Clove Hitch! #1 is a comic written by Christopher Albright with art Mercado Ceanne. Nikolas and his friends are desperate for work as they are broke and rent is due. This is a science fiction drama comic with a comedic tone, some political elements, and a varied cast. The main man here is Nikolas, he is a fast-talking and sneaky guy who is the leader of this group. There is a worm-like creature name Phillip who is very anxious, a robot ball with a human-looking avatar named Sam(I could be wrong about this), and a slime creature named Jorge with a mustache. I believe their ship is called the Clove Hitch and they owe a man named Romanov a lot of money in rent. This story begins with Nikolas, Sam and Jorge at a restaurant called Taco John’s where Nikolas is using a scam to get some free food. After a chat with Sam about their lack of funds and work they head back to their spaceship where they share the spoils with Philip. Their enjoyable meal is interrupted the arrival of Romanov demanding rent. This takes place in a high tech world where alien creatures and traveling to different worlds is common. No violence, blood, or anything gruesome. The pacing here is steady and the tone is comedic with struggle vibes kind of like the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. There are a few dramatically intense moments. The dialogue is conversational with a good deal of back-and-forth and some early narration from Nikolas. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an intriguing debut issue that does a good job of showing the different personalities of its leads while telling a relatable story about being low on funds.

            The art here is drawn in a semi-cartoonish modern style that is a bit reminiscent of what might see in a webcomic. The color palette is very sci-fi with a lot of cool tones and gray/silver. Aside from the outer reaches of space the only natural scenery we’ll see are shrubs and bushes outside of the restaurant. The main location here is the group’s spaceship which is where they all live; it has a decent amount of space but it is a bit dirty. Backgrounds here usually show the immediate surroundings and objects but there are a significant number of backdrops that are just gradient colors with occasional patterns. The expression level here is very high as characters are constantly reacting. Emotions here include: fear, sadness, happiness, anger, irritation, shock, and nervousness. The faces have an overall above-average amount of detail and they get cartoonishly animated so all the different looks come across strongly. There isn’t any violence, blood, or gore here. No action scenes at all, unless you count rock-paper-scissors.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like science fiction drama stories that star a group of very different creatures with a good deal of comedy and some political elements then this is for you.

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

PG.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I’m saying it’s long past time for action.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/clovehitch/clove-hitch/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 34

Violent Pages: 0, for 0% 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 – 1

“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.”