ESTABLISHING SHOT #1 – Review

ESTABLISHING SHOT #1, available now from Will O’Mullane, assembles a collection of vignettes and short stories to explore novel concepts and new ways to accomplish storytelling. Prepare to see something you’ve never seen before.

The Details

• Written by: Will O’Mullane
• Art by: Alfie Gallagher, Lane Lloyd, Edison Neo
• Colors by: Alfie Gallagher, Lane Lloyd, Edison Neo, Daniel Romero, Butch Mapa, Clark Bint
• Letters by: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Lane Lloyd, Jonathan Stevenson
• Cover art by: Alex Moore
• Cover price: $7.25
• Release date: Available now

Was It Good?

ESTABLISHING SHOT #1 was an absolute pleasure to read and review. This isn’t the type of anthology you pick up to read about your favorite superhero or experience pulse-pounding fear from the creepy monster in the shadows. This anthology more closely resembles an experiment where a creator brings imaginative concepts to life through the medium of comics. Some of the concepts are meta in nature, others play with mood or action. In any case, this is a presentation that challenges the tried and true methods of comics creation with fun, amusing, and even thoughtful experiments, and it’s worth your time.

Normally, we get into a more expansive review in this section, but there are too many shorts to give it a fair shake, so read through to the next section to get to the meat of this review.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

When we review anthologies, we give each short a fair shot, so we’ll cover each story separately, calling out what or did not work.

Elsewhere In Manhattan!

A pair of robbers race to escape the police over the rooftops of the big city. When a wrong turn gets the thieves cornered, they find the comics lettering is a more formidable threat than the police.

This story is thoroughly amusing. Technically, this short is a vignette rather than a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. The concept of narration captions interacting with (attacking?) the characters is a novel idea and worth a few well-earned chuckles.

Bulwark Beatdown!

Bulwark Bay is under attack by one of Super Dude’s longtime enemies in a hi-tech super suit. When it seems all hope is lost, Super Dude rises to the challenge… because that’s what’s in the script.

O’Mullane goes full-on meta by narrating the desired plot structure of a superhero battle as part of the battle. The meta aspects of this vignette are amusing, especially the narration referencing parts of the page layout affected by the battle, but the art is weak. Frankly, it was sometimes difficult to understand the progression of the action, and the art’s weakness hurt the outcome of the concept.

SFX In The City

Tourists and citizens enjoy a lovely day on the streets of London when a sudden assault of SFX Lettering attacks the city from every angle.

Different but similar to Elsewhere In Manhattan!, O’Mullane imagines what would happen when the characters have to contend with the visual elements of the comic. Similar to the previous vignette, the concept is novel, but the execution is not as amusing.

The Weak Link

An amorous pair of thieves making a daring escape in the city’s subway system while the omnipresent narrator waxes poetic about the ups and downs of relationship life. When their escape is all but assured, a change of heart turns into a deadly fight for survival.

This is the first short in the anthology from the “B” side of the book where all shorts are in B&W. As such, you can see a noticeable increase in linework quality. The compositions and details are more detailed and polished. Also, this vignette goes for a thoughtful expression of an idea about relationships embodied in a crime thriller action scene. The execution largely works up to the point where one partner turns on the other because it’s not clear why the turn happened. The turn feels random, and it muddies the rest of the scene.

Short Supply

A cadre of thieves hatches a scheme to steal the last shipment of this Christmas’ must-have toy. Unfortunately, the second cadre of Santa-garbed scalpers get to the shipment first, and it’s a yuletide rumble in the streets to get the goods.

This short felt most like a complete story with a setup, a goal, and a resolution with an ironic twist ending. Great art and great pacing make this one of the best shorts in the whole anthology.

Crook’s Rest

A seedy side street magnetically attracts the most vicious, outlandishly violent criminals in the city. When criminal gun battles erupt… and erupt… and erupt, there’s nothing left to do but sit back and enjoy the chaos.

This short seems to serve no purpose other than to experiment with making the biggest, loudest, craziest action sequence possible in a scant few pages. It feels more like a creative sample than a vignette, so come for the eye candy but don’t expect much else.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.

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