Comic Review: Fell #8
Fell #8
Written by: Warren Ellis
Art by: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: Image Comics
*Spoilers*
If you haven’t checked out Warren Ellis’s Fell yet? Well, get going. Ellis is doing something special here…he’s thinking about the reader. No advertisements, 16 pages of full-color, self-contained story for only $1.99! And, if you know Ellis’s work, you know it’s a good story to boot.
In issue #8, Ellis does something a little different from the previous issues. Rather than one case that Detective Fell has to figure out, we just go along with him on a regular night in Snowtown. There is a mystery to solve, but it’s not the only thing we see. We also get just some of the smaller Snowtown crimes all with, as we’ve come to expect, a flavor of the bizarre. The case which distracts Fell throughout this issue seems like a mundane shooting. He just can’t figure out the motive. Meanwhile Fell also deals with a guy who likes to have sex with mannequins, someone putting blades in fruit, a guy eaten by his boa constrictor, a homeless man who has proclaimed “his” portion of the park as the sovereign nation of Yakistan, pimps and prostitutes, and an exhibitionist posing as a police officer. Naturally, by the end of the issue, everything’s been sorted out.
Ellis simplified his story-telling for this issue to get a break from issue #7. That previous issue was complicated and he decided he wanted to do something “that didn’t require [him] to grow a new brain to keep track of every element.” He may have made that decision out of personal practicality, but I found the look at a typical night in Snowtown to be interesting. While he used a three-panel per page arrangement with widescreen panels, he also gave a widescreen look at Snowtown. We also get a widescreen look at Detective Fell as the story is told predominantly without word balloons but with captions set-up like personal notes and thoughts that Fell has as he goes through his evening.
It doesn’t have to be said, but I’m going to say it anyway…Templesmith’s art is wonderful. He captures perfectly the nature of the dark city, the grotesque scenes of violence, and the warped personalities found in Snowtown.
One warning: The disturbing aspect of this comic is that Ellis bases his stories on actual news stories. While he doesn’t verify the validity of the various cases Fell deals with in this issue, you have to assume that they do all have a connection with true events. The fact that people can do some of the things which Ellis portrays in this comic is a disturbing idea.
Rating:
4 1/2 worms. There's nothing really to complain about, but I did feel the need to deduct half a worm because it just wasn't as good as the single case issues. Good...but not as good.
Written by: Warren Ellis
Art by: Ben Templesmith
Publisher: Image Comics
*Spoilers*
If you haven’t checked out Warren Ellis’s Fell yet? Well, get going. Ellis is doing something special here…he’s thinking about the reader. No advertisements, 16 pages of full-color, self-contained story for only $1.99! And, if you know Ellis’s work, you know it’s a good story to boot.
In issue #8, Ellis does something a little different from the previous issues. Rather than one case that Detective Fell has to figure out, we just go along with him on a regular night in Snowtown. There is a mystery to solve, but it’s not the only thing we see. We also get just some of the smaller Snowtown crimes all with, as we’ve come to expect, a flavor of the bizarre. The case which distracts Fell throughout this issue seems like a mundane shooting. He just can’t figure out the motive. Meanwhile Fell also deals with a guy who likes to have sex with mannequins, someone putting blades in fruit, a guy eaten by his boa constrictor, a homeless man who has proclaimed “his” portion of the park as the sovereign nation of Yakistan, pimps and prostitutes, and an exhibitionist posing as a police officer. Naturally, by the end of the issue, everything’s been sorted out.
Ellis simplified his story-telling for this issue to get a break from issue #7. That previous issue was complicated and he decided he wanted to do something “that didn’t require [him] to grow a new brain to keep track of every element.” He may have made that decision out of personal practicality, but I found the look at a typical night in Snowtown to be interesting. While he used a three-panel per page arrangement with widescreen panels, he also gave a widescreen look at Snowtown. We also get a widescreen look at Detective Fell as the story is told predominantly without word balloons but with captions set-up like personal notes and thoughts that Fell has as he goes through his evening.
It doesn’t have to be said, but I’m going to say it anyway…Templesmith’s art is wonderful. He captures perfectly the nature of the dark city, the grotesque scenes of violence, and the warped personalities found in Snowtown.
One warning: The disturbing aspect of this comic is that Ellis bases his stories on actual news stories. While he doesn’t verify the validity of the various cases Fell deals with in this issue, you have to assume that they do all have a connection with true events. The fact that people can do some of the things which Ellis portrays in this comic is a disturbing idea.
Rating:
4 1/2 worms. There's nothing really to complain about, but I did feel the need to deduct half a worm because it just wasn't as good as the single case issues. Good...but not as good.
posted by Bodog at 5:41 PM
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