Recently I received an e-mail from Stephen Coughlin, the writer and artist of a comic called Sanctuary from Slave Labor Graphics.  He asked me to take a look at issues 1 through 4 of Sanctuary and then write up my opinions for all of you.  I really wish he hadn’t asked me to do this.  Because now I am going crazy in anticipation of the final two issues.

Stephen sent me the first four issues, but my ignorant self assumed that was the entire series, and missed out on the very obvious fact that it is actually a six issue series.  While reading #4 I thought, there is a whole lot of things that need to be explained before the end of this story.  I wonder how it will happen before the issue is over.

Well of course it didn’t happen because there are two more issues to go over all of that.  All of what though you ask?  Let me tell you.

Pitched as:

“It’s a murder/mystery set in an animal wildlife sanctuary used for animal testing. When an animal is found murdered in the 1st issue, the humans and animals become the suspects!”

I was already excited from these two sentences and I hadn’t even seen the covers yet.  Nor had I read a page of art, and therein lies the true excitement.  If you have watched and loved any of the classic kids cartoons that damn sure weren’t meant for kids like Secret of NIMH, Watership Down, or Wizards then this comic book should be a part of your life.

The story takes place at the before mentioned wildlife sanctuary.  A panda is brought in, and immediately pisses off all the other animals.  The scientists aren’t too thrilled either.  Every species in this comic has their own agenda and rules.  Coughlin upends what is expected from a “funny animal” book.  These characters aren’t written as animals who can talk like humans, but instead they are written like humans who happen to be animals.

There is love and politics and good and evil.  Stephen makes a much more dynamic animal kingdom than one would expect from a book with a panda on the cover.  (Yeah, its a dead panda but still some people don’t get it.)  Not since Carl Barks has a creator shown us so much about humans through animals.

You will have favorite characters, and you will have to look inside of yourself to accept this.  Because not every favorite is good.  Biff is the “bad guy” giraffe.   Which is grossly simplifying things.  He is such a great multi layered character that about the only description that fits is that he is in fact a giraffe.  Bad animals do noble things, good ones make tough choices we may not agree with.

The apes, the brotherhood of the lions and tigers, and the scariest spiders any of you have seen since you were a kid and watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.   Every animal has secrets, every species its own story.  Sanctuary was put in front of my face for free and guess what independent creators?  I’m now in love with it and will support the hell out of it.  Blogs, finances, press releases. All of it.

If you like mysteries, or animals, or love stories gone wrong, or coming of age tales, or just a good fucking read please go to the SLG site and download yourself some Sanctuary.

Best of all, Stephen has emailed me again.  Sanctuary is now an ongoing title.  Enjoy.

SLG site

http://www.slgcomic.com/

Sanctuary page on SLG

http://www.slgcomic.com/Sanctuary_c_269.html