DARKEST ROUT: BOOK ONE, by Antwone Barnes on Kickstarter, begins an entertaining urban fantasy about a young man who finds an unusual ring that turns his life upside down.
The Details
- Written by: Antwone Barnes
- Art by: Kip Henderson, Omar Montoya
- Colors by: Bea McCormick
- Letters by: Bea McCormick
- Cover art by: Kip Henderson
- Comic Rating: Teen
- Cover price: $20.00
- Release date: July 2023 (estimated)
Is DARKEST ROUT: BOOK ONE Good?
DARKEST ROUT: BOOK ONE, from inside comic creator Antwone Barnes, is an impressive tale about a man struggling to find a place in the world after a tragic death who get pulled into the world of the supernatural. This triple-sized graphic novel is remarkable in that it does everything right, from pacing to dialog, to get readers invested in the main character and hooked for what comes next.
Barnes’s script centers on Nate Castlehart, a college-age artist who can’t seem to hold a job or find his real purpose after the tragic death of his brother. While making a pickup for a delivery job, Nate finds a ring with mystical powers that immediately puts him in the sights of the forces of good and evil.
When we mean good pacing, we mean great pacing. An early indicator for whether or not a story is engaging is how soon you start checking the page count. In this case, we didn’t need to check once because the story without rushing or short-changing any scene. We know multiple writers at the Big 2 who could learn a thing or two from Barnes’s script.
What’s great about DARKEST ROUT: BOOK ONE? Practically ever level of Barnes’s script works. The central premise is solid, pacing is impressively efficient, the dialog feels natural, and Barnes works in enough emotional beats to get you to care about Nate and his predicament. On pure technical execution and structure, this GN is almost perfect for what it’s meant to be.
What’s not so great about DARKEST ROUT: BOOK ONE? The one nitpick, which really depends on your point of view, is the familiarity of the central premise. A down-on-his-luck character finds a magical object that opens his eyes to world he never knew existed is hardly an original concept. Thankfully, Barnes overcomes the cliché premise with engaging characters and entertaining plot development, but regular fantasy readers might feel the plot is a little too commonplace.
How’s the art? The art’s good but not great. The character designs are distinctive, and the panel compositions and layouts are fine, but there’s an overall lack of detail on just about everything. To be clear, the art isn’t bad (the finished GN looks better than the preview pages below), and Bea McCormick’s coloring is a standout, but the design has a distinctively analog quality.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s DARKEST ROUT: BOOK ONE About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with a detective entering a house wherein the owner was recently murdered and his daughter reported missing. In the crime scene photos, a strange sigil can be seen next to the owner’s body, a sigil the detective recognizes.
Later, the detective enters the murder victim’s house wearing a strange amulet. He searches the darkened house looking for clues about the murder when he hears a strange noises coming from one of the bedrooms. His search leads to a scuffle with an unseen force wherein the detective loses his amulet. Suddenly, a dark maelstrom pulls the detective out of our world.
Later, Nate Castlehart is on his last legs with his employer due to chronic lateness. Nate can’t seem to get his life on track after his brother’s death, but he really needs to keep his job. Nate’s boss sends him out on a delivery run to the same house where the murder occurred to pick up discarded furniture. We conclude the issue with a clumsy fall, a strange discovery, and a hunt.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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DARKEST ROUT: BOOK ONE begins an entertaining, impressively-paced, urban fantasy about a young man pulled into the world of the supernatural. Barnes’s script work is nails every level of technical execution, and the character work will hook you.
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