ADVANCE REVIEW! Green Wake #6 will come out on October 26, 2011.
Green Wake is back! I can honestly say I’m not disappointed either. Normally when you have a relaunch or a continuation of a series, well, things change. Green Wake isn’t any different. There are some major differences in the town now compared to the first original five issues, but they’re not necessarily a bad thing. I am sad to say that the original tradition of answering one question and having three more pop up is still going strong. Wiebe insists on keeping the reader hooked by giving minute amounts of information, as he should. From a reading standpoint, I want to know. Luckily, it doesn’t look like Green Wake is going anywhere, so it appears like we’ll continue to get new answers in every issue. This story arc, “Lost Children” takes place after the original Green Wake though, so I’d suggest reading those five before starting on this one, since it’s a continuation rather than a new storyline.
Now, if anyone read my interview with Wiebe, he touched on a lot of the new aspects that are added to the series already. For those of you who haven’t, there are new characters to spice things up, some old, familiar characters and some changes to the town of Green Wake. There is one big spoiler that I have to reveal in this review because it’s simply pivotal to the entire issue, so if you don’t want to know, stop reading here and pick up the comic when it comes out.
At the end of Issue 5, we’re left with Morley leaving Green Wake, Krieger staying behind to maintain the town and Carl… well, Carl just disappeared and the whole situation with him was beautifully rendered by Rossmo, might I add. Near the end, we’re left with the teaser of a silhouette talking with Krieger and it’s not really said who the mysterious person is, however, the answer’s revealed in this first issue of Green Wake: Lost Children. Drum roll, please? Morley’s back! He’s now reunited with Krieger and they’re back to their detective work. Why? Well, I’ll leave some mystery. As far as old and familiar, the team being back together is about as far as it goes.
Green Wake is still Green Wake, in a sense. It’s going through some pretty drastic changes, the biggest being the weather. Snow in Green Wake sounds pretty weird to me. A decent amount of time has passed since Morley leaving and coming back, so it’s not like Green Wake has changed overnight. If it was a drastic change that was meant to happen immediately, I’d probably use the proverbial brakes and start whining. Overall, the changes weren’t enough to send me squawking and Wiebe did give good explanations, so I’m still on the Green Wake bandwagon.
There’s also a new guy in town! Micah’s what I would call passive-aggressive muscle. His character seems to be very polite and friendly, but he has a gang that’s rallying followers in Green Wake. So imagine a mafia politician with a message of love and hope. That’s basically Micah in a nutshell. Doesn’t sound very trustworthy, does he? For the most part, Green Wake has been pretty direct with Morley and Krieger solving the murders that are obviously looked down upon, but now there’s new character that’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing with nefarious intentions. Neither Morley nor Krieger seem too impressed with Micah, but I’m guessing dealing with him is going to be much more difficult than solving a few murders — especially now that Morley’s already solved Green Wake’s purpose.
Even though Green Wake’s been revealed to be a place for the guilty to reside, it’s changed by what its inhabitants want. So the leaves one giant question of why the town’s changing now. It obviously has something to do with Micah, but not much else is revealed. Queue that frustrating feeling of needing to know and having to wait for another issue, but like I said, it’s not a disappointing feeling by far. It’s more like that really good book that you can’t put down, even if it’s 3am. and you have work in the morning. At least with books, you get to read it all in one sitting. With comics, you have to wait for the next issue.
Rossmo’s art remains as dark and gorgeous as ever, and consistency is key in comic art. He’s actually rapidly stepping up into my favorites category with his scratchy sketch quality, shading and dark coloring. The snow brings a slight difference to the artwork. It’s not as dark, obviously, so drawing up someone creepy or nefarious with a white background is more of a difficult task. The reader focuses more on every expression or bit of shading, and even the slightest change would make the intent of the art look vastly different. Now, I could spend an hour typing up a few pages worth of explaining every detail, but honestly, a person can read that much and end up with an entirely different picture in their head. When they say a picture is worth a thousand words, in a way, it is. So I’ll let you judge the artwork for yourself. To me, the artwork looks and feels like Green Wake, meaning I’m awestruck at the detail and perfection that Rossmo has weaved for this series in the short time since its creation.
Overall, I’m left feeling intrigued by the new direction Green Wake is taking. Micah looks to be a strong character and I will admit to being extremely happy that the duo of Morley and Kreiger are back in action. There seems to be just the right amount of mystery to keep me hooked without so many twists that my ears start leaking steam. The original Green Wake had a lot of mystery and then some massive plot twists while the new “Lost Children” arc seems more straightforward. There’s obviously something big happening with Micah, but the details aren’t filled in yet and there’s still the matter of the children that barely make an appearance. If I’ve learned anything so far, it’s that there will be some mind games, so I’m just waiting for “Lost Children” to spring a few.
I stand by it when I say I haven’t found a series that has the perfect, symbiotic relationship between the story and artwork like Green Wake. The combination of Wiebe and Rossmo make a damn good comic and one I’d highly recommend to anyone interested in horror.
Felicity Gustafson was born in Ohio and, after the astounding realization that there was more to do than look at trees and cows, she decided to become a nerd and got into comics, anime and video games. New to Comics Bulletin, she sticks mostly to reviewing things out of the horror and comedy genres. She spends most of her time working in the manufacturing industry, finishing her computer degree and steadfastly avoiding ham fat at all costs.