Last week, it was announced that Postal will be developed into an original television series for Hulu. Despite forcing me to get a Hulu subscription, this news had me jumping/squealing for joy…and almost made me able to forgive series writer Bryan Hill for the heart attack I experienced after last issue’s cliffhanger.
This week, Hill and artist Isaac Goodhart show us the fallout from that final page while also bringing us ever closer to all out war. Is it good?
Postal #15 (Image Comics)
Observations
- GOOD LORD! The first five pages are Heat-level awesome.
- Eden has a doctor’s office? I guess they’d have to, but it still seems weird.
- “May I ask you a personal question, Laura?”
- “You’re my doctor. That’s all you ask.”
- The above exchange is one of many reasons Laura Shiffron is my spirit animal.
- I love it when people assume Mark is weak and he proves them wrong like a boss.
- It’s very rare that something I read causes me to laugh out loud (I normally just LQTM), but Mark just caused me spit my coffee out.
- Rowan may be more sympathetic than before, but the hate and fury is still there—it’s just been displaced.
- “I’m smarter than all of you. It’s important that you trust that. My mind will keep us all alive.”
- Mark is definitely his mother’s son (and I love him for it).
Is It Good?
This issue is a perfect example why Postal is one of the best comics being published right now (and why someone was smart enough to buy the TV rights).
First, we start with a balls-to-the-wall action scene that Goodhart completely knocks out of the park. No dialogue—just expertly choreographed/sequenced violence. Goodhart does a panel and lettering effect on one page that in the hands of a lesser artist would have looked cheesy. In his, however, it’s fantastic, framing the visceral brutality against a cacophony of lethal sound.
When the dialogue comes back a few pages later, Hill is at the top of his game. Laura Shiffron arguing with her doctor is a perfect setup and he doesn’t let it go to waste. Hill also plants a seed for the reader with regards to how the people of Eden feel about Mark. A few pages later, Mark shows us why they’re completely wrong. He delivers two of my absolute favorite lines in the whole series, one of which cause the aforementioned coffee mishap.
As good as the scenes with Mark and Laura are, the one between Rowan and Curtis deserves recognition, as well. The tension between is a hair’s breadth away from unbearable. By the time they’re done talking, Hill has given us a solid reminder why despite his quest for personal redemption, Rowan is still a tainted soul.
If you’re not reading Postal yet, you still have time to get in on the ground floor of this before it explodes. Do you have any idea how much fun it is to tell my non-comic reading friends about how I was reading The Walking Dead and Outcast before they even knew what those things were? That’s geek hipster cred you can’t put a price on. (It’s also fun to taunt them with threats to spoil future plot points, but that’s just me being an ass).
If you are already reading Postal, then I’m sure you’ll agree that 2015’s best new comic series is finishing 2016 even stronger.
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