KURTIS J. WIEBE is a busy boy. In the last year, we've seen some great stuff coming from him, his THE INTREPIDS and GREEN WAKE among the best books of 2011. The former was a FUN 6-part limited series following a bunch of superspy teens led by a mad scientist, who battled a series of increasingly bizarre robot-mammal-monster hybrid creatures woven in with a very human backstory which was ultimately a heartbreaking tale of betrayal and loyalty. The latter was an incredible (sadly cancelled) dark masterpiece. In direct contrast with The Intrepids' cartoonish art by Scott Kowalchuk were Riley Rossmo's surreal and jagged painted lines, suiting the tone of grief and darkness that pervades the story's setting perfectly. I bloody loved that book... just look at this for a second - this is the kind of blood-spattered psychological nightmare we got over its 10 month run...
In more recent months, I've not been massively turned on by Wiebe's projects. Peter Panzerfaust was obviously a labour of love for the writer, an update of the Peter Pan story set against the backdrop of 1940s occupied France. Hugely ambitious and critically well received, it was well executed but ultimately didn't hold my attention. Following swiftly was Grim Leaper, an interesting concept based around a protagonist stuck in a Quantum Leap scenario - albeit with added violent death... which again didn't pull me in like his earlier series. Meanwhile Rossmo worked on the limited series Rebel Blood, which he drew and co-wrote with Alex Link - a confounding, mulit-layered zombie(ish) tale where you're never really sure what's real and what's not, perfectly suited to the dark and often very gory nature of Rossmo's art:
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| Yeah, this book is disgusting |
And so this brings us to Debris which is Wiebe and Rossmo's first post-Green Wake co-venture. I'd heard about the premise a few months back in the solicitation and been instantly excited: "In the far future, humanity has doomed planet earth to rot and decay,
covering her surface with garbage. Now, ancient spirits called the
Colossals rise from the debris and attack the remaining survivors,
forcing the human race to the brink of extinction. One warrior woman,
Maya, sets out to find the last source of pure water to save the world
before the monsters bring it all to an end."
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| ...the FUCK is that?! |
This book doesn't fuck around with exposition. It immediately immerses you in a new world and demands that you make sense of it on your own, in a similar way to Brandon Graham's Prophet. We've very quickly got to get used to a new world, new creatures, a new way of speaking.While perhaps not to the same degree or level of sophistication as that title, it shares the same sense of a future far-flung from our comprehension. However, similar to another current Image title, Brian K. Vaughan's Saga, we quickly understand the emotional stakes and the plight of the protagonists, even if we don't fully understand the world they inhabit just yet.
Naturally, the art is top notch. What's actually refreshing about Debris is how light the colour palette is, especially given the darkness of Rossmo's other recent work. We've got bright blue skies instead of murky swamps, which helps the book breathe - this is a large, expansive world we are entering, not a claustrophobic psychological prison like Green Wake or the world of Rebel Blood.
Oh yeah, did I mention how freaking cool the creatures in this book look?
Wiebe and Rossmo have consolidated their status as somewhat of a dream team here, as Wiebe's sparse scripts let Rossmo's art do the talking. Here's hoping this book does well and they continue to work together in the future.
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