Girls' Baseball Team vs Mysterious Gang
Review of the Northwood Publishing crowdfunded edition (2020)

Everglade Angels use the standard horror trope of the group of teenagers lost in a not-very-welcoming off-the-beaten-track location facing unknown evil forces. It branches off on its own with having the teenagers be an spunky all-girls' baseball team who are ready to swing their bats into action to defend themselves and their friends. The art style compliments the story with its dark palette which occasionally erupts with splashes of chemical reds.

When rating a crowdfunder you are instinctively rating not just the final product but also the communication process and delivery. Blake Northcott was the lead creator in this respect as the campaign was in her name and the shipping was her production. All of that was handled extremely well with regular updates to the customers. There is a considerable over-delivery of 104 pages in the final product vs. the promised 48 pages in the original crowdfunding proposal. The extras include the opening pages of a movie script version of the Everglade Angels plot, several pages of notes and draft sketches of the Everglade Angels, and a bonus short story Truthbomb.

On the downside there is a major continuity issue about the number of baseball players on the Everglade Angels team. Instead of the expected 9 players, there are only 5. The 5 are actually a reduction on an originally planned 6, which is explained in the sketch book section where the 5 final players are identified by name. In the story itself it is very difficult to distinguish each of the 5 at first as they are introduced very haphazardly. There is also an editing mistake that still uses the original 6 characters on page 24, where 1 has left the van and yet there are still 5 people sitting in the van.

I picked up Everglades Angels as I have been interested in the recent increased activity of independent crowd-funding of self-published comic books, graphic novels, novels and novel translations via the Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Hooandja platforms. And yes, I'm from Toronto as is Blake Northcott, so support your local writers!

Trivia and Link
Blake Northcott is the writer of a new ongoing comic book series Norah's Saga (2020) about a young girl who time shifts into the Viking Age. It is expected to be distributed to Walmart stores and other outlets in April 2020. This may be delayed due to the ongoing pandemic situation. Look for updates at the Allegiance Arts Indiegogo. ( )