The Violent #1
Blood Like Tar
Written and Co-created by Ed Brisson
Art and Co-created by Adam Gorham
Image Comics
Created by the Canadian duo of Ed Brisson and Adam Gorham, and set in Vancouver, The Violent had me checking ‘must read’ as soon as I learned about the new Image title.
Now I tend to be rather pro-Canadian, and at times I might favour a book because it is Canadian in nature.
But The Violent does not need any biased leanings to be tagged as fantastic.
Brisson and Gorham have created a story about something comics often seem to avoid, the real world outside our door.
Maybe creators imagine comics are best left as a place of escapism, but The Violent shows every day life can be a fertile ground of compelling stories.
In this case we have a young couple in Vancouver trying to carve out a normal life while dragging the reality of a shadier past along with them.
He is an ex-con who is just not quite adjusted to a job, a wife and a young child.
It doesn’t help the bud who helped him get the job is going through a rough patch and trying hard to drag his friend into the same dark place.
The wife is working long hours as a cleaner, and when the pay cheque is short right as the rent is due, the draw of her former drug problem becomes intense.
In tone The Violent is dark and gritty, but in a startlingly real way.
The art is pitch-perfect to the mood.
While only an issue in, this could be a series able to achieve comparison to Scalped. There are clichéd pitfalls to avoid moving forward, but so far the story is compellingly perfect.
The bonus short story at the end by Sam Wiebe author of ‘Last of the Independents’ is just a great little extra to really complete a sweet read all-around.
Wild’s End Enemy Within #1
Writer: Dan Abnett
Art: I.N.J. Culbard
BOOM! Studios
So generally I do not gravitate to comics featuring anthropomorphic animals, there have been exceptions, and Wild’s End is one of those.
The story line here follows the earlier GN which focused on the arrival of what certainly appears alien, and since this is a retelling of War of the Worlds for the most part, it was obvious.
The story continues here, with the first issue of a new six-issue mini-series.
The initial invasion is apparently contained, or that is what the military want residents of the sleepy rural town in Britain (an animal version at least) to believe.
But the lead characters who faced the mechanical menaces in the GN are basically under military arrest, being considered at best a source of intel, perhaps a source to leak the story to the world, and at worst aliens themselves in the guise of residents.
By the end of this issue a plan is afoot to get the story out, because there is a lack of faith in the military really being up to taking on the devastating invaders.
It’s all just jolly good fun, and I’m just enjoying going along for the ride.
