This is the first digital comic I’ve actually bought, and that was mainly because the profits were being donated to Puerto Rico at the time, as I knew nothing about the comic. It’s not much of a gamble because even if I didn't like it, a few dollars went to a good cause.
As luck would have it, I did like it, so that was a nice surprise. I still prefer paper, but some people don’t have a print publisher behind them (at least yet) so I need to accept it’s a handy way of finding some new comics. We’ll see if I ever really adapt to this new-fangled digital world....
Anyway, this is quite a beautiful looking strip, watercolours giving it a slightly unusual look compared to the standard US comic fare (and making it seem less digital, ironically enough for me), and making this look a very accomplished debut issue.
The main disappointment on the story side is that it could have done with more space. The story’s central premise of a world of haves and have nots is not particularly original, but it is a reliable staple of sci-fi and a good concept around how social division manifests itself is can quickly wash away (pun kind of intended....) the familiarity of the trope. In Saltwater, the idea of the underclasses being typically below the waterline, while the beautiful and wealthy side of life is on the surface, all sun-drenched and wilfully ignoring what goes on beneath the water, definitely works to breathe new life into the premise.
The script is quite full, managing to carry out quite a bit of world-building, introduce a protagonist and a supporting cast, and have a bit of adventure as well, all in a single issue. While this could have been too much for a brief page count, the equivalent of the dreaded info-dump, it is deftly done- at no point are we overloaded with captions or similar attempts to fit in more detail than a page should hold (indeed, the art is always given sufficient breathing space to show off its strengths). The sole complaint about all this detail is that it needs more, which is hardly a negative. If a first issue leaves you wanting to know more about the world in which the story is set, to see more of the protagonist and wondering if there are any future issues planned, it’s certainly doing something right.
From Saltwater: The Anarchy of Water by Rick Quinn & Dana Obera
