Tag Archives: the six fingers

The Mystery of Ram V and Dan Watters’ The One Hand and The Six Fingers unravels in their upcoming collected edition

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The critically-acclaimed The One Hand and The Six Fingers connecting miniseries will be collected together as a complete story in an upcoming trade paperback, featuring ten alternating chapters, creating a brand-new reading experience for those looking to solve the mind-bending, neo-noir mystery. Hitting shelves this December, The One Hand & The Six Fingers is led by two all-star creative teams offering two different perspectives on a thrilling crime story. Fans of Blade Runner and Se7en will enjoy this shocking sci-fi horror that keeps you questioning what is real and what is simply a nightmare.

The One Hand miniseries, by award-winning creators writer Ram V, artist Laurence Campbell, and colorist Lee Loughridge, tells the story of Neo Novena detective, Ari Nasser—a grizzled homicide detective who’s about to retire with an enviable record, until a brutal murder occurs bearing all the hallmarks of the “One Hand Killer”…which should be impossible since Ari already put him away not once but twice in years past.

Alternating with The One Hand is The Six Fingers, a miniseries by popular writer Dan Watters and artist Sumit Kumar, also featuring stunning colors by Loughridge. The story follows Neo Novena archaeology student, Johannes Vale, who has always been so very in control of his life. But when he commits a brutal murder using the M.O. of a historic and notorious serial killer, everything begins to spiral out of control…and Johannes doesn’t remember doing it. 

What follows is a deadly cat-and-mouse game told through two intertwined narratives. Both men will stop at nothing to unravel the secrets and ciphers of this case—but each revelation only leads further into the dark heart of this future-metropolis.

The One Hand & The Six Fingers, which collects The One Hand #1-5 and The Six Fingers #1-5, will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, December 11, featuring a cover by artist Anand Radhakrishnan (Lunar Code 1024IM317). The trade paperback (ISBN: 9781534369719) will also be available on Tuesday, December 24, at independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones.

The One Hand & The Six Fingers

The Six Fingers #4 is an interesting issue that leaves us scratching our heads even more

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The Six Fingers #4 teases what’s going on but it’s still not clear exactly what that is.

Story: Dan Watters
Art: Sumit Kumar
Color: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar

Get your copy in comic shops! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Zeus Comics
Kindle

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

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Dawnrunner #3

Wednesdays (and Tuesdays) are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in

Each week our contributors choose what they can’t wait to read this week or just sounds interesting. In other words, this is what we’re looking forward to and think you should be taking a look at!

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this week.

Dawnrunner #3 (Dark Horse) – Giant robots. Giant monsters. It’s a popular concept. And this is such a good take on it.

The Penguin #10 (DC Comics) – The series has made the Penguin the villain to fear in every way and just raised his profile to one of the best in Batman’s adversaries that already is an impressive list.

Rise of the Powers of X #5 (Marvel) – We’re in to see how this ends.

The Six Fingers #4 (Image Comics) – The series has been one half of an amazing murder and psychological mystery. The two comics combined make a hell of a read and even on their own, each series is engrossing.

Universal Monsters: The Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! #2 (Skybound) – Skybound has been knocking it out of the park with its “Universal Monsters” line. We look forward to each issue and each new series.

Wolverine #50 (Marvel) – In a story that has already been brutal, can this finale top it all?

X-Men: The Wedding Special #1 (Marvel) – We’re a sucker for the couple that is Mystique and Destiny and want to see how these two got hitched.

The Six Fingers #3 takes you down a rabbit hole… or is it a wall… in a trippy issue

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The Six Fingers #3 takes you deeper into the madness and begins to tease what is driving the murders.

Story: Dan Watters
Art: Sumit Kumar
Color: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar

Get your copy in comic shops! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Zeus Comics
Kindle

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

The Six Fingers #3 Reveals What Lies Beneath the Surface

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The Six Fingers #3

As his reality crumbles faster, unwilling murderer Johannes Vale attempts to get answers from the previous One Hand Killer Odell Watts. Johannes pieces the previous events together, and artist Ada Avanax discovers his secret and trails his activities. But the two realize how much deeper the hole goes and how much more complicated it is than simply losing one’s memory. The Six Fingers #3 by Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar demonstrates that truth does not exist within a linear or binary concept. Still, it can only be comprehended by looking past reality.

Watters expertly knocks the down dominos he has laid since the beginning to hint at what lies beneath the surface of Johannes and Neo Novena. Much like an iceberg, a much deeper and darker side hides from ordinary eyes. The reveal challenges what the readers assumed about the metropolis and presents a more horrific version. With his job as an archeologist, he has to travel back to the past to discover the truth mentally. He is figuratively digging into his subconscious and the hollow skeleton of the city in front of him this entire time. Despite revealing some truth to Johannes and the reader, the mystery gets more complicated and cannot be easily solved.

The revelation of a “right hand” and a “left hand” portrays Johannes’s and Ari’s relationship and roles in a different light. Instead of existing as opposing forces, they worked together unwillingly towards some unknown goal. The reveal also reframes the cat-and-mouse hunts of the previous One Hand Killers as a cyclical force that moves onto a new person. Each is an investigator of different mysteries. With his dad’s gift as a guide, he must use it to decipher the past and figure out what happened between the gaps. Existing as a vessel for whatever force guides him, he needs to embrace being the right hand to unravel the blank spots in his mind.

I am still impressed with Kumar’s stunning art as he portrays the various psychological horrors within the book. All the events still feel like a nightmare you cannot wake up from. Matched with Lee Loughridge’s haunting colors and Aditya Bidikar’s stylish lettering, all of their artistic talent works in perfect unison. With all of the action and plot being dreamlike, The Six Fingers #3 artwork taps into the subconscious nature of the work and embraces it.

As the hidden underbelly of Neo Novena opens itself to Johannes, his understanding of his role as the right hand starts to become clearer to him and the reader. Watters and Kumar in The Six Fingers #3 do not give straight answers but masterfully start putting the pieces from the previous issues together while having the readers draw their conclusions on what has happened. The mystery of Johannes and his role as the right hand has gotten much more complicated and existentially interesting in the best ways possible.

Story: Dan Watters Art: Sumit Kumar 
Color: Lee Loughridge Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Story: 8.8 Art: 8.9 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

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Wednesdays (and Tuesdays) are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in

Each week our contributors choose what they can’t wait to read this week or just sounds interesting. In other words, this is what we’re looking forward to and think you should be taking a look at!

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this week.

The Boxer Vol. 6 (Yen Press/IZE Press) – One of the best comics out right now, it’s not about the boxing, it’s about the individuals in and out of the ring.

Chernobyl Fall of Atomgrad (Palazzo Editions) – This graphic and harrowing account of nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl in April 1986 follows the dozens of human stories cruelly affected by disaster.

Conan the Barbarian #10 (Titan Comics) – The series has delivered with every issue breathing new life into the classic character.

Dawnrunner #2 (Dark Horse) – It’s mech vs. aliens/monsters but there’s something really cool about that first issue that has us excited to check out the second.

Dick Tracy #1 (Mad Cave Studios) – The classic character returns with a hell of a creative team behind it. Can’t wait to see what this new series is like.

Duke #5 (Skybound) – The new take on G.I. JOE has been amazing as we get to see Duke attempt to figure out what’s going on. It’s been a great way to connect the property to Transformers and the greater Energon Universe.

Feral #2 (Image Comics) – The series is cute animals meets a zombie story. The first issue was fantastic and we’re excited to see what’s next.

If You Find This I’m Already Dead #3 (Dark Horse Comics) – The series wraps up and it’s been a hell of a ride. Don’t miss this one about a journalist stuck on an alien world. After the last issue’s reveal, we can’t wait to read this one!

The Penguin #9 (DC Comics) – The series might be about the Penguin’s return to Gotham but it has solidified him as a scary Batman villain.

The Six Fingers #3 (Image Comics) – The series from the perspective of a serial killer has been an interesting spiral into madness.

Ultimate Spider-Man #4 (Marvel) – One of the best comics Marvel is putting out right now. It’s everything that makes Spider-Man good and then some.

Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives! #1 (Skybound) – We’re excited to check out the next entry in the return of Universal Monsters to comics! Dracula was so good, we’re hoping this one is close.

The Six Fingers #2 will leave you guessing as we’re taken into the mind of a killer

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The Six Fingers #2 by Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar has a man wrestle with forces outside of his control, and all the while, it twists his life away from him.

Story: Dan Watters
Art: Sumit Kumar
Color: Lee Loughride
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar

Get your copy in comic shops! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Zeus Comics
Kindle

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

The Six Fingers #2 Has Reality Become a Living Nightmare

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The Six Fingers #2

Johannes Vale has been unable to live normally after discovering his identity as the new One Hand Killer in Neo Novena. Haunted by a murder he does not remember committing, he has to retrace his previous night to discover why he committed such an act. As his dreams and nightmares blend with his real life, Johannes attempts to parse through reality to find the truth. The Six Fingers #2 by Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar has a man wrestle with forces outside of his control, and all the while, it twists his life away from him.

A key element established in the series is the notion of reality or how conditions or forces influence it we cannot see. Johannes does not know why he has been murdering people but aims to decipher what leads him to murder. The notion of a superficial understanding of his actions becomes moot since he firmly believes that a greater hand has led him to become the new One Hand Killer. Watters and Kumar do a fantastic job of presenting Johannes as an unreliable narrator, such as him staring at a tear in his wall before it immediately has him writing symbols after a murder. The walls of his reality begin to bend as he miraculously wakes up in alien locations despite having no memory of traveling there. I appreciate the team for not focusing on the physical motivation for his actions but on the more abstract reason why Johannes has become the new One Hand Killer. Aside from making the mystery more interesting, it allows the story to focus more on fears about the subconscious in the team’s depiction of psychological horror.

Similarly, the dream-like tone of the series provides a fascinating counterpoint to the analytic detective narrative of The One Hand. Considering Johannes’s background as an archeology student, he and Ari Nassar are investigators and examiners of human behavior through different lenses. The two differ since Ari’s job as a police detective forces him to think critically and logically, while Johannes demonstrates a penchant for looking outside the box for answers. Both are looking for answers inside of the darkness but for opposite reasons. Considering how the One Hand Killer leaves a series of symbols after a murder, Ari deciphers the wall for physical clues about the killer’s identity. Still, Johannes examines them to see what logically led him to it. And there might not be a logical reason as to what has been drawing him to murder.

Kumar’s art demonstrates how chaos and order are at war. Combined with Lee Loughridge’s colors and Aditya Bidikar’s lettering, the reader is effortlessly placed in Johannes’s headspace as he attempts to hold onto reality before it is quickly removed. It strongly connects the reader to his mental state and emotions as he tries to make sense of the darkness gradually surrounding him. Much like Johanness, the reader is at the whims of artistic talent as they challenge our notions of reality through their work.

The Six Fingers #2 stands as another powerful issue from Watters and Kumar that will have readers question what they know about Johannes. The light at the end of the tunnel slowly extinguishes while the darkness envelops the reader more. Eventually, the abyss can only look back at you.

Story: Dan Watters Art: Sumit Kumar
Color: Lee Loughridge Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Story: 8.7 Art: 8.7 Overall: 8.7 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

The Six Fingers #1 is a fantastic crime comic. Fans won’t want to miss this!

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The One Hand Killer has been stalking the streets of Neo Novena again and claimed a new victim. Johannes Vale, a graduate student whose life has been slowly falling apart, discovers he killed a man under the guise of The One Hand Killer the other night despite having no memory of it. Now, with a series of blood-drawn symbols on the wall, Johannes has to discover what compelled him to murder an innocent man in The Six Fingers #1.

Story: Dan Watters
Art: Sumit Kumar
Color: Lee Loughride
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar

Get your copy in comic shops! To find a comic shop near you, visit http://www.comicshoplocator.com or call 1-888-comicbook or digitally and online with the links below.

Zeus Comics
Kindle

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale. Graphic Policy does purchase items from this site. Making purchases through these links helps support the site

The Six Fingers #1 Focuses on Murderer Investigating Why They Killed

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The Six Fingers #1

The One Hand Killer has been stalking the streets of Neo Novena again and claimed a new victim. Johannes Vale, a graduate student whose life has been slowly falling apart, discovers he killed a man under the guise of The One Hand Killer the other night despite having no memory of it. Now, with a series of blood-drawn symbols on the wall, Johannes has to discover what compelled him to murder an innocent man in The Six Fingers #1.

Acting as the sister series to The One Hand, Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar focus on the One Hand Killer and provide a fresh twist by having Johannes forget why he committed such a horrendous crime. Johannes’s life and career increasingly unravel and draw him closer to investigating the source of it. More importantly, Watters and Kumar present it as a slow descent where he becomes more isolated from co-workers, friends, and teachers due to circumstances outside his control. But knowing the identity of the killer from the other title, the reader wants the shoe to drop and for confirmation that Johannes has taken over as the One Hand Killer. Instead of one massive event causing his break, the issue presents it as a gradual unraveling as he learns about the gaps in his knowledge. 

Watters expertly portrays that sense of unease that grows as the world becomes more alien. Presenting Johannes as a puzzle box who needs to unlock each level of the subconscious to figure out his motive gives the character a much more fascinating point of view and an unconventional antagonist. As we learned more about the detective on the case, we got a first-hand look at the titular killer, who would not initially describe himself as one. The Six Fingers focuses more on Johannes, learning more about himself and the specific clues he left behind. Without explaining why he decided to replicate the MO of the One Hand Killer, Watters creates an intriguing mystery haunting his psyche. 

Kumar’s work provides a nice balance with his portrayal of Neo Novena in the daytime. Even without the rain and neon, it still comes across as oppressive and massive as it engulfs its citizens. He suits Watters’s evocative psychological horror writing by visually portraying Johannes’s mental state through the formalist structure of the murder and the flowing and floating panels of his unraveling life. Lee Loughride also works as a colorist on this title, which helps create a shared identity with The One Hand while providing a unique color scheme to The Six Fingers. The coloring separates Johannes’s psyche by providing two distinct palettes to show him in his everyday life and when retracing his murderous steps. Letterer Aditya Bidika also works on this title and brings such an impressive personality to the thought panels and the speech bubbles. 

The Six Fingers serves as an excellent companion series and can stand on its own as a great psychological horror comic. Watters and Kumar take the reader into discovering the psychological mind and reasoning of the murderer through a great curveball of a narrative. The question of why drives the story’s heart, and eventually, Johannes and the reader will discover the reason for the murder as they probe deeper into the unknown.

Story: Dan Watters Art: Sumit Kumar
Color: Lee Loughride Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Story: 8.8 Art: 8.8 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Read

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle

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