Home Free #3: Desert Green is a comic written by John Kratky with art by Michelle Lodge. A woman goes digging for something buried long ago and unearths some old memories. This is a neo-noir tale focusing on a woman named Sara as she attempts to make sense of what is going on both within her and in the world. Our leading lady is Sara, a driven and nearly-emotionless woman who has the demeanor of someone who has seen some things. She is very world-weary and rarely cracks a smile. We do meet some other characters but she is the main one. The plot starts maybe a few hours after the last one and we’ll follow Sara as she attempts to accomplish her goal of digging something up. While she is on this journey we will get ample information on the factors that contributed to the environment of the story. The action here isn’t gory but we will see some blood. Things get intense at certain moments but there is an encompassing feeling of seriousness throughout. The majority of the dialogue is delivered in a poetic way that might make it hard to understand for some. No need to worry about wordy pages here. While the first two issues had a similar theme this one takes a different approach that shows Sara in a new light.
The art featured in this comic is black-and-white and showcases some great shading and shadows. This story takes place in a more rural part of Nevada so we get to see some shots of the scenery and it looks picturesque. The primary location is pretty much just “out in the wilderness” so be prepared to see a lot less in the backgrounds as night falls. The expression level here is pretty low but that’s mostly due to plot reasons as Sara seems very hard and stoic so she doesn’t emote much. The faces are full of the details necessary to get the feelings across. When we do get other looks from her they hit a bit harder due to how reserved she normally is. The action scenes here involve guns and there is a good amount of blood. They don’t go on too long.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like stories following a woman going through some heavy introspection and dealing without outside forces attempting to alter her unknown path this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Some bloody violence.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“That’s a confusing statement you just recorded.”
Physical Link: https://coffeetimecomix.gumroad.com/l/hf3print?layout=profile
Digital Link: https://coffeetimecomix.gumroad.com/l/hf3digital
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michellelodge/home-free-issues-1-3/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24
Violent Pages: 3, for 13% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 2
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 3
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 2
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”
