Thunder #1 is a comic with story by Michael Sanchez and art by Kriswantowhy. Something strange and powerful is starting to take over this office building. This is a supernatural drama comic with a large cast of characters, office politics, and mysteriousness. The leading lady here is Carol, she is a stressed and tired office worker who frequently has strange and scary dreams/visions. Daniel is her jokester coworker who flirts with her while trying to help, Ana/“Mama Bear” an older woman everyone loves, Franklin her nerdy and studious son, loverboy Nate, and the tall, blonde, ruthless boss Barbara. This story begins with Carol being woken up from a nightmare at the office café by Daniel who has also brought her a drink. Their conversation is interrupted by the late but welcomed arrival of Ana and her son, and Carol realizes she is about to be late for a review. This takes place in a modern world where supernatural happenings aren’t common. The action here is a bit destructive but it isn’t really violent. This story moves at a somewhat slower pace than average as there are many conversations and things to take in. The tone here is that of a seemingly normal office drama with some dramatically intense moments. Dialogue here is straightforward and realistic with constant back-and-forth. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an intriguing debut issue that focuses on introducing and fleshing out its characters while showing and hinting at world-shaking events happening soon.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed modern style that appears to have a bit of manga influences with well done lighting and shading. This has a realistic color palette with an office-appropriate range. There isn’t much natural scenery as this takes place entirely indoors. Though the Zarith Building is the primary location it has many specific areas from the lobby and elevator to the parking lot and personal offices. Backgrounds here are split between showing the actual physical surroundings and just being a gradient color. The expression level here is above-average as these characters tend to wear their feelings on their faces. Emotions include happiness tiredness, irritation, annoyance, anger, desperation, confusion, and fear. Faces have a good amount of detail, especially in the eyes, with characters sometimes getting animated; this leads to just about every expression being clear. There is pretty much no violence and the action scenes are destructive and usually involve fire. Action scenes are at most a couple pages long and focus on big moments.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural dramas set in a an office building with a sizable cast, workplace politics, and plenty mysteriousness then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence, lewdness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Do you even care about how this makes me feel?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildfireink/thunder-1/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

*
*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 4, for 17% 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 – 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 – 1

“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.”