Kaya #1
Image Comics
Writer: Wes Craig
Art: Wes Craig
Colors: Jason Wordie
Letters: Andworld Design
By this point in my reviewer career, one has probably noticed that I have an inclination to pick the first issues to review. Kaya, which is due to release this Wednesday, is one of the rare few instances in which I’d urge you to pick it up immediately. This is a delightful comic from the get-go and it ought to become big very soon.
Kaya starts off with our titular character and a younger boy, later named Jin, wandering through the desert towards what they hope is going to be a trading town. We’re informed that Jin was a prince in the town Kahaka. Keyword here being ‘was’. Something bad happened with Kahaka and its people and Kaya and Jin are heavily indicated to be the last survivors of their people. They reach the town but it is deserted and as they scavenge the ruins, a band of lizard riders confronts them.
Wes Craig is definitely writing his heart out on this comic. The writer uses the medium very well to tell the readers what we need to know without leaning too heavily on the exposition. There may be a fault in that regard in the “reminiscing narrator” speech boxes we get from Jin but it’s only briefly used for a quick contextualization at the start of the issue and an exciting setup at the end. So much of the universe is presented to us naturally that I was invested super quickly. The characterization of Kaya, Jin and even the lizard riders is amazing. Kaya is presented as a strong guardian to Jin who calls her sister but, from further dialogue, we can see that they did not share a sibling relationship before whatever happened at Kahaka. Jin is clearly a pampered prince not only from his tantrum early on in the chapter but also from his innocence while Kaya is obviously more accustomed to taking care of herself.
Craig is also handling the illustrations for the series and it is stunning. Not only are the characters’ designs varied and full of charm but the depiction of key facial expressions on what is a fairly minimalist depiction of a human face is praiseworthy. Also worth noting is the motion depiction which takes advantage of long pieces of cloth and hair to simply imply motion. This is easily one of my favorite choices for motion depiction as it comes off as more realistic.
The coloring is handled by Jason Wordie who gets the job done very well. The small village in the desert setting is nicely portrayed with a predominance of warm colors and hard shadows. Plus the gradual transition from an orange-oriented palette to a blue-oriented one as the day reaches its end is just gorgeous.
Wrapping a nice bow around the whole composition is fantastic lettering, by Andworld Design! Often with oversized words for heated discussions the speech bubbles really do bring forth the character’s tone. This associated with a few colored bubbles are just freakin’ neat. It really gives each character a different voice.

Kaya #1
Love It
The Good
- Charming narrative
- Every component of comic book storytelling works here
The Bad
- N/A