Thursday, March 15, 2012

Wasteland #35

Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Justin Greenwood

How quickly we as comics fans can become spoiled.  I had more or less given up hope that Wasteland would continue as a series, and now we've had something like three issues in a row come out on time, one month apart.  It's a pretty amazing thing.

In this issue, Michael decides to test Gerr, who we know was sent by Marcus to kill Michael and Abi.  Michael, having some form of telepathy and telekinesis doesn't need to lay a hand on the man to question him, and their scenes together are pretty interesting.  Abi, meanwhile, has been taken prisoner by the Knights Templar, who don't believe she doesn't know where her traveling companions have gone.

This is a good issue, but being smack in the middle of this story arc, it's a little hard to discuss.  As thankful as I am that new artist Justin Greenwood is able to keep this book on track, I do miss Christopher Mitten's work here.  His pencils were a lot dirtier, and that seemed more fitting for the types of environments that Johnston's created.

One thing that really grabbed me with this issue is the Ankya Ofsteen text piece.  People who have only trade-waited this series don't know about this, but each issue contains one page from the travel journal of a woman who has been wandering around the various communities and barren places that fill Johnston's world.  Before now, each of these one-page pieces have been self-contained, but now Ankya's story about meeting a tribe of people who live inside a mountain is continued from last month, and will carry into the next issue.  These are often a favoured part of this comic, and I like seeing that Johnston is giving Ankya more space to develop her story.

2 comments:

antony said...

Re the WTD piece, not actually true -- we once did a three-parter, when Ankya struck out to the West and found the Sunner founder's town of Sunspot. It was a while back, though, so you can be forgiven for not remembering it ;)

thingslikei said...

Now that you mention it, that does ring a bell. Great stuff, as always.