Very engaging and enjoyable, non-romantic, pirate comic. After capturing a nameless pirate and sentencing him to death, they take him to the local church to repent publicly before his execution. He refuses to do so, instead he tells the story of how he became a pirate. It is a harsh story.
The structure of the story is smart. It establishes a confrontation between the pirate and the establishment that is repeated in the story of his time as a pirate. The pirate is bloody but unbowed. He becomes a pirate because of a refusal to buckle under dire circumstances. The life of a pirate is no less harsh than his previous life. It feels a lot less unfair. Mathew Wilding does not give a romantic gloss to pirates, they are a violent crew who commit violent crimes. They are also a rather democratic crew who have more say in their circumstances than a lot of law-abiding citizens.
Matt Rowe’s art captures the tone and intent of the story with precision. Nothing is clean, there are sharp angles and edges, the cast is untidy. The art is as harsh as the story; the cast is full of energy. No one is passive in the face of events, everyone is looking to control them. This brings the reader deeply into the story. The energy of the cast and the visible ay they collide with each other is a pleasure to read. The dark coloring captures the atmosphere of the story and adds to the emotional depth.
The letters by Toben Racicot flow within the panels. Following and reading the sequence of conversations is easy. Toben Racicot carefully places and sets up the narration boxes.
Free Hands is violent and dark, just as it needs to be. There is a savage battle of wills taking place in the church, matching the tremendous struggles to take place in the flashback. This is a grim story, never an off-putting one.
