Whispers #1 is the first solo project of Joshua Luna, better as one half of the Luna Brothers with his brother Johnathan. I liked their first project together Ultra but sadly haven’t had the chance to fully read Girls or The Sword. I knew little about Whispers going into it. All I knew is Joshua Luna’s name attached to the project. I think it helped in letting me feel out the story more for it’s own merits. The main character is Sam who is suffering from emotional issues and that’s about all we know from what you can grasp from the issue. It’s not exactly what you’d expect and by the end of the issue I came to a conclusion on Whispers that surprised even myself.
Before we get too in depth with the comic itself, Joshua Luna’s art is the of the strongest part of Whispers. The style is just realistic enough yet it leaves room for the emotions the characters share with you to shine through. Though with those emotions comes some writing that has mixed results. How Sam deals with opening a door and his panel by panel depiction of that feeling, It worked well in showing just what Sam is going through in his head. He’s mainly there to help support his ex-girlfriend Lily after an event in her family. The Coffeehouse segment is my least favorite part of Whispers, as it helps tell you Sam’s issues you also see that Sam’s friends are sadly one note. I get what Luna is trying to tell us in this scene, yet it doesn’t work in the overall picture of the story itself.
After the coffeehouse you get to see what Sam is dealing with right now, he’s started to have these dreams that turn out to be him being able to visit people. Not just any people though, anyone that he’s ever had a connection to at one point in his life. From the awkward start, this is where the comic started to grow on me a little. Sam’s worldview is different, you get details within his travels floating through the city. The variety of situations that Sam is put in within the book, it’s hard to invest yourself in the situations. I almost feel as if Luna is trying too hard to make you like and understand Sam in these scenes. By the time I hit the final page, I couldn’t find a way to truly feel for this story.
Whispers is a book that you can tell what it was trying to go for yet something got lost in the translation. The book suffers from mixed messages throughout the comic. I’ve never had such a misfire for me with a comic in quite awhile. It’s not something I would tell you to run out and buy, I get the feeling that there are people who will like Whispers. Just it wasn’t a comic that worked for me which is a shame because there’s some good in this story, it’s in the execution in which Whispers ultimately fails. Joshua Luna’s art is beautiful in this story yet sadly his writing doesn’t match his art. I wish I could give you a strong recommendation, but sadly it’s just not worth your time.
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