One Bad Day

    (Oni, 2003)

Rolston is a creator on the move, garnering more and more notice with each project. Most fans first noticed his artistic talents on his and Greg Rucka’s Queen & Country, and those talents in tandem with his tight writing make this graphic novel his best work thus far.

Even since the relatively recent Q&C, Rolston has honed his skills as an artist and practically perfected his ability to render unusual characters with simple precision. There’s no confusion as to who’s who, a frequent problem in a fast-paced story such as this, where characters come and go.

The premise is nothing terribly creative, but Rolston’s sense of adventure makes it more compelling than it might sound. A girl inadvertently witnesses an old friend injured in a traffic accident, but this seeming open-and-shut event takes first a suspenseful and then a downright dangerous turn. Marie starts out the day like any other but by day’s end finds herself on the run from some very bad people and situations.

Rolston flawlessly paces the story to make its 120 pages seem a mere fraction of that. It’s a beautifully drawn page-turner in which one just can’t turn the pages fast enough.

— Jim Johnson
Jump to issue:
  NotesWriterArtist
#1

August, 2003
Cover Price: $9.95
1 copy available for $3.99 		Steve RolstonSteve Rolston