Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Comics, debris, image

Review: Debris #1

Published Sat, 28 Jul 2012 11:00:35 -0500

Louie Falcetti writes for Bleeding Cool;

If 2012 Apocalypse fever means that we get more and more fallen-world/nightmare sci-fi/our-last-hope/fever dream visions of the world-that-shouldn't, then by all means Mayans, lets burn this fucker down! I've been having a hard time keeping up with all of the great science fiction comic books being published currently and that is a cross I bear gladly. Add to that pile the beautiful new book debris, out this week by Shadowline/Image, written by Kurtis "I Write A Million Books" Wiebe and drawn by Riley "My Pencils Beautiful" Rossmo (nicknames by moi).

This isn't the first "giant monsters are attacking everyone" book I've reviewed this year. This isn't even the first "giant monsters are attacking everyone" book by Image I've reviewed this year. But unlike Enormous which was sold as a book where no human would be riding around on the backs of the giant creatures trying to bring them down, debris makes no such promise.

debris takes place at the end of the road for humanity (gee, it's almost like today's genre authors are trying to tell us something) where the world has been overrun with garbage and, well, debris. Mankind is down to one final tribe, in hiding but only briefly for they are about to be discovered by the Collosals.

This book gets everything right. Dialog that's obviously a future hybrid english language? Check. Stunning artwork that belongs on the shelf with some of the European masters of future shock wonder? Double check. A strong female lead that doesn't need to be wearing a thong and a furry bra to command respect and keep the audience's attention? Triple check.

What else do you need to know? The story begins around two characters, Calista, the protector of this last society of humans and Maya, the disciple who'll end up taking the mantle by the end of the first issue. That's not a spoiler, for that's merely prologue to where this story is going to take us.

I dig on a story that can do a lot with a little, that's why I'll defend the film Signs until someone brings up Lady In The Water and I get deflated and feel sad. But at the same time, I love it when creators put us somewhere small and then open us up to the wild and crazy madness beyond the gates. That's what made Millar's Old Man Logan such a treat, the rambling odyssey feature, that's where the most interesting bits play out.
Maya, the only human to ever bring down a Collosal, the only living human who has seen what is inside of them, is leaving home, to brave the wilderness, to look for clean water in a land that may or may not be real. Come on and lie to me and tell me you're not already hooked. This book scratches the itch left behind since BSG. This book is proof positive that even though people will always moan about how "everything has been done", those moaners are just not looking hard enough.

If you want a book with a mature, controlled, delicate art style, that still manages to bridge the gaps between underground, 2000 AD, anime and good ol' fashioned comic book violence, pick up debris. There are splash pages but they don't feel like filler, they feel like part of the experience. Part environmental fable, part post apocalyptic action flick, part survival tale, part adolescence metaphor, this book does it all and makes it look easy. And pick up the million other books that Wiebe is writing right now as well, because so far the man is having a stellar 2012 and you're going to want to be a part of it.