Bliss # 1
Image Comics
Story: Sean Lewis
Art: Caitlin Yarsky
Bliss is serene and simplistic. Uncomplicated. It provides all one could want or desire. Amazingly, Issue # 1 of Bliss from Image Comics presents a story worthy of the euphoric state.
Sean Lewis decides to begin the tale in a courtroom, a place not often associated with bliss. However, it is during this opening dialogue we receive a peak at how deeply this title plans to examine the pursuit of happiness. The power of this sequence is only preview of the strength of the story that has just begun. The young defense attorney’s speech trails to a flashback to his parents before he was born. It is during the early years of Benton and Mabel that the true beauty and heartbreak of the story begin to appear. Young and unprepared but in love, yeah I know that tune. But still through it all there is that love, that pure bliss.
If Bliss # 1 were beautiful in story that would be enough. That is not the case, Caitlin Yarsky provides artwork that is magnificently captivating. Every page has at least one bright almost neon glow to it, inviting you to indulge in the art the detail of each image. Despite the dark turn the tale takes, a beating taken by Benton resulting in a black eye for example, I found beauty in the brutality of the story.
The young defense attorney, I assume they named him Perry, representing his father. An unfortunate and desperate situation led Benton to Docktown. A chance encounter providing him the opportunity to take care of his son, his wife. Amazingly it seems his solution is a drug that does what the name says for once. Bliss provides ignorance….and in a bad place like Docktown the individuals that Benton encounters seem to believe that is Bliss.