Step by Bloody Step review: A stunning new fantasy book has arrived

Step by Step Bloody Step It is not easy.

A new series of adventures takes place in a fantasy world. The story is told from the perspective of a young girl and her protector, a Giant dressed in armor. The Girl grows as they make their way through increasingly treacherous terrain, and by the end of the oversized first issue, new questions arise around the Giant’s identity and the strange blue men following them.

So, Step by Bloody StepIt is up to the readers to decide whether to read a book in silent format without all the iconic characters who are so popular in American comics. It’s a challenge to the industry to carve out a space for art-driven comic books to thrive. And most importantly, it’s a challenge for its creators.

Simon “Si” Spurrier is known for his evocative prose and distinctive dialogue, but not for restraint in his scripting. His art team can take over the narration. Can he do that? Artist Matías Bergara has proven that he can draw basically any idea, but can he tell a silent story with the clarity and depth that keeps an audience engaged?

Yes. Spurrier, Bergara and colorist Matheus Lópes are joined by Emma Price and Emma Price as they try something new with their latest project. It is a huge success.

Spurrier and Bergara’s partnership began at a level most creative teams only dream of reaching. CodaBoom! Studios’ 12-issue miniseries. Boom! Studios is one of the most acclaimed fantasy comics in the past decade. It features a reworking of Tolkienesque mythology and focuses on the deteriorating love story between a Bard and his Orc warrior wife. Bergara had worked previously on horror and gritty crime comics. Cannibal Sons of AnarchySpurrier was his ideal partner, who gave Spurrier a lot of creative ideas and helped him push the boundaries of emotional storytelling. It’s simple: Coda rocks. It is, however, a completely different book. Step by Step Bloody StepWith dense narration and dialog that give life to characters and the environment with incredible detail,

New series It is a figureative work. The reader fills in details of the story using a set of visuals. Coda was an international hit, and one of the benefits of having a book with no text is that you don’t have to translate it. Silence can be universal. Although there are technically some word balloons that include dialogue, they’re not as common. Step by Step Bloody Step, it’s a made-up language of symbols and shapes. It’s not meant to be understood, but to indicate that the Girl and the Giant don’t speak. They communicate nonverbally; affection comes from touch, not words, whether it’s the Giant holding the Girl when she’s a toddler, or the Girl grabbing the Giant’s finger as she gets older and they start to walk side-by-side.

Image: Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara/Image Comics

Lopes was previously colorist for Spurrier. DreamingA series which required more visual diversity than the others. Coda. There, he enhanced the exquisite detail of Bilquis Evely’s linework while heightening the surreality of the book’s limitless dreamscape. His colors mesh just as beautifully with Bergara’s art on Step by Step Bloody StepThis is because he can create an emotionally charged atmosphere using his palettes.

The color story of this first issue reflects the Girl’s growing consciousness, beginning with a primarily blue palette, then gradually incorporating warmer colors as the Girl emerges from the Giant’s palm. There’s no green until an important scene that connects the color to the Girl in a very significant way, and once that happens, the palette explodes. Late in the issue there’s a montage page that cycles through pink, purple, teal, green, and blue panels as the pair travels across different lands, and the drastic color shifts accentuate both the passage of time and the distances crossed.

Step by Step Bloody Step is full of grandiose environmental spectacle and giant-vs.-monster action, but there’s just as much magic in the smaller moments, which show off a different side of Bergara’s ingenuity. She reaches out for the flower and sees the Giant letting go of her hand the first time she does. This three-panel sequence does brilliant things with spacing and perspective to highlight the Girl’s ignorance of the danger around her as well as her infantile mindset. The first panel shows the Girl sitting naked in the snow, staring up at the flower that isn’t in the same panel, but in the gray gutter between panels. Although the way that the flower cuts through the panels borders is subtle, it shows how innovative Bergara views the relationship between three-dimensional spaces and two-dimensional images.

Image: Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara/Image Comics

The flower effectively functions as its own panel — despite starting in the first and landing in the gutter — but it is also planted in a physical space outside of the images that surround it. Bergara uses a clever visual trick to do this. Bergara frames the third panel so the Girl is reaching out for the same flowers as the one in the gutter. The final image shows the Giant crushing a huge wolf-bat creature in front of the Girl. This increases the depth. The positioning of the flower actively pulls the reader’s eye away from the action, much like it does the Girl’s attention.

Is this a tiny moment that I’m potentially Too Are you fixated? Maybe, but that’s a big part of the joy of a purely visual comic experience. These choices are more prominent because there is no need to say anything. And the opposition that Bergara establishes in this short sequence pays off in big ways by setting up the issue’s first two-page splash, an image that hammers home the conflicting natures of the series’ two leads.

Image: Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara/Image Comics

Presented from a zoomed out view with a large pond in the foreground, the splash page contrasts the Girl’s innocence and serenity with the Giant’s violent aggression, putting them on opposite pages facing opposite directions. Viewed as its own isolated piece of art, the splash page communicates a message of rebirth and hope as a lone flower takes bloom in a frozen landscape, its glowing warmth connecting it to the golden roots seen under the water’s surface.

But it’s a delicate hope. While the Girl may be able ignore violence in her immediate environment, how will she react as she grows older? Is that faith possible to keep pure, or is it susceptible to being corrupted by the world around her? It is called “The book.” Step by Bloody Step, so it’s very likely that innocence will be tested as the Girl and the Giant face bigger and bigger threats.