Creative Staff:
Story: Warren Ellis
Art: Ben Templesmith
What They Say:
Forcibly transferred across the bridge and into the city law forgot, Richard Fell is one of three-and-a-half detectives policing the dark corners of Snowtown. With lethal secrets and menacing shadows around every bend, Richard Fell must rely on his sharp whit to stay alive, or become just another body in the belly of Snowtown.
Content:
From the brilliant mind that brought us Transmetropolitan and Hellblazer comes another truly unique and outstanding piece of fiction. Fell: Feral City is the first volume of an ongoing series, and collects the first eight chapters of the Fell anthology. What profoundly struck me was the manner in which the narrative flows throughout Fell. Each chapter is a self-contained story about Detective Fell’s day-to-day in the crime-ridden streets of Snowtown. I found myself clamoring for the next chapter as soon as I had finished the last, yearning to see what Snowtown would throw at our protagonist.
Detective Fell is far from squeaky clean. While his past has yet to be told completely, we are given early indication that his brilliance has not been without reprisal, and he is paying for old sins within the boundaries of Snowtown. Ellis can certainly write a compelling detective series. Richard Fell is no ham-fisted goon but rather a genius detective with a keen eye into secrets and the people who keep them. A valuable skill in a city where no one is innocent, and I mean no one.
Beyond the fantastic story is the uniquely dark and otherworldly artwork. Applying a watercolor technique to the overall page layout, Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night) creates a dreamlike world where darkness is all consuming, and light has an eerie, ghostly glow. Combining different paints and even beer (yes, you heard me. Beer.) Ben Templesmith is able to match mood with phenomenal art. Whether we’re following Detective Fell through the blue-grays of the Snowtown docks, or witnessing the burning reds of pain brought on by a fresh knife-wound, Templesmith’s art reinforces the strength of Ellis’s story.
With that being said, decriers of the nightmarish or “dirty” style of art similar to Arkham Asylum may find similar problems with Fell. The in-panel detail is haunting and surreal, but lacks traditional comic book convention, using very few colors and instead focusing on a more unified color scheme. However, if you are amenable to a unique experience where a gifted artist is paired with a prolific writer, Fell: Feral City will not disappoint.
In Summary:
Fell: Feral City is an atmospheric romp through the dark places you dare not go alone. Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith have succeeded in creating a noir graphic novel with equal parts style and substance, blending whit and watercolor. With such a compelling first volume in what I can only hope will be a long running series, Ellis and Templesmith will have you hooked, cuffed, and braced for more.
Grade: A
Age Rating: M/Mature
Released By: Image Comics
Release Date: June 5, 2007
MSRP: $14.99
Great review!
I usually ignore reviews but this one completely captivated my attention, dragging me onto the streets of Snowtown. My imagination is racing in an attempt to put as many clues together as possible. The past life of the main character, Richard Fell, was tastefully alluded to in a manner that will peak ones interest but not give anything away! Just as I thought i was coming to the end of the review, the artwork was described. Being artistically inclined, I love that the artwork is not merely glossed over but discussed in detail such as color, feeling and mediums involved! I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on a copy!
Ok so a few things. While he does have a brilliant mind, Warren Ellis did not bring us Hellblazer. He did write for the title, but Hellblazer was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and Jamie Delano. Secondly you didn’t touch on the biggest draw of the book: Pricing. The comics were $2.99 in an era of $5.00 comics. Ellis wanted to show you could provide quality entertainment in comics for a lower price. Which is why there are no real story arcs and each issue is largely self contained. So if you only picked up a few issues here and there you wouldn’t get lost. Lastly, the reason it has been 7 years since an issue has been released is that in 2008 Ellis’s computer crashed and died taking with it pretty much all of his planned scripts for the subsequent issues of Fell. As of 2010 he had rewritten script #10 and sent it in to image, but Image comics wouldn’t pay to print the issue until he had gotten more than just one script done. He has stated in interviews that he would like to finish the story but it would likely be a very short run (7 issues or so) but as of 7 years later we still have nothing. Which makes sense honestly. As good as the series was (and it was phenomenal) Ellis has a ton on his plate, and writing 7 more issues for a comic few people other than Warren Ellis fans will remember has to be low on his to do list.
Well done review. I’m definitely looking forward to checking this one out. Anything Ellis and I’m in.