Comic Review: The Picture of Everything Else #3

The Picture of Everything Else #3

Vault Comics

Writer: Dan Watters

Art: Kishore Mohan & Aditya Bikidar

Another chapter in the story of Marcel, the artist traumatized into art critic by Basil Hallward, the Paris Ripper who is able to manipulate real life through his paintings. This concept continues to amaze me and this issue just stepped it up.

In this chapter, we pick up where we left off in issue #2: Marcel reaching Basil’s residence in Paris and being welcome by his old friend, Alphonse. Marcel is resolute in his quest to murder the Paris Ripper and put an end to his horrifying deeds as amazing as they can be. He is convinced that he’ll give the cold-blooded artist a run for his money – since he’s a “critic who knows what he’s talking about”. Basil, however, sees through his intentions and decides to demonstrate what he has just done to Paris in his latest painting, the one we see being completed at the end of issue #2. While the three of them – Marcel, Alphonse, and Basil – are heading towards Notre Dame, the latter gives Marcel, and the reader, a bit of an insight into his backstory. Turns out that Basil is the man who painted Dorian Gray and accidentally made him immortal. Yes, I’m now aware that the name of the artist is given in the novel, but hadn’t read the novel myself (I know, I know) it was a nice surprise to see actually mentioned.

I’ve been following Watters’ work as of recently and I have to admit his range for writing his stories is stunning. I’m sure he has his methods and applies them to each of his works, but he’s currently writing 20th century France and mid 90s USA and they’re not very similar. That by itself is commendable, but the writer also has varied character personas and keeps them well contained in their own universe. This issue’s highlight for me was the twist on Hallward’s story as it gave him a more humane and benign trait as opposed to the perspective of Marcel up until this point. And that is another of Watters’ cool stuff. I, as the reader, am following up on Basil’s development along with Marcel. Every new fact about him is learned through our protagonist and it makes everything more engaging.

Kishore Mohan continues to deliver terrific artwork issue by issue. I’ve mentioned this before, but I love how the style chosen for the art relates to the theme of classic oil painting. In this chapter, in particular, Mohan’s opted for more close-ups than before and it was a very interesting approach. Since the artists’ style is more simple in terms of lines they’re banked on the coloring to a lot of the work and the result is very different from what we mostly see in comics. For instance, if we take a panel that’s basically just Basil’s face we can see that there aren’t many actual lines, just enough so we can see it’s a face. Still, the colors on Basil’s face help to shape more delicate traits of the human anatomy and do wonders to convey his emotions through facial expression.

Aditya Bikidar is one of the best letterers in the industry and I love when I find out I’m reviewing yet another comic with his work in it. This issue was particularly regular for his usual stuff, however. Since it’s an issue mostly dedicated to exposition there’s not a lot of sound effects. But that gave me room to just now notice the wiggly speech bubbles he’s using. It’s a very nice stylistic choice that gives the comic charm without getting in the way of the reading.

The third chapter of this amazing and innovative story that is The Picture of Everything Else finally did it and got me truly hooked. Dwelling in the past of your should-be villain and giving them a heart always makes it interesting. I’ll continue to recommend this series, if not for the plot itself, then for the talented and refreshing artwork on it.