The Six Fingers had me wondering if I was bad at reading comics.

Writers: Dan Watters
Creators: Dan Watters
Art: Sumit Kumar; Lee Loughridge
Covers: Sumit Kumar; Lee Loughridge
Publisher: Image Comics
Article by: @ivanadoit
How can you tell if you’re bad at reading comic books? I’m starting to think I might be in that category. Granted – I am only on my second in my whole life, but I’m constantly having to scroll back to other sections for something I must have missed. It feels like being dropped in the middle of a universe and being expected to know all of the rules as soon as my feet touch the beautifully illustrated surface. 

That being said, I’m loving every minute of it. The whiplash of landing right into the middle of the action is simultaneously dizzying and delicious. 

Questioning reality seems like it’s going to be an essential through-line within The Six Fingers comic miniseries. This miniseries introduces us to Johannes Vale, an Archeology Grad Student who believes he’ll be able to unearth an undiscovered ancient civilization connected to an arrowhead made of “unknown material” that his father gifted him many years ago. Johannes’ grant proposal is the beginning of the unraveling of his academic life and the ripple effect bleeds into his professional and personal lives. However, as the pieces of his life are chipped away, missing fragments of the past come into focus that answer the “why” of some questions while creating so many more for Johannes and readers.  

This miniseries takes place in a future world where robots (COGS) fill positions like security guards and street sweepers. Some of my favorite world-building details (that I didn’t notice during my 1st read) are in the purple-palette street scenes where a COG uses a street cleaning machine that looks like a 1980s vacuum and trains ride the underside of elevated tracks.  

Living in “the gaps between knowledge” is the exact feeling of realizing (after my 3rd time of re-reading the first 3 pages) that the images we’re first met with are NOT part of a spicy intimate scene between two lovers but are, in fact, close up chilling illustrations of A MURDER! That’s right! I want to leave this little nugget of information right here at the end so you can experience how long it took me to figure that out. Upon reflection, that became clear on the title page. But we’re not understanding this at a reasonable pace. We are taking the scenic route that seems to be my brain’s default setting. 

Dan Watters’ story coupled with art by Sumit Kumar and Lee Loughridge join together seamlessly to create a feeling of unease that leaves you wondering if you can really trust your understanding of what you’re seeing and reading.

If you’re like me, be sure not to read too fast. When we’re not paying close attention, “we forget how things were before we solved the prior mystery.”

4 out of 5 COGS