Comic Review: The Naturals #1

Originally published one update each week as a webcomic, but now collected into a print comic, The Naturals  from Chris Meeuwes and Ryan Lee  tells the story of Layton, a young man in a post-WWI America. WWI was won mostly thanks to The Naturals, a set of people mysteriously endowed with superhuman abilities. As Naturals start to be murdered, Layton discovers some things about himself and he might be next.

The story starts with Layton and his friend Johnny watching a film about Liberty Larry, the American Natural who helped win the war for the Allies. Layton is bored with the film, but Johnny sees Larry as a hero. The story then cuts to a bar, where it seems Liberty Larry is doing more drinking than liberating these days. He tells a story, even as the reader is shown his true self, and kills a bar patron, all before being forced to leave and meeting a mysterious stranger in an alley. Layton returns home to a drunk father. The next day, he goes to Johnny’s house for dinner and a movie, only to ditch the movie for a party, which may be a bad decision.

Chris Meeuwes is doing a great job with the writing so far. He’s presented a seriously flawed character in Liberty Larry, and a truly sympathetic protagonist in Layton. Layton has a rough life it seems, and that makes the reader like him even more. Meeuwes is also able to slip in some plot points, that while not major, definitely add to the overall story, such as with Johnny’s brother. This little bit of story is easily missed if the reader doesn’t pay attention, but really helps to build the conflict and world, and make Liberty Larry even more despicable, if the readers picks up on it.

Ryan Lee’s art is well suited for the story. The detail that he puts into each page and character helps makes each panel extremely effective. Lee’s use of having some characters or objects extend across panels, or having smaller panels bridge the gap between others,  helps make the transitions between shots more fluid. His use of somewhat a muted color palette not only helps set the mood in multiple scenes, but also seems to help set the time period too.

With a killer pinup gallery including the likes of Riley Rossmo and roughly 30 pages of quality comic, this is a great first issue. While webcomics can often have a hard time transitioning to print, The Naturals looks great in print and is sure to catch the attention many a comic fan. Chris and Ryan will have copies at the upcoming Cincinnati Comicon and will also be selling them online.

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