REVIEW: The Picture of Everything Else

Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Kishore Mohan
Letters: Aditya Bidikar
Editor in Chief: Adrian Wassel
Publisher: Vault Comics

My wife is an incredible cook. She’s told me if I can think of it she’s willing to try it. Over the years I have made up random combinations just to see what she’s going to come up with. One of our favorite family recipes came about that way.

I think the creative team for “The Picture of Everything Else” did something similar. This is a story about a couple of painters, Alphonso and Marcel, in Paris at the end of the 19th century.

By itself the tale of starving artists hoping their expressionist paintings will catch on is a little “ho hum”. When you throw in that the “Paris Ripper” is loose and the police are clueless it gets more interesting.

Seeing the guys encounter another person that seems to have the unique ability to damage a portrait of someone and inflict the same damage on the subject of the picture ratchets things up a notch or two as well.

Artwork:

.75 Stars

I LOVE this cover. As soon as I saw it as a teaser on social media I sent a picture to my local comic book store and asked them to order a copy for me. That’s exactly what good cover art is supposed to do. It gets the attention of would be buyers and dares them to not buy the issue.

While not quite is vivid as the cover the work on the interior pages is still quite impressive. I liked the attention to detail, especially on the plaza painting in the art studio.

Story:

.75 Stars

The concept behind “The Picture of Everything Else” is unique. Issue #1 has to pull double duty giving the reader a setting as well as a plot. This issue magnificently takes us to the parties in the Belle Époque well done Mr. Watters!

Dialogue:

.5 Stars

While there is a great deal of conversation in “The Picture of Everything Else” #1 I would have liked to get more information about the characters from it. Aside from a couple of idiosyncrasies we don’t get much of a feel for the characters. With the setting being well established I’m hoping that will get more attention in the next issue.

Editing:

1 Star

There were no historical or grammatical errors that would be a distraction to the reader. I appreciated the narrative in the form of a letter, especially the cursive font used for it.

Mechanics:

.5 Stars

The time warp we take to Paris in 1899 is commendable. The story moves along at a pace that’s not as brisk as a lot of it’s contemporaries. That’s not a bad thing. Titanic win several Oscars, but it took a while to develop the plot and characters. I believe things will move along at a crisper clip in the next book.

“The Picture of Everything Else” has a lot of potential. I’m very curious to see where this story takes us when it’s all said and done.