The Experts Review: Do Not Go In The Water

By Alex Widen | Jul 25, 2016

What do you get when you mix three researchers, their dog, and sea creatures in the middle of nowhere? Not an issue of Aquaman, but one of Retrofit Comics’ newest and creepiest graphic novels—The Experts!

Launched in 2011 by independent creator Box Brown, Retrofit Comics is the home to some of the most imaginative and original graphic novels available to comic book fans today. Among their newest batch is Sophie Franz‘s latest creation, The Experts. From cover to cover, the entire 28-page story is written, drawn, and colored by Franz and offers a quick but suspenseful read.

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While some franchise comic books require an encyclopedia’s worth of knowledge to make sense of, The Experts simply dives into the meat of the story and fills in the reader on the particulars as they go, much like a great film short might do. Traci, Cheron, and Frankie (along with their gray hound named “the Colonel”) are researchers deployed to a base in the middle of the ocean to investigate the strange goings on there.

As told from Traci’s point of view, things seemed to go wrong almost from the start. The strange mists around the area seem to be affecting their memories, and the bizarre aquatic humanoids they’ve made contact with are slowly transforming them into something else. Frankie’s metamorphosis literally goes to his head, while Cheron’s is more subtle and the direct result of interacting with one of the beings.

Traci insists on completing the mission and continuing to make sketching detailing their progress, as well as to keep a log of their exploits to aid in her memory. Unfortunately, their reports to go to their superiors never seem to be responded to, and it becomes a waiting game of what will get to them all first—the sea monsters, or the terrible rations they have to eat each day! In the end, all three wind up making a hard decision for themselves, or having it made for them by the creatures.

Sophie Franz’s artwork is one of the main draws of this work, and it doesn’t disappoint. Her design for the sea creatures is both sleek and horrifying, as many of the best monster designs tend to be. She captures atmosphere and mood excellently, as well as designs her characters to look as close to real as possible while within her own illustrative style. This allows them to be easier to relate to since they don’t resemble the athletes or models of most comic book characters.

The mixture of suspense with absurdity is another theme this story plays with, as Cheron’s transformation plays out through the series while Frankie’s is obvious (and possibly laughable) from the start. By the time the finale happens, the full shift into foreboding horror has taken effect.

Available for $2.99 as a digital copy and $5.00 for a print edition via Retrofit’s online shop, anyone who is looking for something a little bit different from the usual fare for the summer should definitely give The Experts a read. Even if one may need to keep the lights on and avoid being stranded at sea thereafter.