Review - Pending Issues

Cases involving the heart are rarely simple and often left with loose threads. Whether it's one person in a friendship not picking up the advances of the other or just long, unrequited love, there's a lot of complexity in the emotion. There's a full gamut of such instances on display in Pending Issues from Red Tempest Media.

The issue is written by Alejandro Farias and illustrated by Jorge Vildoza.

Rupert Fink is a man with a rather uncommon occupation: he resolves pending issues. His job is that of a private detective, who looks in the past, the impossible, the dreams and even death to bring closure to his clients. He's got a motto along the lines of “We just put the cards back in the deck again, and sometimes the cards come out the same way, sometimes worse than the previous game.”

Farias' story is pretty inventive. There are many people in life who find themselves in a situation where things didn't end how they wished and they spend many future days with regrets. Fink offers his clients a reset of sorts, presenting an ability to investigate the incident or relationship and find the missing piece to resolve it. It's something that many people have likely desired at one point or another and his approach is very clever.

Vildoza's art is equally up to the task of matching the creativity of the story. It's filled with washed out colors and well-defined lines and all the characters are almost projections. It's as if the art is a projection of the emotion behind the pending issues and it really comes through well. Art is always supposed to do this, but in the case of Pending Issues it really fits the story exceptionally well.

Pending Issues shows that comics are continuing to push the boundaries of storytelling. It's got a sad sensibility about it that sort of depresses you as you read, but it fits within the fabric of the story very well. It's definitely worth checking out if you want to read something a little unusual and fresh.

Pending Issues is available now from Red Tempest Media.