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| via CBR |
artist: Christopher Mitten
I'm an original Wasteland fanboy. I've loved the Oni post-apocalypse series since it debuted. The fact that it's ending this year is incredibly bittersweet. It gets to go out on its own terms, but the massive cult following I always thought it deserved never really materialized. That being said, finally the comics industry seems to have caught up with it. Series writer Antony Johnston has two new series being published by Image, featuring the signature artists from Wasteland. The more recent one, The Fuse, features the work of Justin Greenwood. The slightly older one (by a matter of issues) is this one, Umbral, which features original Wasteland artist (who has returned for its final arc) Christopher Mitten.
Mitten was a huge reason Wasteland made an immediate impact on me. This is good news for Umbral, because it features glorious full color (whereas Wasteland was black & white for nearly every issue), including the bold and instantly trademark use of purple to truly make its world of magic pop.
This is the first issue of Umbral I've caught. I hoped it would reward my long interest in Johnston and Mitten's careers and collaborative potential, and it does. In a lot of ways, it's Wasteland from a more direct perspective. Lead character Rascal is like Abi (as well as virtually every other aspect) without all the mystery, just straight-up adventure. Wasteland was always a complicated tapestry playing a number of different storylines simulaneously. Umbral is in a lot of ways the streamlined version of that. All the toys are squarely in the same sandbox. Hopefully this means anyone who at least knew of Wasteland but might have been intimidated by everything they needed to keep straight will have a much easier time of it with Umbral.
Which is not to say Umbral is simplistic. Johnston is an expert at world-building. Even four issues in, having missed the first three, being thrown into his ideas is more fun than daunting. Like any fantasy series, there are a lot of weird names (but Game of Thrones fans will hopefully be more than comfortable with that). There's a big bad demon, if you like that sort of thing, too.
The first trade collection, Out of the Shadows, is available as of last week, if you want to bite the bullet and jump right in.
I'm an original Wasteland fanboy. I've loved the Oni post-apocalypse series since it debuted. The fact that it's ending this year is incredibly bittersweet. It gets to go out on its own terms, but the massive cult following I always thought it deserved never really materialized. That being said, finally the comics industry seems to have caught up with it. Series writer Antony Johnston has two new series being published by Image, featuring the signature artists from Wasteland. The more recent one, The Fuse, features the work of Justin Greenwood. The slightly older one (by a matter of issues) is this one, Umbral, which features original Wasteland artist (who has returned for its final arc) Christopher Mitten.
Mitten was a huge reason Wasteland made an immediate impact on me. This is good news for Umbral, because it features glorious full color (whereas Wasteland was black & white for nearly every issue), including the bold and instantly trademark use of purple to truly make its world of magic pop.
This is the first issue of Umbral I've caught. I hoped it would reward my long interest in Johnston and Mitten's careers and collaborative potential, and it does. In a lot of ways, it's Wasteland from a more direct perspective. Lead character Rascal is like Abi (as well as virtually every other aspect) without all the mystery, just straight-up adventure. Wasteland was always a complicated tapestry playing a number of different storylines simulaneously. Umbral is in a lot of ways the streamlined version of that. All the toys are squarely in the same sandbox. Hopefully this means anyone who at least knew of Wasteland but might have been intimidated by everything they needed to keep straight will have a much easier time of it with Umbral.
Which is not to say Umbral is simplistic. Johnston is an expert at world-building. Even four issues in, having missed the first three, being thrown into his ideas is more fun than daunting. Like any fantasy series, there are a lot of weird names (but Game of Thrones fans will hopefully be more than comfortable with that). There's a big bad demon, if you like that sort of thing, too.
The first trade collection, Out of the Shadows, is available as of last week, if you want to bite the bullet and jump right in.
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