Coyotes is a little much. Caitlin Yarsky’s art is fantastic, but static. There’s no flow between panels. Great illustration and design chops, but it doesn’t move. Everything is still, which could actually work for Coyotes because it’s never still. Writer Sean Lewis yaps. If he goes a page without the poorly written narration, he makes up for it on the next page with more and more and more.
Coyotes is a concept comic. What if coyotes–people smugglers–were actual coyotes. But what if it were just a metaphor for how a young girl processes the world around her. But what if they were actual coyotes. Lewis wants so much to give the illusion of intricate mythology building, he makes the sympathetic protagonist downright annoying. Though some of the lack of sympathy comes from Yarsky’s narrative distance.
Then there’s a black and white backup going over the white guy cop’s backstory. He’s too dedicated. Wife took kid and left him. Now he’s being shipped off to a hellish border town.
Coyotes could be worse–well, Lewis’s narration probably couldn’t be much worse–but there’s just nothing to it. It’s pretty, topical, gimmicky, and translucent thin.
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