Savage #3 Review: Lettering

 

Savage #2 Cover B by Joe Quinones

At first glance, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou's lettering seems more restrained in Savage #3. Still, his contributions to the issue are substantial, if more nuanced this time around. Take, for example, these missives from his butler.

 

 

Here is Kevin, living the life of a billionaire teen on his own private island. Despite living in a tree house, he's got all the luxuries money can buy. This includes a team of butlers. Yet he has Al, his head butler, handwrite notes to him on a ruled pad, roughly snip them out, and presumably leave them somewhere Kevin will notice them. You know, when he wants to.

 

 

Being covert means Kevin has to look to find his butlers, or at least his top man Al. Hassan repeats the theme of cut out paper scraps for his narrative box (unruled, this time). Big bold capital letters announce Kevin's relieved to find Al. Even without murmuring "Ummm", we know he's feeling indecisive here. Yet Kevin musters his resolve and tells Al to stop walking away.

I wonder: would Kevin run after Al if the man continued walking?

After meeting her in the research laboratories of Project Bizarre, Kevin seems fascinated by the idea that someone like Mae could be genuinely interested in him. Of course, Kevin's upbringing didn't prepare him for the dynamics of adult relationships. Still, the touch of red for the last word, and the way Kevin stretches it out, suggest he's getting a little hot under the collar bedecked with dino-teeth. (Or are they claws?)

The way the balloon seems to melt out of shape makes me think Kevin's had enough playacting for one day. At least, when action strikes, Hassan's first sound effect of the issue seems sufficient to jolt Kevin back to reality.

 

And if that's not enough to wake Kevin from his fantasies, this definitely is:

 

 

All you can say is Wow! when Kevin's groan bursts out of the dialogue balloon. The ellipses show us Kevin is flustered. His mind is clearly cycling through all kinds of names for this monster before he hits upon one he likes. As for the shapes of his dialogue balloons, they start conventionally enough, but after the groan burst out, they look even more jagged than the notes Al was cutting out and leaving for Kevin. 

There's another scene, later on, that you'll want to look for. Not to throw out any spoilers, but Hassan fills dialogue balloons with symbols. You really have to work out what's going on. They might take you longer to solve than it takes Kevin to latch onto a name for this strange monster. Still, they're fun.

Well done, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Can't wait to see how you'll enhance our reading experience in Savage #4!

Dragon Dave