Review: Harvest #1 (of 5)

With a name like “Harvest” you should probably instantly think of organ harvesting. If you don’t, then you’re about to be pretty amazed when I tell you this book is about organ harvesting. Aside from that though, this story takes several typical doctor storylines and combines them all together. The results are something very creepy and different that may only work in comic format.

We open in Chicago with a man buying a convenience store’s entire stock of ice… and their hand dolly. He brings it back to an abandoned warehouse and beginnings talking to his patient Jerry. Jerry looks scared and offers him a million dollars to let him go. The next scene cuts away from this opening as it’s clear we’ll meet back up with this point in time later.

We meet a Mother and her children ten months earlier as they prepare to the leave the house for the day. She’s a single mom and her kids are making her late for her train, but finally she gets them into the car with her youngest dressed like a cowboy superhero. Elsewhere, a surgeon is removing organs from a person in another warehouse-esc place. He tells his assistant that he can’t do this job anymore and wants out. Apparently our surgeon is under the impression that he can move on with his life even though he doesn’t have a medical license anymore. He makes the mistake of threatening to go public about the operation which SPOILER ends with him taking a bullet in the head. Our assistant is now in need of a new surgeon which brings us to Dr. Dane… who is strung out on coke right before he starts his next shift.

Even though the writer used a plot device I’m not a fan of, he executed it within his story quite well. Frankly, when I read a comic and it begins by showing me what could possibly be the best part of the story I become annoyed; it’s just there as a tease and 90% of the time isn’t even needed. It works for this issue, but still wasn’t really needed. Additionally, I found the body harvesting angle mixed with the Mob Doctor aspects of the story to be very interesting. Those are usually two very different stories, but to see them work so well on top of each other was very cool.

The art is the perfect fit for the story; it’s creepy with overdone shadows to add to the atmosphere of the scenes. There are some really great panels like when the Doc passes out at work and looks up at two other characters and sees them upside down. It captures what that moment is like for all three characters as you’re enjoying the view from the Doc’s perspective. If you’re faint at the site of blood you may actually get squeamish from the amount of detail and blood in the book, but I thought it was visually cool. In general the art is fantastic and well crafted.

I was looking forward to this issue after Image began showing a preview of it in the back of their other books and I’m happy that it was so good. There are really several simple storylines at play in the issue/series, but the fact that they’re stacked on top of each other makes them exciting to read about. It’s going to take a lot for this series not to hold my attention for the remaining four, but let’s just hope it continues being this good or better.

Score: 4/5

Writer: A.J. Lieberman

Artist: Colin Lorimer

Publisher: Image Comics and Shadowline

Price: $3.50

Release Date: 8/1/12