Echoes

by Mike Richardson, Gabriel Guzmán (Illustrator), Java Tartaglia (Illustrator)

To prevent a murder, would we become a murderer? Troubled charter pilot Fred Martin is caught in a bizarre and violent storm and loses control of his aircraft. Martin later awakens unharmed only to discover that he is thirty years in the past with the impossible opportunity to right the terrible wrong that ruined his future.

Written by Mike Richardson, creator of The Mask and TimeCop , and illustrated by Gabriel Guzmán ( Star Wars, Lady Death ), Echoes is fantasy drama on a human scale, a provocative journey into how the past is always present.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Time Travel, Fiction, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Comic Book

104 pages, Hardcover

Published December 6, 2016

About the author

Mike Richardson is an American publisher, writer, and Emmy-winning producer. In 1986, he founded Dark Horse Comics, an award-winning international publishing house located in Milwaukie, Oregon. Richardson is also the founder and President of the Things From Another World retail chain and president of Dark Horse Entertainment, which has developed and produced numerous projects for film and television based on Dark Horse properties or licensed properties.
In addition, he has written numerous graphic novels and comics series, including The Secret, Living with the Dead, and Cut as well as co-authoring two non-fiction books: Comics Between the Panels and Blast Off!.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man who grew up in a terrible environment gets a chance to change things when he's thrust back in time. Yes, this story has been told before, but this is well-told and Guzman's art is superb.

Received a review copy from Dark Horse and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Shai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read a similar plot of the story in this graphic novel before. In spite of that, I found myself entertain reading this because of the artwork and of the dialogues. I'll recommend this to those who enjoys reading comic or graphic novels, and to those who like a light-read but still has a good plot.



Thank you to Dark Horse Books for the reading copy.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok.

It's a story about a kid growing up watching his stepdad beating up his mother and him to the point where things just reach a sad ending and then we see him growing up to be this asshole of a man who goes on in his life being miserable and treating women badly, being disrespectful to everyone and a douche in general, until one day that something happens and he gets a chance to fix everything up.

This had a good premise and a simple enough plot that could do a much much better job if it wasn't so fast-paced. The story wasn't giving enough time for the characters to breathe and let them grow.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the only issue, because every single plot point in here was expected and cliche to say the least, dancing around every trope of the issues this story is trying to explore that it didn't make it something unique or interesting to read but a chore and a predictable story that you see from the get go where it goes.

The artwork was great.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

A guy with a troubled past somehow travels back in time to a point just before everything went wrong and is given the chance to fix it.

It's a pretty straight forward concept and doesn't really add anything that hasn't been seen before in these kinds of stories. It's a perfectly good story, it's just very familiar.

The artwork is really nice though.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Echoes is a book that looks to have begun from a short story. The writing and illustrations are solid, if not quite unique, and the story flows smoothly. If at times it felt like it could have been even shorter, that perhaps is a quibble from an otherwise decent graphic novel. Admittedly, Echoes isn't something that will stick with me in another week but I did enjoy the experience while reading it. Certainly, we need more stories with antiheroes and a bit of redemption in them.

Story: Fred Martin is a bitter and unhappy man. His mother died when he was very young and he was passed from foster home to foster home. Now, 30 years after her death and still alone, he has no kind word for anyone and goes about his business of flying charter planes to remote areas. But when he hardheadedly ignores warnings not to take his plane out into a storm, he awakes from a plane crash to find he is back in the past - his past. Worse, it is the week everything changed for him, when he tried to stop his mother's boyfriend from beating her and instead caused her death. Now, armed with knowledge he did not have as a little boy, he sets out to wrong the rights and rewrite his life story.

Again, this isn't a book to expect some big plot twist at the end. The book is more about the journey than it is the result. So while we can guess what is going to happen, it is still fascinating to see the lead up to how we get there. Because the story is fairly simplistic, there does seem to be a lot of filler and that the plot could have wrapped up in half the space. Subplots of the people who aid the unpleasant Fred as well as the FBI hunting him down for 'counterfeiting' currency that is 30 years in the future, are not as interesting as the scenes of Fred confronting his mother. We see as Fred does the beginnings of the abuse and his mother's inability to separate herself from it. As well, it is interesting to have the perspectives of those who also see but do not act on the abuse.

I admit, I would have liked to see Fred given a different perspective on the abuse when he goes back. But there are no new insights other than that he knows what all the signs of abuse are leading up to - and the horrible repercussions for his young self. But the pathos in the scenes with his mother and little Fred are extremely well written and well illustrated and make up for some of the lack of originality/creativity.

The illustration work is clean, nicely detailed, and the cover is a good representation of what you will find inside. As with the plot, there's nothing particularly unique or distinct about the illustration work; but it carries the story nicely and the time/place of the 1980s is well captured.

In all, I enjoyed Echoes. Fred is an interesting anti-hero, all bitterness and bile. In coming to terms with his past, he gets a chance to finally go beyond all that unhappiness and maybe even move on. One can't help but think there is a bit of magical realism, atonement, or purgatory-like experience rather than a magical storm that throws him back to the most pivotal moment of his life. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Meghannf · Rating 3 out of 5]

The character development is well done and it means a lot as I couldn’t stand the main character at first. The plot is great, it was a nice read with a nice twist.
About the art, I was not expecting that style of pencil work considering the cover. Though, I din’t really like the style, it still has some strong parts and talent is there. I have to point out that the face of the characters is definitely aesthetic in a way to make it more realistic. In the end, the illustrations lefts me with a sense of roughness which actually suits the main character. I don't know if it was made on purpose but while writing this review I have to admit it is a good choice.

It can be read as a short story with a good theme.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is a fairly unpredictable enough tale with some quirky twists and turns along the way which keep it really interesting right up until the closing pages. Coming in at just over 90 pages, it is a little on the short side, but it is punchy and it makes for enjoyable reading. There is enough narrative, background and drama to give it a three dimensional feel. The standard of art work was really high and there was some sumptuous colouring too, which made for a nicely rounded and colourful experience.

[Elia · Rating 3 out of 5]

What would you risk to change your past and save the person you love most in the world? That's the premise here. Fred's life has basically been crap since the night when as a child he witnessed his mom beaten to death by her abusive boyfriend. He's grown up with a death wish, not caring about anything, and then one night, during a massive storm he is sent back in time. Now he must decide if his future is worth changing his past, by seeking out revenge for a crime that technically hasn't happened yet.

[Bulent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oldukça güzel bir hikaye. Geçmişi değiştirme şansınız olsa yapabilir miydiniz? Fred Martin bu şansı bir kere yakalıyor. Kimsenin neden ve nasıl olduğunu açıklayamayacağı kadar ilginç bir kazanın ardından. Geçmişe gidiyor ve kendi başına gelecekleri çözüme kavuşturmak için şansını deniyor.

Dark Horse Comics'in kurucusu Mike Richardson'un yazdığı, Arjantinli çizer Gabriel Guzman'ın çizdiği bu öykü çok ilgi çekici düşünceleri akla getiriyor. Tıpkı Stephen King'in 11/22/63'ü gibi.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some Butterfly Effect shit! Abused boy grows up, ends up going back in time to his childhood and stopping his mom's abusive boyfriend from killing her. Short and simple but well done, like an old school sci-fi short story. I liked how mysterious it was, with surprisingly big emotions too. Good stuff.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Nomad nimrod · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's nothing new in this concept.

[Roberto Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mike Richardson delivers a little but entertaining story about making things right for past misfortunes in his graphic novel "Echoes". Recomended.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This is one of those hard hitting books. The story is good as is the artwork. The thing is, you can see the ending coming before you even reach a 1/3 way in.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it

[Tutaj_alzheimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kox

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Might have been good as a late-80s sci-fi movie where you could rely on the action hero star making you not really question the nonsense of the plot, but as a comic, it felt to me like a bunch of stuff just kind of happened until the end.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel reads exactly as you'd expect it to. no surprises but sometimes that's a good think, especially with graphic novels, so you can kick back and enjoy the illustrations. my only gripe is I hate when illustrators really define corneas but that's just personal preference.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover art is what caught my attention but the story is what kept it. No, it's nothing super special. You can even predict where things will go but it was still a fun read.

Fred Martin is a charter pilot who is caught in a weird and violent storm and loses control of his aircraft. He later awakens to discover that he has somehow been pushed back 30 years. He is now thirty years younger and has the opportunity to right a wrong that had horrendous consequences that affected his future.

The artwork is pretty awesome - unless you hate the way character eyes are emphasized when there's a really intense sequence.


Not a volume you're going to want to keep forever in your collection but definitely one that will entertain you for a once-over.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time travel

Good color artwork. Dark horse freebie. Suitable for teens. A quite good novel of time travel. A freak storm allows a man to correct a personal tragedy. The ending was a little surprising.

[Darren-lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Bryan Variell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hidden gem

If I'm being honest this story feels like a more mature version of the film The Kid with Bruce Willis. It has many similarities to the film.