Bone God is the fourth story included in the Rippaverse comic universe anthology Saints and Sinners. It was written by Callum Edmunds and follows a group of explorers into a jungle temple where they hope to discover the secrets of the mysterious and ancient structure.After I finished, I realized that this review gets much more into spoilers than others I’ve written for this collection. So maybe just go out and read Saints and Sinners at this point since all four short-stories I’ve reviewed so far are highly recommended. But if you don’t mind some advanced knowledge of what happens, please continue reading. 

This story is a massive departure from the previous narratives included in Saints and Sinners for a few reasons. First, it has extensive dialogue. In fact, this may have more words spoken by characters than the previous three stories combined. Second, it is a self-contained story that could stand on its own either inside or outside of the Rippaverse universe. The story is open ended in a way, but if there was nothing more from these characters, I do think the story could be considered complete. This was a specific goal the author stated in the prologue and I think he succeeded. Third, Bone God is not connected to superpowers or the city of Florespark. This is a horror story that made me think of Indiana Jones mixed with The Descent. And possibly Alien, since I think one line of dialogue is an homage to that movie.

The art in this story is very smooth and has a lot of depth. The detail in each panel  is incredible and I found myself scanning over the pages multiple times only to find more pieces that I hadn’t noticed the first time. This is also a very dark setting (both the visuals and atmosphere), so lighting plays a prominent part in drawing attention. There are light beams, explosions, and mysterious lights that add the only bold color to the pages. I especially admired the flashlight beams illuminating slim areas of the temple, leaving to the imagination what could be lurking in the dark. The collaboration between the artist and author seems incredibly solid. The art amplifies the fear that this story tries to convey. The character’s expressions excellently depict their personalities and in some instances I would say even exaggerate to really emphasize their temperaments. I mentioned it in a previous Saints and Sinners review, but the onomatopoeia in this story sticks out as well. SHLUCK! SPLORCH! SHLURP! I would love for my own life to have these types of captions (well, maybe not these specific ones since they depict not-so-desirable events) These artists (Will Conrad and Bruno Hang) are very well suited to this genre of story.

The dialogue in Bone God, as I mentioned before, is extensive. The author really packed in a ton of words to each panel. At this point, I have to praise whoever laid out the dialogue balloons (apologies, I’m not sure who does this in a comic) for making the conversations flow correctly while also allowing room for the art. Each character has a distinct personality that fits a mold that will likely be recognizable. There is a cautious and experienced guide, a bumbling, chubby cartographer, spoiled sons with a feeling of invincibility, a munitions team who cares only to complete the goal with little regard for how, and the pompous lead archaeologist and wife. I was incredibly impressed by how much of this was conveyed in the first page of the book. A short speech by the lead archaeologist and the various responses and grumblings from the rest of the cast set the scene well. The characters all advance the plot in their own ways while also giving small amounts of backstory through the conversations revolving around the temple. The characters are also able to drive the story forward without seeming contrived. Each plot point happens because of a believable and logical progression stemming from the actions of the characters. They all act very much in character all the way through the adventure. Especially the end decision by the guide, Mr. Graves. Which I thought revealed a good amount of personality for Graves as well as explained why he would have survived so long in his chosen profession. The narrative is sprinkled throughout with many of these little glimpses into character traits. There is a massive amount of dialogue in this story and none of it is wasted.

Horror is a genre that I think is difficult to write. Similar to comedy in that not everyone finds the same things humorous, not everyone is scared by the same things. So writing something that is universally horrifying is a tall task. Basically, the only horror I actually enjoy are monsters (no ghosts, witches, or the like); and monster horror, especially, is a hard category to pull off visually. Since not everyone is scared by the same thing, a monster design may scare one person and just look goofy to another. The best way to avoid this is to show very little of the monster and let the reader fill in the blanks with their imagination. This is something I learned from growing up watching the X-Files. Their best episodes showed very little of the creatures. Since they know this is supposed to be scary, they will automatically think of a design that would terrify them. This method also solves another issue in short visual stories, such as this one, in that depictions of the monster don’t take up a lot of space that the author wants to use for the plot. Bone God does this flawlessly. Between the author’s writing and the artists’ low-light drawings, we see only a small amount of the creepy creatures lurking in the temple. The initial introduction to the thing as a reflection in the eye of Graves were my favorite panels. Also, the final panel seems straight out of a movie. However, I would like to address something about this as it pertains to the author’s introduction about not wanting to create “enormous ripples in a world…” This being seems to be some sort of powerful, cosmic, entity that was released from its prison. I would imagine that would create some rather large ripples in the Rippaverse. But I would absolutely welcome that. The continuation  of the story of the Bone God would be a great addition to the Rippaverse universe.    

This story was probably my favorite in Saints and Sinners. Both because it had monster elements that I rarely see done well, but also because it is one of the few that really could be a self-contained story without knowledge of any of the rest of this comic universe. I certainly hope Callum gets additional opportunities at writing since it’s clear to me that he has a solid grasp on the medium. Especially in the genre chosen for Bone God.

-Patrick Jones