Territory #1 is a comic written by Blake McCarthy with art by Chris Sassman and colors by Ichsan Ansori. A pair of hunters come across something significant that will change their lives. This is a post-apocalyptic comic with spiritual and science fiction elements that stars a couple of friends. The leading lady for this tale is Alkia, she is a skilled hunter who searches for the deeper meaning in everything and she is beholden to her rituals. Her friend is Neebo, he is a hunter as well but he has a much more skeptical and cynical outlook when it comes to these major events. These two butt heads often. The story begins with Alkia preparing to shoot a deer when she is distressingly interrupted by Neebo. He tells her that they must leave this place as something big and dangerous is incoming. What they see next will change and reinforce their perspectives on everything. This takes place in an undisclosed formerly modern country with ruined buildings overrun with foliage. The violence here is hunting-based so there is blood and gore with some gruesome attacks. The pacing is overall steady but it can move a bit slower due to thick text bubbles. The tone is exploratory and there are a couple high intensity moments. The dialogue is conversational with spiritual language and back-and-forths. There are at least a couple word-heavy pages here. This is a debut comic that shows us the state of the world and the mindset of the characters within as we follow two people who look at things differently.
The art here is detailed and drawn in a modern style with a slight amount of grit. The color range here mainly consists of browns, grays, and green, sort of like a tribalistic palette. Due to the fact that all the buildings we see are overrun with foliage the scenery is ever-present. There are vines, bushes, and large trees with thick roots all around. While they eventually return to camp Alkia and Neebo spend the majority of their time going from building to building and just generally roaming about in search anything useful. The backgrounds pretty much always show the surroundings of the scene and hammer home the fact that much has changed. The expression level here is above-average as these characters strongly react to what is going on. The emotional range largely consists of fear and terror with some happiness and joy as well. The faces have well-drawn features and showcase all the different expressions with clarity. The violence here involves arrows and has a large amount of blood with some gruesomely gory moments. The action scenes tend to be on the shorter side but they flow smoothly.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like post-apocalyptic stories with spiritual and science fiction elements that star a lady-led duo with violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Blood, gore, violence.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Oh Great One, your blessings continue…”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bmccomics/territory-issue-1/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22
Violent Pages: 2, for 9% 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 – 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 – 5
“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.”
