North 40

Written by Aaron Williams
Art by Fiona Staples

This book is a good example of a comic that should work quite well, but for whatever reason, doesn't.  The concept behind it is excellent - that some kind of strange magic releases powers into just about everyone living within a mostly rural county, and also traps them inside it.  The art, by Fiona Staples is terrific, although her muted colour palette got on my nerves after a while.

The problem is that the story is not as coherent as it should be.  The characters are introduced quickly, without much time for development, and the plot seems to jump around all over the place.  The three central characters are the county sheriff, a country boy named Wyatt (who makes out the best of anyone in the powers department) and a strange girl named Amanda, who doesn't even make it onto the cover of the trade.

These three characters are kind of thrown together, and much of the plotting has that same spaghetti tossed against the wall feeling.  There's something towards the end about a mystical city that is supposed to help explain the significance of everything, but by that point, Williams had more or less lost me and I was just looking at the pretty pictures.