When the amazing team behind The Private Eye announces a surprise new comic series, you listen. And listen you should, because Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: The Last Man) and Marcos Martin (Batgirl: Year One, Doctor Strange: The Oath) have teamed up for Barrier, a new series that’s off to a really interesting start.
The out-of-nowhere announcement came today from Vaughan’s twitter, revealing that the new series’ first issue—penned by himself, drawn by Martin, and colored by Muntsa Vicente—had gone live on Panel Syndicate. That’s Vaughan and Martin’s webstore for hosting original creator-owned and DRM-free comic series that can be downloaded for whatever price you want to pay. (It will actually soon host a Walking Dead story created by the duo, as well
Barrier follows the trials and tribulations of two characters operating on the U.S. border. There’s Liddy, a rancher who fears her livelihood is under the threat of drug runners and immigrants attempting to sneak into the country. And there’s Oscar, a young man from Honduras trying to escape to America to flee gangs from home. The two are thrust together in a bizarre new scenario (that I won’t spoil here. Go read it!).
It’s an interesting blend of languages, too. Sections of the comic use English and Spanish interchangeably, and the central relationship between Liddy and Oscar involves a lingual barrier (as well as a physical one) between them when they first meet. And even if you don’t understand the language, the visual storytelling in Martin and Vincente’s art is more than enough to get the gist of things.
If you’re interested in checking Barrier out, issue one is available for whatever price you want over at Panel Syndicate right now.