The Nekros #1 is a comic created by D.C. Burton with illustrations by Olumide Emmanuel and colors by Gitizee. Young men in the city of Atún undergo training for the impending return of the Nekros. This is a fantasy tale with plenty of combat and worldbuilding. The leading man for this story Mathias, he is a stand out hunter who is very confident and doesn’t like working with a team. He has a friend named Yohan who makes attempts to keep him grounded and focused. The story begins with a bunch of young men doing various types of training like knife throwing, workouts, and balancing. We then learn the why behind this before getting into the more combat-oriented portion. This takes place in a world where creatures called Nekros appear on a schedule and must be defeated. The action here does get bloody with some light gore. The pacing is steady overall but moves faster during the combat scenes. The tone is serious with a sense of urgency and the intensity is higher when things are physical. The dialogue is almost completely spoken and it’s modern English. There are no word heavy pages. This is a debut comic that focuses on worldbuilding, fleshing out characters, and a looming danger.

            The art here has thick lines and may lightly remind you of some 90’s comic art. The color palette isn’t bright and most of the scenery is rocky mountain and dirt grounds. There are some trees and plants but they aren’t as prominent. The location goes from inside a dusty training ground to walking through a city market to the houses. The backgrounds are usually filled with gradient colors during action moments but show the scene most other times. The expression level here is around average as the words get the emotion across better than the words. Most of the looks are angry-adjacent and the faces are decently detailed but look stiff. The violence here is hard-hitting and get’s bloody with some rough shots with some light gore. The action scenes flow well and have good panel breakup.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like fantasy stories starring an all-black cast of mostly men with violence and looming danger then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“…I’m getting tired of it too.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soapboxcreative/the-nekros-1-a-dark-fantasy-thriller/description

Indiegogo Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-nekros-1-a-dark-fantasy-thriller/x/26236710#/

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 26

Violent Pages: 10, for 39% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 4% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“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 – 4

“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.”