I’ve mentioned Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith‘s new, and modestly priced Fell briefly before. The above is a wallpaper I threw together featuring images from issues 1, 2, and 4.
“What’s so special about Fell?” you ask. Well, I’ll tell you.
In the world of Fell, Detective Richard Fell did something very naughty, or very right, in his previous precint because he has been transferred to the feral city of Snowtown. Snowtown is the ultimate city without pity. Think of as Sin City if it were real and all the “ladies of the night” didn’t look like supermodels with a fetish for leather kink.
This is a real, surrealized, dirty town filled with the familiar Eliis characters. The hero who’s not knight in shining armor-like but he knows what is right and acts on that instinct without fail. The woman who acts like a real human being rather than some brainless doll with big boobs. She may be a bit crazy but hey, nobody’s perfect. The endless parade of crazy people who I swear Ellis must have met in real life cause that kind of crazy and seriously fucked-uppedness can’t have come from his brain. And if they did, like I suspect, I fear for that poor old man’s soul.
Then there’s Templesmith’s art and the wonderful experience of it. His drawings match so well with Ellis’ cynical style that I’d swear they were joined at the hip or maybe the same person acting out a role as a double agent of comics genius.
The book costs only $2.00. That’s on purpose. Ellis wanted to give something to those comics fans who can’t afford the bigger books. I have to admit, paying 4 dollars and up for various books is daunting to say the least. It makes it difficult to take chances on new works cause you’re not sure if it will be worth the ride in the long run.
Because of the low price there are less story pages. Around about 16 or 18 if I remember correctly. Templesmith and Ellis are using the nine panel structure so there is no sense of lost story or pacing. Each story is self contained so any Joe/Jane BLow can come off the street and experience Snowtown without feeling they need to read previous issues(although I highly recommend that they do).
As for the leftover pages, Ellis has dedicated that to random bits of knowledge in comics writing and ideas on the industry. So anyone who wants to learn something about creating a book like this has hit the jackpot of all jackpots. If you don’t care about the biz, well you’ve got a neat and complete, gritty story in your hands and no reason to bitch.
