Glasscity Volume 1, Reviewed

How about a hardboiled detective procedural story set 100 years into the future in a Glasgow inspired mega city where bagpipes lead one man to doom and a little girl is kidnapped, with the looks of a stylish Scottish Blade Runner? You should try David Cranna and Roman Gubskii's Glasscity.

We do love sci-fi at CBNUK and we certainly love a megacity future law enforcement story. Now I know which story some of you are thinking about but forget that as this is something different. A Scottish-ish based future city imagined as Glasburgh or Glasscity to locals is the setting for Glasscity Comics with which David Cranna hopes to set not only this three-part story of a little girl's kidnapping but also a host of tie-in and one-off books. With David managing to comfortably get the first two volumes fully funded on Kickstarter it's a good time to get on board and involved in not only this developing series but a wider publishing collection. This is entertainment full of grit and sorrow, not for the fainthearted and certainly for mature audiences.

So, let’s start with the art. The first thing that stands out in Roman Gubskii's art has to be the use of colour. The opening sequence is very pedestrian, it’s standardized but vibrant and not particularly special. However this is deliberate, it’s playing with the happy go lucky build up before the snap twist and hard colour change that hits like a shot to the head. The brooding, dark colours instantly sell this story as something more sinister and this new muted neon and pastel smothered palette creates a very gritty atmospheric tone. The colour choice throughout offers a wonderfully stylized experience that feels very special. Romans clever use of colour extenuates what is already very effective art but also encapsulates the bigger emotions to the beats the story delivers. It’s a unique delivery that consistently adds to the overall mood in an unwaveringly decisive manner.

Romans art contains fine line inks dense with detail offering perfectly sci-fi styled landscapes and tech. Glasburgh is a sprawling megacity of gritty noir sci-fi grandiose architecture teeming with life and a dark underbelly. The use of light and shade work is also exceptional throughout adding greatly to the stylised elements. Roman handles characters with strong emotion adeptly.

Lettering for this one is handled by Ryan Bielak who manages the enormity of internal, external and machine dialogue with clear and clever presentation finishing the visual art ideally. Strangely, of all this fully accomplished art, my favourite panels come from the shaving scene - the running tap and blood drop just hold a very beautiful quality.

On to the story then. David Crannas Glasscity Volume 1 is very excellent storytelling right from its opening chapter. It's an opener that really grabs you by the scruff of the neck with its soft play beginnings to gallows humour, pulling the rug from under you with a snapshot reveal. It raises a dark smile certainly while making a statement for what to expect going forward. This isn’t the fairytale story of a man finding himself thanks to the stirring sound of bagpipes. No, don’t be stupid. That level of naivety will leave you like Akihito. You must be under no illusion that Glasscity is a dismal city with a grimy underworld, a place that punishes dreams and kills hope while failing those that need it most. It's an opener with a perfect statement of intent.

The shift in mood is also met with a shift in narrative delivery as the "private eye monologue" takes the lead. This internal dialogue continues throughout and manages incredibly to play itself straight without becoming cumbersome or leaning too heavily into the trope. It’s a very difficult thing to pull off even as an introduction but David manages to maintain it through the entire issue. In its earliest moments, where you’d expect some grandiose metaphor to cement the grizzled undertones, we instead get a much more playful twist utilizing the other expected weather detail trope to create a sort of anti trope metaphor in "The rain in this place is a dick, it just never fucking stops" I mean come on that’s pretty brilliant.

Anyway, Glasscity is the story of Detective Gabriel (Gabe) Gatti, he’s the one delivering the fine commentary and his younger partner Detective Jacob Munro. They share an interesting buddy cop relationship with Gatti being the grizzled long in the tooth seasoned cop with the sad past to Munro's fresh-faced privileged sharpshooter young gun. After dealing with happy go unlucky Akihito, and some exposition dealing with Gatti's five year anniversary from his daughter's kidnapping, the morning after the night before brings news of a new kidnapping of a girl, same age, same hair colour and same eye colour as his own daughter. This drags Gattis and Munro into a new investigation. The police procedural takes on rooftop chases and dirty cop bypasses into violent action and the uncovering of a larger conspiracy of a finely executed Detective story. The story is full of what you’d expect from the genre but the delivery is wild.

By the end, I was fully invested and the last two pages sum everything up perfectly. What the fuck? And Who is Plum?

For fans of hardboiled detectives, crack shot partners, gritty sci-fi police procedural stories, mature language and action sequences, life-changing bagpipe experiences, rain, noir elements, internal monologues, reimagined future Scotland and super stylish eye-pleasing art with dramatic colours I’d recommend getting Glasscity Volume 1. To get your copy head over to glasscitycomics.bigcartel.com. Where you can pick up both physical and digital copies. While stocks last there's also the super limited issue 0 - the book is the 28 pages originally printed for this story which collectors will find particularly appealing. It’s also worth noting volume 2 was fully funded earlier this month with fulfilment expected by January which hopefully means it's only a matter of time for it to be available once backers receive theirs.

Review: 4.5/5