A respectful and compassionate attitude towards mental illness and the lost; a philosophy of empathy coupled with melancholy introspection, pathos and moody art: Damn. And we haven't even gotten to the mythological aspects yet.
Hellshock, you and I are already off to a great start.
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I mean... holy shit.
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Edit: Hmmm.
Hellshock actually has my least favourite way of dealing with supernatural events or mythology; Presenting events in such a way that it leaves an interpretation up to the reader. Where the reality of the situation is up to the main character's perception (or the narrator, who then is unreliable). But I do have to admit that in this way, rather cleverly, Hellshock also addresses, point-blank, ontology for a short bit, and which was interesting, but ultimately; as this is about mental illness, and as the 'supernatural' elements were kept so vague, once the story was done I never bought that there might have been anything going on outside of the main character's slipping mental stability, making this, of course, even more about personal reality vs larger reality.
Mental illness in a nutshell, really.
Also, the cross iconography present in the awesome comic covers and the back-blurb implying christian mythology is blatantly misrepresentative of what's actually here.
This is pretty much solely about mental illness, and no religious themes are actually present inside of the cover, other than in a loose, hypothetical kind of way.
Oh, and points deducted for the original negative downer ending (which isn't even that different from the added stuff but which is very flat-out dark) that suggests that for people with these problems there is no real way forward.
This actually strokes with my own views and mindset, but, man, I didn't really need that right now.
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The added ending to the comic ends in three different points, ostensibly separate from each other, differentiated by a shift in colour and tone. Scenes revisited through a different mirror, viewed through a lens that bestows an idyllic quality to earlier grime, a point of view on earlier happenings coloured by a mind become unhinged.
What this really is, is Jae Lee revisiting his comic, years later, with an ending that is a little meta, and which because of that then becomes (in parts) applicable to a broader canvas, allowing the reader to easily insert oneself into the narrative, and a longer resolution that seems cautiously benign and even hopeful, rather than the sobering gut-punch of the original ending.
First there is love, found in a hypothetical other, and in the main story this is present via the medium of Daniel, in which I mean that he grants Christina (wait, is that her name?) the awareness of something 'higher', a destination if not an outright goal and purpose. The reality is up for interpretation here.
What isn't up for interpretation is an ending of insanity, where we (and Christina) have to face a continuing reality in which anchoring in that other has been lost. Given enough time, this always ends up happening. This eventually leads to suicide, overt or not. Self-destruction takes over and leads the way until it becomes the only remaining, dwindling point of focus. It becomes the idealization of death and suicide and the ending to all.
This element isn't present in the added parts, but insanity is still the name of the game here.
And then comes part three, which doesn't seem to stroke with the original ending, although it doesn't contradict it so much as that it ignores it to give the reader a half-assed guideline to keep moving.
I say it's half-assed, not because it's bad advice, as really, it's the only thing one can do under these extreme conditions, but because it's presented sloppily and, where before things were presented in a broader manner, here it seems as if Jae Lee made his narration too specific to the point where things were cancelling each other out, where one type of advice doesn't lend itself to every type of mental illness. Mine's not yours, I'm saying, and where for me Hellshock's run up to this point had been perfect, here I found myself at a disconnect. It's a little unfortunate.
But still. A very good, interesting comic.
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