Savage #4 Review: Coloring

 

Savage 4 Pre-order Cover by Peach Momoko

 

In Savage #4, colorist Triona Farrell returns Kevin Sauvage to an England overrun by the paleolithic creations of Project Bizarre. But first, she helps us feel and understand Kevin's older brother Henry.

As Henry talks about his upbringing, we see him wearing green shorts, while baby Kevin is clothed entirely in green. The color green is associated with nature. During my visits to England, what stood out was how vibrant and green the landscape was. 

There's also the century-plus tradition of British Racing Green. When British company Jaguar bought out the Stewart Formula One team twenty years ago, they immediately painted their custom-built racing cars green. This was despite the fact that the green pigments made the paint heavier, and thus the cars fractionally slower.

Then again, Triona Farrell is Irish, and green is her national color...

Triona Farrell livens her panels with pastels. This works well with My Little Pony fan Henry. Here we see Henry clutching his favorite toy. His My Little Pony--so dear to him--is echoed in his sister's skirt and shirt color, as well as in his beloved Nanny's sweater.

As in the previous panel, Triona casts Henry in the shade, while Kevin, and all those who fully embrace him, are fully illuminated.

Here we see beautiful and historic London, now in the grips of laser-wielding dinosaurs. Their action is so frenetic, and their chaos they cause so disrupting, that everything in the background looks pink. This reminds me of the way Triona colored a panel in Savage #3, when we look up from the boiling lava, and see Kevin standing far away on the rim of the volcano. 

The dinosaurs certainly seem bent on recreating it, much the same as a volcanic eruption would.

With Henry's return to the present, Triona Farrell reminds us of his childhood love of the My Little Pony Franchise. When you feel as though everyone has rejected you, you can always find welcome and belonging in a fictional universe.

Henry barely inhabits this world. He lives in a spartan London flat with little decoration or personality. Even the color of the money he drops on the floor for the tramp to pick up seems muted. In comparison, the tramp is colored in Earth tones, including green. While Henry doesn't belong to this world, the homeless man clearly does.

 

The first time we see Kevin, he's not flying into Heathrow Airport. He's not taking a cab on a crowded street, or riding the Underground to London. Instead, he's walking across the green and vibrant English countryside. 

Whereas Henry is removed from nature, Kevin inhabits it. He is a hero of everything real, and against everything that would separate us from the here and now.

 

In Savage #4, Triona often colors the background, and especially the sky, in colors that symbolize the mood of her characters, a particular scene, or the feelings she wishes to evoke. At times, I wish the background coloring changed less from panel to panel. Nevertheless, in her hands, even the simplest of images become beautiful.

Well done on Savage #4, and this entire series, Triona Farrell!

Dragon Dave