Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Russel Roehling
Published by Oni Press
What’s interesting about letting non-comic loving staff members select graphic novels for the library is that they would pick up things you would never even consider. Wasteland book 8 is a perfect example. It isn’t from the big two publishers. It doesn’t have a super-famous writer or author. And it’s book 8 in a series where we don’t have books 1 through 7. Regardless, my colleague thought enough of the review for her to select this for our collection.
So I gave it a read and was entertained. Wasteland takes place in a post apocalyptic world that looks like the video game Fallout meets Sergio Leone. As the back cover blurb says, “Michael and Abi’s journey through the desert, in search of the fabled land of A-Ree-Yass-I, draws near to its conclusion”. And the meet up with small communities of humans, as well as mutants, bears, sand-eaters and other dangers. Pretty straight forward as far as plot goes. However, picking up this book near the end is a little frustrating. However, the story did reveal itself and eventually by the end I think I have an understanding of the overall plot and characters.
The one thing that I thought was really cool was the artwork by Russel Roehling. It reminded me of the Mad cartoonist Jack Davis or Jijé western works. Done in black and white, there is drama in the art. Characters expressions are often exaggerated and the details are wonderfully rendered.
As for our library picking this up, I think it was a good thing. It’s going to be catalog into the adult non-fiction area because there are a couple f-bombs. Also, I don’t think we’ll be working our way back to fill in the beginning of the series, so putting it in a less conspicuous place might help from others experiencing the lack of completeness frustration. But if the books ever come on sale or I see them for 50% off at a con, I might consider grabbing them for myself.
