Ghostly Tides 1. Kim Roberts (Writer), Dennis Pacher (Art), Colours & Letters (Chris Allen). Swampline Comics (2017)

A very engaging and enjoyable pirate story that thoroughly enjoys and embraces the genre. Finn competes in the annual Pirate Trials on Skull Island and looses. He encounters a witch in a tavern and follows her to Swamp Island and discovers that this was a very big mistake. As the witch and the resurrected skeletons of the Black Pirate and his crew sail for revenge, Finn and his friend Sam have to try and stop them.
This first issue solves the problems of a first issue with great energy and smart storytelling. The context for the story is swiftly established, it is a pirate fantasy story with a gullible hero and a dangerous villain. The trouble for the hero and the villain are smartly set up and the reader is nicely set up for the continuing story. The writing by Kim Roberts is smart and economical, there is a lot of story in the issue, it never feels rushed or crowded, the action is fast, furious and suitably bloody.
Dennis Pacher's art is friendly, full of wonderful details and simply exploding with energy and life. The cast are given enormous character and expressiveness, they are all bigger than life which they need to be, the skeleton crew are as lively as the mortal cast cast. The action is wonderful, it is very brutal when it needs to be and at the same time has exactly the humorous edge that it needs to keep the atmosphere playful. The panel layouts are a joy, the gutter decorations are a pleasure.
Chris Allen has coloured the story in exactly the bright colours that the tone of the story calls for, the colours bring out the details of the art and the nuances of the story. The sound effects
are perfectly placed and pitched, the story is already loud enough , the effects just add the emphasis exactly where it is needed.
A great fun comic by very talented creators that happily entices the reader to want more.