Basketful of Heads #3 Review

Written by: Joe Hill

Illustrated by: Leomacs

Colored by: Dave Stewart

Lettered by: Deron Bennett

Published by: DC Black Label (Hill House Comics)

The first issue of this series introduced us to June March. The second issue showed us her situation - being chased by escaped convicts, obtaining a mystical Viking axe that can lop off heads, but let the heads survive. Now in this third issue, Hill allows for June, and the reader for that matter, to take a slight breather, as he gives June time to process what has happened, and also have a conversation with the convict’s head she lopped off. 

After reading that sentence, you may ask yourself, what kind of conversation can she have with a bodiless head? Well, it’s quite simple: she wants to get answers as to why they came after her boyfriend and why the rest of the convicts still have him?

What I really enjoyed about this tete-a-tete (pun fully intended :p) was that Hill has introduced a really intelligent protagonist in the form of June - she may be in an unreal situation, but she keeps a level head (heh!), knows what to ask of this guy - like his name and what was their purpose with her boyfriend, knows how to push his buttons, and finally, knows when he’s bs’ing her with his answers.

From there, the story does take a turn, as this is the third issue of a seven issue horror series, but that’s for next month. 

Leomacs and Stewart continues to be an amazing art team delivering both a cinematic and atmospheric comic. I may have said this before, but it bears repeating, Leomacs is fast becoming one of my favorite artists when it comes not only to facial expressions on the characters, but also on body movement and expression. This comes into play for both June and the convict Sal. For Sal, as he’s just a head, Leomacs fully showcases the range of emotions he’s going through as he talks to June. Whereas for June, you can see by her body movement that this whole situation is leaving her slightly restless, but also accepting of her new situation. 

Stewart’s colors continue to be the perfect compliment: from his excellent use of lighting throughout to his choice of darker greys and blues for June’s scenes compared to the soft and bright yellows and oranges of the flashbacks. 

Basketful of Heads continues to be a really fun comic series and was a great choice to spearhead this new imprint by Joe Hill from DC.