Friday, October 29, 2010

FreakAngels


Because we haven't said anything about FreakAngels in a while, here we go.

FreakAngels is a brilliant web comic by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield.

Paul Duffield may be one of the most talented artists in comics. Plus he's turning out 6 inked pages a week, most weeks and doing other work to boot. Other than the occasional skip week, the man is creating 24 quality pages a month consistently. Not many people can do that.

And Warren Ellis; there's not a sicker dude in comics. He's twisted and demented in all the right ways and many of the wrong ones. I'm not sure if it's the Red Bull or the drugs he's used...OK it must be the drugs...or just a case of mental illness, but Warren Ellis is messed up.

But this is about FreakAngels. It's an almost weekly web comic that gets released every Friday (or we get an apologetic note from one of the creators or Avatar Press staff which are almost as entertaining as the comic some times).

FreakAngels is basically about "What if the Midwich Cuckoos survived to grow up?" and the global catastrophe that they would cause and life thereafter.

Things are getting even more interesting. How many comics can you get a line like this:



One of their own has returned...from the dead...and the FreakAngels are learning more about "the package" and ramping up their powers even more. We're at a point in the story where we really don't know what's going to happen next and I can't be more excited.

Sidebar: I'm a huge fan of post apocalyptic fiction. I'm pretty sure I don't want the reality, but the fiction always amazes me. Even the bad stuff (Knight Rider 2010). It's interesting to see what tech the writers think will survive whatever calamity caused the situation (not the guy from Jersey Shore. We know what calamity caused him. Radioactive chemical waste.) and how societies form or reform I should say. So often authors resort to a utopian view or dictatorship view. Personally, I think we'd end up with a police state based partly on what happened in Russia after the fall of the iron curtain.

Alice, an unpowered human who has fallen into the inner circle of the FreakAngels and our perspective character, and Arkady are my favorites right now. I like how even though Alice doesn't really know what is going on, she knows more then the other civilians who have been around the FreakAngels ever since the disaster happened and she hasn't completely crapped her pants (I know I would have by now). She keeps coming back for more. She may actually be the strongest character of the bunch.

Arkady on the other hand just doesn't really care. She's a fun loving carefree type and probably one of the most powerful members. No matter what happens she seems to take it all in stride.

If you haven't been reading, they have all of the episodes up on the website or you can buy them in trade from your local comic shop or Amazon.com today. Freakangels Volume 5 is due out soon.

No comments: