Post by Meriades Rai on Jun 5, 2016 12:02:51 GMT -5
SILK #1 by Violet Mackenzie
You know you're onto a good thing when someone asks you what you're reading that's making you grin so much. I loved everything about this issue, from the fact that it throws the reader in at the deep end with a completely off-the-radar concept (whilst explaining, clearly and concisely, what's actually going on) to the all-too-rare use of first-person perspective, and to the absolutely perfect use of humour, which is more difficult to achieve than everything else put together.
I've tried a selection of Marvel's current 'fun and giggles' comics, and by and large they just try too damn hard and miss the mark by a considerable distance. Violet's writing here is so much more subtle and genuine and never falls into the trap of self-conscious, thigh-smacking, carrot-munching "Hey, look at me, ain't I a stinker?" vaudeville. The title character is simply charming and endearing, with just the right amount of self-deprecating cheekiness, and Violet has an incredible turn of phrase that leaves me seething with jealousy. The scene with the squirrel, for example, is just... so right. It's mad yet gentle, and it cleverly develops two characters - Silk and the Tinkerer, who thereafter can do no wrong in this reader's eyes - in one swoop.
The story is slick and clean, so completely uncluttered and the dialogue, both spoken and internal, is sparkling. Nightwatch - a character I'd never heard of, but who have now researched quickly on Wiki - is superbly sketched out, and Silk's deference to him as a colleague and father figure is beautifully (and again, so subtly) marked.
And, come on. Squirrel, y'all.
I can't iterate just how much I adored this. I simply can't.
Violet, if you vanish on us a second time then the sun will never shine again. More Silk please!