The Visitor #6 Spotlight: Penciling & Inking

The Visitor #6 Cover A by Amilcar Pinna

 

While I appreciated Soo Lee stepping in to help out with the penciling and inking on The Visitor #5, it is with MJ Kim that this journey began. So, with The Visitor series winding to a close, it's nice to have her back on board for this final installment. This helps immediately root us in our characters, especially with Kubo-sama demonstrating his awesome powers of mind control.

 

 

I'm not a fan of panels without narrative or dialogue. I usually see a series of slow action/reaction panels as an extravagance in comics, given the strict page limits publishers often impose. Yet these three panels on page one of The Visitor #6 are drawn with such a sure hand, and reveal just how hard Talia is fighting Kubo-sama for control of her own body and mind.

Fight Kubo-sama off, Talia! You can do it!

 

 

MJ Kim also utilizes some of the tricks of the drawing trade to amp up the intensity in The Visitor #6. Usually, I appreciate fully drawn-in backgrounds. But the way Kubo-sama emerges from this field of black not only imbues him with more presence, but gives him a 3D look.

 

One area in which Soo Lee really excelled in The Visitor #5 was in her portrayal of The Visitor. I don't know if I can say that MJ Kim tops her portrayal in The Visitor #6. Yet I like the way that MJ Kim gives him a real alien presence in this panel.

If you haven't yet caught The Visitor train, or are reading my blog for the first time, don't worry. The Visitor is really a good guy. And no, he doesn't have a sliding jaw, or implant embryos in Human hosts.

Here's another panel in which Kubo-sama's power is so clearly on display. In addition to employing an inked-in background, MJ Kim also breaks panel boundaries, and utilizes the power of white space. You'll find more inked-in panels that reveal the power arcing off Kubo-sama, and Talia breaking into the white areas of the page, in The Visitor #6.

I'm not necessarily a fan of the direction lines MJ Kim and Soo Lee use in The Visitor. Still, I like how The Visitor leaps into the air here. While he may lack the power of mind control, the way he can summon electrical charges and seemingly defy gravity in this way remind me a little of the Jedi in the Star Wars prequels.

The Visitor, Kubo-sama, and Talia serve as powerful characters on which to support this six-issue series. All of them may not survive to resurface again in later series. Then again, given the revelation in one of the three epilogues that close out The Visitor #6, you never know.

I'd certainly be interested in seeing Kubo-sama take on Toyo Harada, The Visitor face off against Rai, or Talia...well, I'd love to see Talia team up with any Valiant hero, or take on any villain.

Great job, MJ Kim. Thanks for ending The Visitor series in such a powerful way!

Dragon Dave