Review: Basketful of Heads #5
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer:Â Joe Hill
Artist:Â Leomacs
Colors:Â Dave Stewart
Letters:Â Deron Bennett
Reviewer:Â Tony Farina
Summary
Basketful of Heads #5 begins with torture, moves to confession, and ends with a weakness. June’s day has gone from bad to worse that is for sure. Welcome back to Brody Island.
Positives
Leomacs and Dave Stewart are essentially perfect. Grindhouse horror with just enough magical realism to make it all seem crazier is not an easy lift and yet, there seems to be nothing they can’t do. Almost nothing happens in this issue. June spends most of her time in a cell, but even that is riveting because of Leomacs and Stewart’s superb art and colors. What is June thinking? There it is right on her face. Who is the bad guy? There it is, right on his face. Do you want to see what it looks like when June is electrocuted while that monster Hank looks on gleefully? Well, that is right below here, so you will get your wish. Honestly, I want this to be a movie right now, but I want it to be an animated movie drawn by Leomacs and colored by Dave Stewart. DC Universe are you listening? Please.
Joe Hill is one hell of a tension builder. Again, as I said, nothing happened in this book, but everything happened. Crank, crank, crank goes the tensionmeter. So good.
Negatives
While Joe Hill knows how to crank up the tension, he has yet to figure out how the villain can tell his story without it seeming like a villain telling his story. It is not Hill’s fault. It is a problem across all stories. Yes, he could have just had a flashback and shown us what happened, which he still does here, but he also has to have a reason for the flashback, and so, the baddie talks while the goodie listens. It is problematic.
Verdict
I am in the tank for this series pretty much because I went through it three times just to look at the brilliance that is Leomacs. I can’t tell you enough how great he is. I do love that Basketful of Heads is unafraid to pull punches. It lives inside the slasher/grindhouse/last girl world, while also pointing some disembodied fingers at that world. This book is not for the faint of heart nor is it for a causal fan, but it really does a wonderful job of telling a cinematic story on the pages of a comic book.
