Amparo, Roslyn – Coffin Kids #1 (with Previn Wong)

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Coffin Kids #1 (co-written by Previn Wong)

I try, on nearly a daily basis (although not weekends because I’m not that crazy) to be fair to the books I ramble about, try to pick out the good parts and give heaping benefits of the doubt to people who may or may not deserve that benefit. Coffin Kids is a first issue by Roslyn, so she’s undoubtedly still working out the kinks, and might have tons of quality work in her. All that being said, this issue was lousy in almost every measurable way. The main character is named Reaper, a kid who steals for a living and is also able to turn invisible. Why? I had no idea from reading the comic and no idea from the website, but happened across the letter that was sent with this comic and here it is: “Reaper has a gift and a curse. He absorbs light that burns his skin, but also allows him to disappear.” Um, OK. Still doesn’t make a lot of sense, and it really should have been somewhere in the comic in case people who aren’t reviewers read this, but I’ll play along. Reaper stumbles across a kid trapped in a coffin while robbing a house, and the kid communicates with him telepathically… somehow. None of these powers are considered worth noting by the characters in any way. Reaper, after starting to free the kid, hears a noise and has to get out of there because he doesn’t care about anybody but himself. Why he has to leave when he can turn himself invisible isn’t explained in the slightest but again, OK, I can still play along. Reaper then, after a tiny amount of soul searching, decides to go back for the kid but instead runs into the kid’s older brother in the house. Again, for somebody with the power of invisibility, he sure doesn’t seem to have much of a handle on when to use it, and ends up getting into a fight with Robert. Maybe he only gets to be invisible for short periods of time, which would explain this a bit… if it was in fact explained to the reader at any point. Reaper then gets captured and the story shifts suddenly into the perspective of Robert, but if I keep going I’ll ruin the whole story for the people who do want to read this. The art was fine, all the shadows helped with the whole creepy/campy vibe she seemed to be going for. We still don’t have any hints about who or what is dragging kids into coffins or why, and it’s entirely possible things are going to be explained perfectly in the next few issues and I’ll end up looking like a total jerk for this review. It wouldn’t be the first time. Still, there has to be something to make me want to come back to a comic, and this first issue didn’t leave me clamoring for more. $2.95