The Chair #1 of 6
Story, Ink, and Lettering: Peter Simeti
Penciler, Artist: Kevin Christensen
Alterna Comics

Sullivan has been locked behind bars for ten years now. Once, he had a normal life — good job, wife, kids, a house — but all that was taken away when he is wrongly accused and sentenced for the murder of twelve kids. Now he sits on death row, in a prison that seems to be completely off the radar, with some of the worst inmates ever assembled. And an even worse collection of guards and overseers, who assert their power of authority and sadistic rule over the inmates for their own sick pleasure. Yes, things are looking mighty grim for Sullivan, and he hasn’t even learned to true meaning of “Hell on Earth” yet.

Writer Peter Simeti, founder of Alterna Comics, sets up a very intriguing first issue here with the introduction of a prison system that is completely isolated from outside interfering or communication, and an “innocent inmate” which though sullen and introverted in this issue, will need just one catalyst to break out of mental shell to start doing some serious damage to his captors. Through Sullivan’s internal monologues he is able to introduce us to a Hellish environment and its citizens. We know what Sullivan knows, which isn’t much, and see only what Sullivan sees. It is a great way to start up a prison story, and Simeti leaves you wanting to know more and more about this place.

Freelance illustrator Kevin Christensen makes his Alterna Comics debut here as the penciler for The Chair. His black and white sketch-pad style here works perfectly to enhance the dreary story, as if someone is drawing the events as they happen, so that there is a record of it. His heavy black lines and thick shadowing create both a threatening atmosphere, and a safe atmosphere where the unspeakably horrible punishments can be carried out. Simeti provides the letters and inks as well. The lettering is scratchy, as if scraped into the very prison walls. Simeti even angles his lettering in a few panels to run along the steel girders and cell doors. And his inking splashes an even darker shadow over Christensen’s heavy black work.

The problem with this first issue is that it just ends, right when you are getting into Sullivan’s explanation of what happens in the prison. And if it weren’t for the “continued in Issue 2” in the final panel, you’d swear the comic was missing pages. There is no closing of Sullivan’s thoughts, or cliffhanger action to lead into issue two, it just stops. It is a little frustrating. Plus the book is filled advertisements, which constantly breaks up the flow of Sullivan’s story. Still, Simeti’s set up, and it is all set up as absolutely nothing happens in the first chapter, is just enough to get us into the second issue. And, as this is a finite series of six issues, you know things are going to start going to Hell real quick and that Sullivan’s final condemnation or redemption is about to be brought down on him. Someone is going to get The Chair. It is just a question of who.

Available at the Alterna Comic Shop.