realizes his life may not need to be left alone any more. His long lost love to be, Ella, then promptly bites it by falling into an uncovered manhole.
That brings us to Grim Leaper #2. Lou is now trying to figure out how to find Ella again, and in the process gets a new perspective on how he should be living his days. Lou goes about life with a live while you can, all regrets be damned attitude in light of his condition. After dying within the first few pages of #2, he leaps into a new body with a vastly different situation than he has encountered to this point—this is the first time that he leaps to someone who has people who love him. Ella and lover boy are reunited by books end, and it needs not be said that in issue 3 they will once again be different people, but having experienced what it is to love and have loved ones Lou and Ella don’t live by the same creed any longer.
The art for Grim Leaper is not my cup of tea, but that’s not to say it’s bad. Cartoony yet graphic and gory, the art manages in getting the story from point A to point B. The color scheme for this book is a lot of red and tan, same as the previous issue. The emotions and body language is well represented by Aluisio, and it makes you really feel for Lou when he meets his end time and time again.
Wiebe has created something that, at first, I thought would be a fun ride while a man recklessly tries to hunt down his star-crossed lover, but has proven to have quite a few layers of depth to it. We see a conflict in this book that many people face in their everyday life. Are we supposed to live for today, or think about what we are doing before we do it? Should we go off burning all our bridges, ridding us of all connections to normal life, and just enjoy what we can? Or should we take into account those we love, those who may be hurt by our decisions, and ultimately the world and how we affect it?
With the Grim Leaper books we get back up stories called “More Love Stories to Die For.” Ryan K. Lindsay writes this week’s backup, Love Sick, with art by Daniel J. Logan. It fits well with the tone of the main story, but is completely stand-alone. Unlike the first issue’s backup by Joey Esposito, which was a serendipitous love story, this is twisted and dark. We get the story of a man who falls in love with his lady friend and her food. She finds the adage of the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach to be true, but causes our protagonist to become an obese hermit. What happens next throws you for a loop, and makes you question just who has wronged Ryan Lindsay with food in the past.
Verdict
Buy it- Kurtis Wiebe has taken what could have been a shallow but fun story and turned it into a fun story with some lingering questions to ask yourself after you finish. The art isn’t for everybody, but it gets the job done. If nothing else it will be interesting to see if Lou and Ella will up being able to stay alive long enough to enjoy their relationship.
