Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Green Wake #2 Review


After all the pitching around that Ryan has done with Green Wake, recently, from a Top 10, to a pair of interviews with the creator and writer Kurtis Wiebe, I caved in and checked the series out. Needless to say, Ryan was right and Green Wake is a wonderful series, and I was sent an advance review copy of issue two, which is in the stands this week. Hit the jump to read the review.



Green Wake #2

Written by Kurtis J. Wiebe
Art by Riley Rossmo

For those of us joining us now, here’s a small recap of Green Wake so far: a man named Carl has arrived to a mysterious place called Green Wake, where residents seem to live there without possibility of escape or memory of how they got there. Carl works as our man-on-the-street view, and he is looking for his lost-love Ariel. He is greeted by the two local law officers, Morley and Krieger, who have been investigating a strings murder, an extremely unlikely occurrence in Green Wake.

The investigative process has led officers Morley and Kieger to yet another murder scene, this time of a man that seemed to trade valuable objects for some kind of drug. This victim is equally gruesome as the one from last issue, except that instead of ripped lips, we have bones pulled directly from fingers. Morley and Kireger suspect that Ariel is behind these murders, and must find her before she claim another victim. With no clues or hints as to where to go next, they find themselves, along with Carl, on the house of the Senator.

What follows is truly one of the most bizarre scenes I’ve read, where a fat, full grown man-toad mixture takes a sauna bath along with our three protagonists. It’s grotesque and slightly terrifying, but with the right levels of absurdity mixed in, and I think the authors intended it that way. The Senator has apparently been in Green Wake longer than anyone else and the length of his stay has affected his body. Or maybe it’s something else, such as his taste for french cuisine (if you know what I mean).

More importantly, we learn what could be a very disturbing secret of Green Wake, and it has to do with frogs, which seem to be ever present in the town, and carry an important symbolism throughout the series so far. It´ll be interesting to see how Wiebe develops the importance of the frogs throughout the series, as they are such a strong visual element populating all of Green Wake.

Finally, we get a glimpse of who (or what) Ariel has turned into. Riley Rossmo delivers a truly gruesome imagery, one of those things that would look silly anywhere else, that only comics could possibly do right. Truly a sight to behold. Rossmo was great in Proof, where he got to draw all those cryptozoological creatures, but it seems that he really is thriving and growing as an artist with every page in Green Wake.

Green Wake continues on strong, as the mysteries delve further into the underbelly of the already seedy locale of Green Wake. Truth be told, I’m finding myself more interested into the murder mystery that in the personal tragedy of Carl. However, I am positive that Wiebe is eventually going to tie both of those threads somehow down the line.

Verdict - Buy It. A great new comic that everyone should get into now that it’s early in the series. I am really digging the mix of existential horror and murder-mystery, and if this sounds like something that you would like, you should definitely check out Green Wake.


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3 comments:

Nathan Aaron said...

Are you guys reading Blue Estate? You should really give it a chance! It's pretty good so far (still building the cast, etc.)

Ryan K Lindsay said...

I'm reading Blue Estate. It's pretty damn cool, too. But people keep calling it noir when it's anything but. Still, a very enjoyable crime book, definitely something different.

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