This week’s Comics Should Be Cheap was pretty hard to do, all things considered. One of my favorite comics of the year came out (“Enormous”!), taking up the majority of my $20 and leaving me space for but two $3.99 books. I mean, it’s a good thing when $20 can’t even remotely allow you to get all the books you want, but at the same time for an article of that type, to not be able to talk about all the books you want to recommend? It’s a bit of a downer.
But that’s why Hype Machine is here, isn’t it? And that’s why today, I’m going to talk about the second of two Image graphic novellas that you should definitely 100% be picking up: “Wild Children.”
“Wild Children” is an interesting beast. Coming in at 58 pages of sequential art, the graphic novella finds Ales Kot and Riley Rossmo teaming up to tell a rather dark story, with some great lettering assists from Clayton Cowles and colors by Gregory Wright. Talking about the plot only allows one to scratch the surface, but at its most basic, “Wild Children” is about several students who take up arms in the classroom. Like a cross between a David Cronenberg film and something out of the darker catalogue of Grant Morrison, “Wild Children” is a fast paced and wild journey through the more twisted and intense psychosis of youth through the eyes of those with obvious reverence towards the difficult era of ones life.
But, again, that’s only lightly scratching at the surface. In fact, to say much more would be giving too much away, and “Wild Children” is very much a book to be read as blind as possible. Sure, you can know kids and guns are involved, but the rest? Well, that’s for you to find out.
What can be said about “Wild Children” is this: this is one of those beautiful examples of two creators doing something that truly can only be don in the comic medium. With a sense of meta-awareness in its every movement and a mind of its own, “Wild Children” is one of the few books from a creative team out to prove the validity of comics in their own dark way. This isn’t just a book about school shootings or out of control teenagers, and it’s also not just an ode to rebellion and counter culture. This is a comic book in the best sense of the word, where the writing and the art play off each other with a level of familiarity that can only be found in this medium, and in that way the entire endeavor sings comics a hymn in its own twisted style.
And for $7.99? That’s a steal.
But hey, don’t take my word for it. Check out a list of all the positive press the book is already getting from creators who might have much more authority in your book than I do:
“This is a COMIC. It can’t be told any other way, and it can’t work in any other medium. And how it works! Ales, Riley, Greg, Clayton… thank you.” -David Aja (Hawkeye, Immortal Iron Fist, Wolverine)
“Wild Children reveals the black hole at the center of consensus reality. An artful act of intellectual terrorism that leaves you hopeful instead of dead.” -Douglas Rushkoff (Life, Inc., A.D.D. – Adolescent Demo Division, Program or Be Programmed)
“I don’t know what the hell just happened, but I hope more of it happens soon.” -Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Invader Zim)
“Ales Kot, through “fictional” aggressive actions of teenagers, lets loose the notion that the comic is metaphor for life as life is metaphor for the comic. Ultimately inseparable, life and story. Inherently, the message is that we live by the story we design for ourselves, we decide what is in the frame and what isn’t. And the perfectly sparse art by Riley Rossmo allows for the universe to fill the space between the lines. Together, these creators arrange a deceptively easy to digest study of what makes up an existence. Just read it.” -J.H. Williams III (Batwoman, Promethea, Desolation Jones)
“Wild Children is a book that can not exist in a vacuum; it can only exist in our world — the world that Ales Kot cares so deeply about.” -Tyler Crook (Petrograd, Mike Mignola’s B.P.R.D)
Continued below“Brilliant. This is more than just a satisfying and stimulating read. It feels like it’s a jumping off point, with so many references, it’s almost obligatory to have Google to hand. I’ll be re-reading this many times. And I love the art. It’s rough and ready and sophisticated at the same time. This book has so many chaotic elements but it is clearly the product of disciplined minds.” -David Hine
“Cutting through metaphors like a hot knife, Wild Children plays on the grammar of the comic book format as a language of the post-modern culture. Beautifully drawn and cleverly written through the lens of a conscious popular culture that is continually creating and consuming itself.” -David Mack (Kabuki, Daredevil)
And if that doesn’t convince you, check out this preview of the book, with some beautiful art and style from Riley Rossmo:
You’ve got to love Rossmo’s ability to change his style entirely based on the book he’s working on, and if you’ve ever enjoyed Rossmo’s art in the past you’re definitely going to want to see what he has come up with in this book, especially with the colors of Wright over his work. It’s a beautiful combination.
“Wild Children” is available in all good comic shops this week from Image, for a mere $7.99.
