Green Wake #3

Written by Kurtis Wiebe
Art by Riley Rossmo

Green Wake had piqued my interest enough that I decided I'd continue to pick up the rest of this five-issue mini-series.  Now, however, the back cover of this latest issue declares that this title is now an on-going, as does the solicitation in Previews for issue five (although it also refers to this issue being the finale).

Normally, I greet that kind of news with pleasure.  I like to see oddball indie books meet with success, but I'm not convinced, based on the material in the first three issues, that there is enough here to pin an on-going series on.

Anyway, this issue is pretty good.  We finally get a lot of the pieces of the Green Wake puzzle laid out face up on the table, if not exactly connected.  We learn just what Morley did prior to waking up in the Wake, and what exactly his and his partner's role in the community is.  We see the role that religion plays for the Green Wake-ers, and get closer to catching up with Ariel on her murderous rampage.

I feel like Green Wake is a good example of a leftfield comics experience, and I'm definitely sticking around through the fifth issue, but I'm going to wait until that point before deciding if I'm going to invest in the series long-term.

Green Wake #2

Written by Kurtis Wiebe
Art by Riley Rossmo

The first issue of this series left me in an uncertain place, but I thought I'd give the book another chance, and I'm definitely even more intrigued with this series than I was the first time around.  People just appear in Green Wake, a murky, damp looking town, with no memories of how they got there, and only a few of their former life.

In the first issue, two residents of the town who have decided to take on the role of police officers discover a body, and have a suspect.  In this issue, their investigation takes them to another body, before Morley - the human-looking cop - has a vision of a former lover that leads him to the home of the Wake's longest resident.

Things get weird there, as the guy looks more like a giant frog than he does a person, and Morley and his partner (who looks more than a little froggish himself) don't bat an eye.  This issue hints at some of the mysteries of the Green Wake, frogs being a big part of that.  I don't know where this series is going, and that's what I like most about it.  Wiebe isn't following any of the established rules for a book like this, so I'm pretty interested to see where it all ends up.  I like Rossmo's work on this book, but my usual gripes about him apply here - sometimes it's hard to follow the action, and the symbol that appears on the corpses is not all that clear.

Green Wake #1

Written by Kurtis Wiebe
Art by Riley Rossmo

Here's another Image book that I didn't know anything about prior to purchasing it, and was more or less pleased with the decision after I read it.

Green Wake is definitely mysterious, as I don't fully understand the rules around the town that the book is named after.  It seems that people just arrive there, and can't leave, or if they can, it's through something like Babylon.  To that end, it reminded me a lot of Pizzeria Kamikaze, the wonderful graphic novel by Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka, the difference here being that the people of Green Wake aren't dead.

At least, most of them aren't, although a couple of bodies do turn up.  It would seem that one of the residents of the town, who all usually keep to themselves, has gone nuts and started killing.  Strangely, just around the same time, a new person arrives who knew the girl before.

This is all discovered by our heroes, who have taken on a leadership/detective role in the community.  I'm not sure how exactly this all works - if everyone is reclusive, who operates stores or businesses?  I am interested in seeing where this is going.

I'm starting to tire of Riley Rossmo's art. I liked his work a lot during the early days of Proof, but have started to tire of it on that book.  I feel like he's more suited to this type of noir-ish story, and to pages that are coloured with only a single colour.  I'm pretty sure I'll pick up the next issue.