Shutter #3 Review

I struggled to find any negative aspects of this issue of Shutter. In fact, once you get to the end of this review (Please read the whole thing. I appreciate it when people do that), you’ll notice that, spoilers, there are none. It’s a rare comic these days that I have zero issues with. Even the best comics have their fair share of problems, but Shutter just is not one of those comics. It’s so profoundly different from everything else on the stands these days that it always seems like the best book in any given week. But it isn’t just the whacky surrealism of this book that makes it so different from everything else. No, Joe Keatinge and Leila Del Luca have created something profoundly unique with this book. It’s a gem, and perhaps an under-appreciated gem. Either way, this is a book that everyone needs to be reading, no matter what you’re looking for.

At its core, Shutter is a fairly simple adventure comic, but with layers of mystery, intrigue, and talking lizards layered on top of it. As absurd as that may sound, this issue takes a talking lizard and turns his story into a crazy emotional point for the book within the first three pages. Initially, it’s sort of like what I would imagine an intense acid trip being like (and maybe it was), but it quickly turns into a short, but heartfelt story about a lizard living a normal life. Within the space of three pages, Joe Keatinge makes this character feel relatable, makes him feel human. As surreal as this story is, everything feels somehow grounded at the same time, and everything that happens doesn’t seem unrealistic, in fact, it seems like normal human struggle, but with crazy messed up talking animals instead of crazy messed up humans.

That said, the real selling point of this book are the actual humans; Alain and Kate especially. Kate Kristopher is the book’s main protagonist, and she seems to be going through some type of mid life crisis, because she exhausted all the most exciting parts of her life as a child, as established in the series’ introductory issue. Once you get past the initial weirdness (like cats riding on dinosaurs), you will likely begin to realize that this book is just a character study, looking at the everyday problems that real people go through every single hour of every single day, but blown up to larger proportions. It’s a very heartfelt story, and this applies especially to Alain and Kate, who have their fair share of issues, be them family problems, social issues, or simply being bored and fed up with their lives. These are things that people go through all the time, and that’s part of the reason that this book manages to feel so grounded without being dark and gritty all the time.

Sure, the dark and gritty occasionally finds its way into this book, but it never dominates an entire issue. Instead, Keatinge does a great job balancing the occasional dark and gritty bit with humorous panels that just make the book seem downright fun. At times, that sense of fun may be buried under an avalanche of human pain and loss, but its always undoubtedly there, and that does wonders for this book. Just when the characters seem to be beaten down and at their lowest, it’s nearly always the case that there’s something fun and interesting to get them out of that situation, be it a cute talking alarm clock cat or something as simple as having a good friend there for them. It’s at these points that the world of Shutter is at its most alive, its most vibrant.

And none of this would be possible without Leila Del Luca. Her stellar art propels the book to a completely new level, making everything coalesce and truly come together. Her art is vibrant and rich, and does a stellar job of conveying the emotions of the characters, as well as portraying the world in which the comic takes place. There is no doubt in my mind that Shutter would be the comic that it is without Leila Del Luca’s pencils. Of course, the art is always important for comics, but I think that for Shutter in particular, it elevates the comic book from being amazing to being a masterpiece, and an undeniable gem. Shutter is an example of what comics need more of these days.