Run-up to a special comic

Like in alot of my doings I seem to have an inability to contain myself and this particular comic review eventually widened to also become about my comic experiences in getting to it. Two posts then. One the professional (HAHAHAHA) review, the other; this one. The Run-up.

When I seriously got into comics in, I think in September of 2013, there were a few names that I was going to try out, just going off, primarily, on their movie adaptations.

Urban Dredd

There were the fun Hellboy movies with lovecraftian monsters and its loveable demonic hero. The famously bloody but flawed, bat-shit insane 30 Days of Night horror film. The utterly badass demonslaying Constantine movie, which afterwards I found out about that nobody liked (sucks for them I guess).

Judge Dredd had a movie in its future that everyone agreed was looking pretty spot-on and that I also liked the look of, (it wasn't a superhero movie and it had undertones of satire and was described, both comic and movie, as being superviolent). I also loved and had endlessly rewatched the V for Vendetta film, which I still consider pretty much a perfect movie, and that's not just because of Natalie Portman. Although... damn. Look at that face.

Incidentally, the first physical dvd I ever bought,
back in the time when every purchase was still of monumental significance.

So in short order I bought Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, the then just newly releasing editions for  Vertigo's Hellblazer series, the Judge Dredd Case Files and the library editions of Hellboy. And then as I didn't want to read the popular Conan at the time, but loving anything with swords and scowling dudes hacking at each other's throats, I looked for something similar but different. I ended up with the irish battle-loving Slaine and the short-lived but much loved by me: Valen the Outcast.
Later I picked up some more comics which I had heard were good. Sandman, Wasteland, Hellspawn and of course the beautiful Saga. After that the list widens significantly enough and quickly enough that I'll forego writing down the rest. In short, in my new discovery, I was quite spoiled and I had alot of fun.

Meanwhile though, I had forgotten about one of those earliest comics that I had actually wanted to check out.

So, a year after having purchased my very first comic collection; Hellblazer: Original Sins, on august 2014 I finally got to the 30 days of night comic.

I've always been drawn to the dark and the cover art was some rather messed up disgusting stuff, so I had high hopes going in.

But when it arrived and I finally got to it I was at first a little stunned. Like Hellboy and Hellblazer and V for Vendetta it wasn't at all what I thought it would be. The art was unlike what I had expected, with yet again no clean lines and highly impressionistic artwork.

You need to understand that I grew up in Belgium and whatever comics I picked up as a kid, were all endowed with clean line art by artists like Vandersteen, Hergé or Uderzo. I wasn't quite prepared for the wide variety of artistic approach in american comics.

Suske en Wiske,
likely better known as Bob et Bobette.

But I've never been one to put down a book once begun and the story swiflty drew me in and the artwork quickly grew on me. The more I read it, the more I loved it. 

Eben and Stella. What a gorgeous and horrifying romance, what a story. And the art: So many things were unique and memorable; the disturbing faces, the contrast of blood-red and snow-white, the shocking violence and of course the visual uniqueness of the vampires themselves. I also loved the complicated but funny and yet extremely dark Juarez or Lex Nova and the Case of the 400 Dead Mexican Girls, it's easily my favourite of the 30 days cycle and I ocassionally go back and have a quick re-read.

So then, mainly the reason for this post; Ben Templesmith's art.

Nobody does faces and subtlety like Ben Templesmith. Nobody has his style, this ever-present thing that constantly gives off almost tangible mood. It's wholly unique, and the people that inevitably try to emulate him fail woefully.

It's an artstyle I've fallen more in love with the longer I'm acquainted with it and it's a surprise then to find that I've only read Hellspawn and the 30 days of Night cycle. I usually go for stories and pick the best of the best, the most well known and critically acclaimed and never really pick up a comic for its art, so I guess it's not really that surprising.

Anyway, many comics and much reading later something new caught me eye. I had kept hearing again and again some positive murmurings concerning a certain comic book.

A series llustrated by Ben templesmith and with writing duties by Warren Ellis.

Warren ellis I thought I wasn't familiar with despite him doing a brieft stint in Hellblazer, and as I hadn't read beyond the 9th (I think) omnibus I haven'gotten to his run yet.
But a quick rummage through his bibliography revealed that we had had prior engagement before and that it was rather mixed at best.

Wolfskin was a comic I bought that I thought might be good, anything with violent loner barbarians catches my fancy, you know. But the writing was only semi-good and the art was typically grotesquely hideous for Avatar Press. Hey, I'm trying to reserve judgement but either you like it or you don't.

Wolfskin volume 2: the Hundreth Dream however, was more than just a step in the right direction. Both in art and in story it was a leap, nay 'twas a glorious bound straight into the heart of my fun place. Companionable banter while following around a group of tough dudes who eventually have to stand up, unflinching, in the face of certain death, with bloody blade and gore-drenched axe, fighting for a cause.

But I guess either way it's a dumb thing to go into a Swords and Fantasy comic looking for a great storyline. This was my first story experience with him and it wasn't the best, but that didn't mean he wasn't good. He has high credits even if this one wasn't exactly one of them. He was the one who wrote Transmetropolitan, you know, which I gather is a big thing if you're into satire.

And even then, I figured, if I don't like it, it's only one trade paperback.
So with dubious writing credits and art that I really wanted to see more of, I stopped worrying about it and I took the plunge.

And so I ordered Fell: Feral City.