Many people dream of inheriting mass fortunes to get out of the rut they’re in. It’s rare that that happens, if ever. Comic writer Melissa F. Olson and artist Sally Cantirino create a comic that takes this idea and adds a twist with “Archaic.”
Tess is a single mom struggling to make ends meet for her three kids. Things are so bad that she lives in a motel. One day she receives a letter saying she inherited a mansion on an island in North Carolina from her father. When she gets there, she finds that there is much more to the island than she expected.
Olson does a fine job of showing us what kind of life Tess and her kids live and it can be better. It can also be worse. Even with the typical pauper comes into money plot, the twist may offer some life to a tired trope. So far, there isn’t much to go on but there is room for hope.
The art is OK. It does the job it’s supposed to without anything that can be construed as awful. It doesn’t stand out either so there’s that.
As usual with “Ahoy Comics,” there are short stories. The first is “Budgetary Shortcuts Magazine Presents Hedde’s Cases: Liability-Free Advice for the Reality Averse and Excessively Thrifty” by Chris Sumberg. It’s written in an “ask (blank)” column format where people ask Doctor Hedde for advice, all having someone named Bug-Eye. It goes off the rails with the third letter and it’s shorter than its title.
“Do You Work Here?” by Kirk Vanderbeek takes the words practically everyone has heard at least once in their lives: “Do you work here?” and makes the nameless character go on what seems like a fever dream. Reading it feels like a fever dream and you’re still in a daze afterward.
The first issue of “Archaic” takes a generic story and adds a twist that, while we don’t see the full effect of it, there is room that it could take this trope and elevate it even though the art is mediocre.
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