Today is a good day for #1 issues from Image Comics. Ghosted and Sheltered both have their introductory issues today and both knock it out of the park.
Sheltered is billed as a pre-apocalyptic tale. That terminology peaked my interest thinking that it was a play on post-apocalyptic stories. After reading the issue, it made perfect sense. Sheltered is the story of a group of preppers. No, this isn’t the comic book version of Beverly Hills 90210, preppers is what the sub-culture of people that are preparing for the end of the world are called. They create entire communities, hid away from the big cities, where bomb shelters and food stockpiles are considered normal. It’s the type of people you see on the TV Show Doomsday Preppers.
The creative team of writer/creator Ed Brisson, illustrator and co-creator Johnnie Christmas and colors by Shari Chankhamma have created an engaging story that holds quite a few surprises, which makes reviewing it extremely hard. I want to say, “just go buy it and you won’t be sorry”, but I’ll give it a shot.
Brisson brings us up to speed pretty quick by allowing us to listen in to a radio conversation, radio being the ham or CB variety. You know, those things that Bo and Luke Duke talked on? It turns out that preppers are a suspicious lot and don’t trust Uncle Sam or much of anybody outside of their little group. They are close to completing plans to have their community be self sustaining for many years when there is an attack. An attack that, honestly caught me totally by surprise.
Sheltered is a book that requires, no demands, a second reading. You realize the second time through that you missed many things. An innocent panel might not be so innocent. That knowing glance between to characters might have more meaning than you thought. It’s that type of storytelling that gets you hooked. The creators have done a masterful job of developing the characters and story for a first issue. You are interested from the beginning and you will end up craving for more. So, I guess I am left saying, “just go buy it and you won’t be sorry” after all.