Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: aftershock, backways, eleonora carlini, HRL, Justin Jordan, magic, occult, silvia tidei

Backways #3 Review: A Tight Narrative with a Giant Demon Wolf

A demonic shadow wolf monster makes its way into the Backways and begins feeding immediately. However, its targeted prey is Anna and Coyote Bones, and it finds them in short order. Our two heroes must duck and weave through the Backways if they are to survive, and, if it catches up, they need to have some impressive tricks up their sleeves.

This is easily the tightest and most focused issue of Backways. A single threat dominates the comic, and the story is focused upon Anna and Coyote Bones escaping it.

This has its positives and its negatives. On the bright side, it keeps the tension high and the narrative driven.

On the down side, there is far less exploration of the Backways and less dialogue between Anna and Coyote Bones.

That being said, we get to see just how resourceful these two women are, and we learn just how madly dedicated Anna is to finding and saving Sylvia. Anna is a bit of a badass, and nothing says badass like gouging an eye out.

Some of the mysteries of the Backways are starting to rise to the surface in this issue, if very slowly. It's just enough to tease but not enough to give anything away.

Anna herself is still a frustratingly vague character, but I still dig it. I want to know more, but the weird dichotomy of Coyote Bones being the animated magic wielder and Anna being the closed off "normal" girl is interesting.

Eleonora Carlini's artwork continues to be the right mixture of energetic and cartoonish to bring this strange world of demon wolves and magic-wielders to life. The design of that aforementioned wolf is amazing once it's shown in detail. Silvia Tidei's color art is a beautifully wild mixture of purples and reds to cinch the dangerous yet quirky feel of this world.

Backways #3 is another fun and dark issue of this magic series. The comic doesn't have as much entertaining and winding dialogue as the previous two issues, but it's made tense and fast-moving by the wolf threat. In any case, this one earns another recommendation. Check it out.

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