In Casual Fling #1, a seemingly loving wife, Jennifer Ryan, has a one night stand with a questionable white-collar gentleman, Alex Miles. But what starts as a night of passion soon turns into a regrettable journey of fear. Comic veteran Jason Starr (Wolverine Max, The Returning) and artist Dalibor Talajic (Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe) invite us along for a tale of infidelity and a guy that just won’t take no for an answer. It’s a story that shows that sex with the wrong person can have dangerous consequences.
Jennifer Ryan has it all: a loving, stay-at-home hubby, two beautiful children, and a partnership with a successful law firm. So how does she mess it all up? By sleeping with a man who isn’t her husband. A man who may not even be what he appears to be.
Writing stories about infidelity can be tricky, but Starr and Talajic get things off to a great start. The first issue does an excellent job of showing how good Jennifer is at neglecting her life. She’s a successful attorney with terrible time management skills. She misses school events for her kids, ignores her spouse, and lacks the basic communication that would fix a lot of her everyday problems. It’s the perfect setup for a character who’s about to reap what she sowed.
The sins of Jennifer’s past only begin to unravel slightly in the first book with just a few small hints of Alex’s crazy. But the climax at the end is worth picking up Casual Fling #1 for alone. Casual Fling fits into a lot of different genre boxes but there are definitely some homages to classic stalker flicks like Fatal Attraction and Sliver. Could be a coincidence as well, but Alex Miles shares the same first name as Glenn Close character in Fatal Attraction, Alex Forrest.
As far as the art is concerned, Dalibor Talajic provides some strategic and straightforward pencil work to Casual Fling #1. There are close to no captions at all and you can still follow the story very well. The characters feel genuine, and the art style feels perfect, giving the book a ’90s movie kind of vibe. The transitions work and make you want to turn the page to see what happens next.
Casual Fling #1 is off to a terrific start. The fun moving forward is seeing how much of a nightmare Jennifer has created for herself. The dialogue is decent, the imagery works and so far the story remains a bit unpredictable. This is a book you’ll want to add to your list during your next shopping trip.
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