Helm #1 – Action Lab
Written & Created by Jehanzeb Hasan
Illustrated & Colored by Mauricio Caballero
Colors by Miguel Angel Reyes
Letters by DC Hopkins
It’s no secret that, if you’ve listened to one of our podcasts in the past, I am a sucker for stories of magic, witches and folklore. Give me an ancient world full of sorcery, ancient maps and creatures not of this Earth and I’m a happy guy. Still…those stores aren’t always done well, so I always enter with a bit of hesitation. Let’s enter the fictional world of Helm #1 from Action Lab.
The story really has two main focuses. The first is on a an anarchist and magic maker named Luna Lumere (that’s how she’s described in the book.) She appears to be looking for a young man, but we don’t really get to find out why she’s looking for him in this issue. The second focus of the story is on the young man himself, Eldrick Spellsong, who appears to be of college age but is at a bit of a crossroads in his life right now. There are some hints here and there about what is going on with Eldrick, but again, nothing too concrete. Without spoiling anything, he runs into someone very interesting on the train that he is on, and those panels felt very authentic to me. What he doesn’t know is, things are about to get more interesting, because Lumere appears to be after him. She does run into some trouble along the way, which allows us as readers a chance to see a bit of what she can do. This first issue winds down with Lumere trying to avoid the guards that are after her and find her way onto the train. Whether or not she accomlishes that goal will have to wait until the next issue.
The first thing that strikes me about this book is the art. If you don’t know the name Mauricio Caballero, you definitely should. I felt like I was looking at high end storyboards for an animated series. Speaking of which, the combination of the amazing art, colors and writing actually gave me a real Disney vibe when I was reading this. The charming relationship between Eldrick and his train companion is what really got me thinking along those lines. Eldrick is just such a likeable character right off the bat, and I found myself wanting to learn more about him with every page. Luna Lumere seems like an intriguing villain, but I don’t feel like I got enough of her motives to understand her entirely. That certainly didn’t stop me from loving this book. Honestly, I feel like this is the best Action Lab story I have read so far. I’m interested to see how much the world opens up in future issues and get a few answers along the way. This is an across the board win for Action Lab, and I hope readers take notice so we can get more stories like this from them.
RATING: PULL / BUY