Lost Between Worlds Hour 0 is a comic written by Edwin Jose De Castro with art by Elton Thomasi Dias, Maclej Radwanski, and Diego Do Nascimento Lima. A woman goes about her day collecting souls and ushering them to the karmic gates. This is a supernatural tale that focuses on death and how people react to it. The leading lady for this story is Gwynn, who is what we would call a grim reaper. She goes back and forth from earth to the afterlife with people who have died and it has become very routine for her. Assisting her in their crossing of the river Styx is Charon. The story begins with her enjoying a little downtime before doing her job. Her night goes off without a hitch until she comes across someone very unique. This is a world that blends the death-centric beliefs of a few different cultures from the Greeks to the Aztecs and the result is something that feels familiar but has some distinction. The action here is violent but without blood and gore. The pacing is mostly slower than average as there are a number of word-heavy pages. Though the overall tone might be serious the individual situations aren’t too intense and Gwynn approaches them with some curiosity. The dialogue is very conversational and is lighthearted bordering on humorous. There are a bunch of wordy pages but they aren’t long to read. This is a debut comic that gives us an interesting lead in an intriguing situation with the look ahead being full of mystery.

            The art here is smoothly detailed and reminiscent of older styles with a large color palette. The scenery for this story is sometimes high rise buildings, and other times the interiors of an establishment, but usually it’s the sparkly night sky of the afterlife. The locations change a few times but only a few of them are on earth. The backgrounds tend to contain scene elements on close-ups which helps keep you engaged with the story. The expression level here is above-average with just about every character having unsuppressed emotions. The different looks accumulate throughout the story with Gwynn usually having a slight smirk, smile, or grimace, with her expression changing nearly every panel. The faces occasionally can seem inconsistent from panel-to-panel but for the most part they keep the focus on the facial features and smaller details like lines and wrinkles which help the looks come across clear. If you’ve seen or read anything about ghosts the effects in this issue will look familiar. The action here isn’t directed violence but it can look a bit rough, but no blood or gore. The outfits on earth are pretty common but in the afterlife they dress in long robes and dresses, similar to more ancient styles.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural stories focused on death and the ferrying of souls starring a woman than this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG-13. Death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“We will never speak of this again Charon.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lostbetweenworlds/lost-between-worlds/description

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

 

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 36

Violent Pages: 2, for 6% 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 – 1

“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 – 3

“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.”