Captain Stone Is Missing #9 (Madefire)
Our titular hero still hasn’t been found but we’re finally getting closer to uncovering the mystery of where he’s gone in the latest instalment of Liam Sharp and Christina McCormack’s award-winning Captain Stone Is Missing #9 motion book from Madefire.
Publisher: Madefire
Writers: Christina McCormack and Liam Sharp
Artist: Liam Sharp
Sound: Wendell Yuponce
Price: 79p from Madefire
Captain Stone Is Missing #9 starts right from where episode 8 left us. The Pet has found a new sense of purpose now that she’s on the trail of her half-brother Captain Stone. In this issue she visits Pilot Mountain, Cap Stone’s secret hideout – his Batcave – to seek him out. She disarms some guards and stumbles into the practically empty lair. Using her suits infra-red capabilities she discovers an undisturbed corpse (not Captain stone), scattered glimpses of the Caps heyday through old photos and lots of unused and fused tech.
She soon gets a surprise as she encounters Katrinka Schrodinger (in ghostly, hologramatic form) and a frightened sound guy called Josh. Josh explains that Cap Stone told him to hide as a group of five humanoid refugees came through the rift looking for freedom. The five refugees call themselves ‘The Fist of God’ and start changing into huge, muscle-bound warriors spouting a type of religious mantra. Captain Stone tries to diffuse the situation but soon realises that ‘The Fist of God’ are literally living bombs. Then all hell breaks loose…
Now well into it’s second story arc, Captain Stone Is Missing is starting to literally come alive. It is dealing with strong themes, such as family, freedom of choice, light and dark, greed, religion and so much more. It may be a little bit slow for some but as each new episodic layer is added, the reader is held tighter in Christina and Liam’s story-telling grip.
Liam, Christina and musical maestro Wendell Yuponce, are obviously having a ball creatively. There are some wonderful little illustrative, audio and word based descriptions on show in this episode. For example, Pilot Mountain is compared to a Batman ride at Disney World fifty years after the apocalypse and so the scene is accompanied by the atmospheric sound of dripping water but then the calmness is punctured by a neat cartoon roller coaster, that slides across the screen with gleeful screaming SFX. It’s a simple device but one that helps Cap Stone stand out from the norm and.
We’re treated to some fantastic painted splash pages in this episode, with sliding panels and an array of different colouring styles. Liam uses the Madefire motionbook platform to the full, endowing Captain Stone with the kind of cutting-edge zooms, slides and flashes that we know and love. However, it never feels over-done and balances perfvectly with the written words on the page to create a truly unique comics experience.
