By Simon Dixon
Many of you folks out there probably know Joe Hill as the writer of the marvellous IDW series “Locke & Key”. Quite a lot of you might not know that Joe Hill is also an amazing writer of novels! His most recent novel “NOS4A2” or “NOS4R2” for us UK folks is the story of Charles Manx & his Silver Wraith and his adventures in Christmasland. Now that Locke & Key is coming to an end, Mr Hill has been kind enough to grace us with a new comic; a comic set in the crazy and scary world of his novel “NOS4A2”.
First things first, I just want to say that I have never read “NOS4A2” before; something which I hope to rectify after reading this series. The reason I plan to rectify this AFTER reading this series is because I believe “Wraith” is a prequel. So, this book is completely new reader friendly.
Before we jump straight into looking at the story let me talk about the marvellous art for a bit. The art in this book is provided by CP Wilson III and he does a great job of it! It’s dark, gritty and he uses every bit of his style to add a creepy new layer to the story. It fits perfect within the book and CP does a fantastic job of slowly making the character of Charles Manx creepier throughout the entire book, so much so that it feels like a completely natural progression to the Charles Manx we see at the end of the book. There is also a scene in the book that can’t go without mention. The scene where young Charles Manx is playing with his sled and is confronted by a disgruntled customer of his mothers. This scene is one of the most horrible and emotional scenes I’ve ever seen in comics. However, the scene would be nowhere near as scarring and emotional if the scene was text based. It’s the art in this scene that makes it so good!
Of course you can’t talk about the art without talking about the colours in the book. Nowadays I feel like colourists don’t get the credit they deserve. Colours can make or break a book. Look at “Bedlam” for example, a wonderful crime thriller written by Nick Spencer with amazing art by Riley Rossmo. Now, I’m not saying that the art by Riley Rossmo wouldn’t be good without the colours, however the amazing colours by Jean-Paul Csuka are probably the best colours I have ever seen and makes the art in the book some of my favourite ever. This is why I believe that colourists deserve more credit and that’s why I’m going to talk about the great colours in this book from Jay Fotos. The use of lots of dark colours in the book with a slight splash of bright colour every now and then makes for great contrast. For example, the build up to the end of the book is really dark, however we get great splashes of red that impacts you a lot because you begin to get used to looking at dark and gritty colours. This adds a whole new level to the art and the story that turns a book with good art into a book with great art!
Now, the art isn’t the only amazing thing in this book. The story is obviously pretty amazing too! Firstly I just want to say that this is a really wordy book. An average comic book takes me anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to read, this one took me around 20 minutes; maybe even more. However, this is no where near a bad thing! The story draws you in and holds you so well that the time flies by.
As I mentioned at the start of this article this book is set in the world of Joe Hill’s newest novel “NOS4A2” and is a prequel to the events of that book. The book follows Charles Manx, a man who Kidnaps children, drains them of their life force and places them in his demented theme park “Christmasland”. This issue takes us all the way from young Charles Manx as he grows up and the events in his life that lead him to his first visit to Christmasland. By getting a closer look at the younger life of Charles Manx leading up to this point, we see him develop into the man he became and the crazy experiences he had to get there. This makes the character a lot more believable and allows you to understand what probably makes him so crazy. The most interesting part of his journey is the idea that he is a victim of circumstance and society. The only thing he has ever tried to do is prove himself and impress his family while wanting to live a normal life. However, it’s the environment he is in and most importantly the people he interacts with that send him on his dark path. Whether it be his wife or the man who tricks him into making an investment; if he had never met these people he would have probably ended up a good guy. I think this is a pretty good comparison to our world in which it’s the people around you who shape what you are just as much as yourself.
The book is narrated by Charles’ future self as he is talking to a child he has kidnapped in his Silver Wraith. I feel like this was a great choice as it gives us an introduction to the character that we’re building up to and allows us to compare him to his past self throughout. This is the most text heavy part of the book and is beautifully written while the dialogue flows perfectly.
By the end of the book we reach Christmasland for the first time. This in many ways is only the beginning of the book! However, it feels that by the time you get to this point that you’ve already completed a long journey. This definitely speaks to the long, crazy & eventful life of Mr Manx. This makes me look forward to what’s to come while also getting great bang for buck from the first issue.
Overall, this is a brilliant book! It’s dark, gritty and emotionally straining. It takes you on a horrible journey that for some reason you can’t get enough of and you’re desperate for more! This is the perfect thriller/horror book. If you are interested in that type of book or you’re a fan of Locke & Key or Joe Hill I can’t recommend this book enough! It leaves a hole that can only be filled by more “Wraith” and I can’t wait for the next issue!
Story + Writing – 5/5
Art – 5/5
Overall Score – 5/5
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Posted on November 17th, 2013
Category: REVIEWS, WRITER'S BLOCK
Tags: Charles Manx, CP Wilson III, Horror comics, IDW Publishing, Jay Fotos, Joe Hill, Locke and Key, Simon Dixon, Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland review