FreakAngels Vol. 2

Written by Warren Ellis
Art by Paul Duffield

I read the whole of the first volume of FreakAngels on the web, where it is released at the rate of six pages a week. I enjoyed it, but found that I didn't like having the story parceled out in such small chunks (I know that's hypocritical when I prefer to buy monthly comics than trade wait), and I found it annoying to read off the computer screen. I decided that webcomics weren't really my thing, and kind of forgot about it.

Then I got volume two, in trade form, and found the book to be much more enjoyable.

Ellis's group of powered 23 year olds are, we learn, responsible for the world being in the sorry state that it is. We don't know yet exactly what happened, but we can see things are bad. Except in Whitechapel, where the Freakangels have taken over, and are protecting people. In this book, they go about their day for a bit, get together to eat some strawberries, get attacked, argue, and go find the people that attacked them. In like 150 pages.

This book definitely feels padded, which would bug me a lot more, if it weren't so pretty. Duffield draws some attractive, expressive people, and the colours in the book (except in the night scenes, which are way too muddy) are very nice. It is often difficult to remember who each of the characters are, due to their similar appearance and dress, but if you don't worry about stuff like that too much, this is a very nice read.

As the Freakangel tribe take on more people to look after, and as their concerns become much more oriented around civil engineering and food production, you would expect the book might get dull, but I feel like it will be the opposite. I've always had an interest in the nuts and bolts of post-Apocalyptic living, and therefore am quite interested in checking out volume three.