QUICKSAND #1, from Scout Comics on 5/10/23, imagines a near future where deadly monsters emerge from the Earth to lay waste to humanity. Only a group of specialists have a prayer of stopping the monsters before there’s nothing left to defend.
The Details
- Written by: Jonathan Hedrick
- Art by: Debora Lancianese
- Colors by: Sunil Ghagre
- Letters by: Cristian Docolomansky
- Cover art by: Debora Lancianese
- Comic Rating: Mature
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: May 10, 2023
Is It Good?
This is going to be a quick review because this is a very quick comic to read, and that’s not a bad thing. QUICKSAND #1 is the latest offering from Jonathan Hedrick about a swarm of monsters that climb out of the bottomless pit in Egypt to rip, tear, and destroy anything that gets in their way. Think of it as a mix between Pacific Rim and Tremors.
The strength of Hedrick’s script is its familiarity and its simplicity.
QUICKSAND #1 feels very familiar as a story about badass soldiers and scientists pitted against giant monsters you’ve seen in films going back to the 1940s. Again, that’s not a bad thing because creature features are part of the foundation of our pop culture, so Hedrick has a winning theme on his hands.
QUICKSAND #1 also works because it’s a simple, straightforward plot that executes a hard- and fast-hitting setup and gets right to the meat of the story to keep the pace up and moving in the right direction. This is the kind of comic where you can sit back and relax without expending brain power trying to keep the characters or complex setups straight.
Likewise, the art’s high point is in Debora Lancianese’s creature designs. The monsters are big, sharp, and nasty in all the right ways to immediately put the characters (and by extension, the readers) on edge. Sometimes the simplest way to establish threat, danger, and stakes is to present an antagonist that’s literally too big to face. Admittedly, the art is a little lacking in detail, but the bones are there to keep your eyeballs engaged and moving.
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]
We begin with a prologue montage of the first attack. A swarm of giant, scorpion-like creatures emerge from a giant sinkhole in the Egyptian desert. The attack on nearby towns is swift, brutal, and unopposed. World leaders quickly devise a task force to assess and stop this new threat.
A year later, more lives have been lost, and the task force is no closer to stopping the monsters. Stephnie Noon, a highly trained combatant and strategist assumes command of the teams months after her husband was killed during a research sortie into the sinkhole. Her assumption of command is not met with total agreement by the previous commander.
We conclude the issue with a display of bravado, prototype weapons, and stuff hitting the fan.
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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QUICKSAND #1 is a simple, fast-paced, satisfying start to a creature feature that pits humanity against giant monsters from beneath the Earth. The pacing is practically a sprint, the setup is efficient and hits all the right creature feature checkboxes, and the monster designs are top-notch.
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