Written by Kurtis Wiebe
Illustrated by Riley Rossmo“LOST CHILDREN”
The next chapter of the critically acclaimed saga returns and the face of Green Wake has been forever changed. A new threat to the once-quiet shores surfaces when rowboats wash ashore with nothing but fresh blood as a passenger and a new arrival begins a campaign to unite Green Wake’s inhabitants with unknown purpose.
Green Wake was so good as a mini-series that it was extended into a 25 issue ongoing — and unlike a certain other mini-to-ongoing we could mention, that hasn’t been changed! With the sixth issue here, it’s time for a new arc and a new mystery — but given the nice way things wrapped up in issue #5, how do Wiebe and Rossmo start the series back up again?
Let’s find out after the cut. As a note, no spoilers for this issue are discussed, but spoilers for the previous arc are.
Green Wake’s original five issues were a creepy testament to guilt ridden horror stories a la Silent Hill (the games, not the movie!). Full of dense questions and somewhat metaphorical half-answers, the story all but wrapped up as as our hero Morley was finally able to go home. Issue #6 finds Morley returning back to the dark shifting landscape of Green Wake, but the initial worry when reading this is similar to the worry you probably had when you heard Scrubs was going to have a season after Zach Braff left, except Zach Braff would come back for that additional season after all — “But wait, the ending worked! What else is there to do?”
The answer to that is not rather simple, nor should it be: there is a new mystery afoot, and someone has to solve it. Morley finds himself back in Green Wake if only because he seemingly wants to be there, but in the time that he has been gone (hours for him), much in Green Wake has changed (months for them). A new character, who arrived when Morley left, has created significant change to the Green Wake social hierarchy, and as such new mysteries and characters are introduced, new doors have been opened, and the issue — like most great mystery comics — ends with a “…wait, what?”
With a title like Green Wake, which is certainly evocative of several familiar horror elements, the key is to mix those things up in a blender of a story in order to puree the qualities and create a new dish. With the latest issue of Green Wake, Wiebe does that to quite a startling extent. It’s rather interesting looking back on the past five issues, which were clearly set to tell one singular story, and to look at the new book: tons of new questions and elements are introduced, a brand new and broader stage is set and the book, once fairly narrow in the direction it was heading in, is now rather open. You essentially get the impression that Wiebe started Green Wake with a few ideas in a box that he didn’t think he’d get to use, but now that he can he’s grabbing everything, throwing it all onto the page and laughing, “What now, readers?! What now!”
That’s absolutely fine with me, though. I find myself a rather adamant fan of the first arc now that I’ve read it in its entirety (in one sitting, no less), and the sixth issue easily speaks volumes of the potential of this title. While you oddly don’t hear as much about this mystery title over some of the other mystery titles at Image, Green Wake is very much doing its own thing in a very unique form. The combination here of Wiebe and Rossmo is absolutely killer, and the slow burn of the darker elements are shaping up rather nicely. I get the feeling that the second arc is going to be more explosive than I could even guess at the moment, and with Wiebe recently stating in an interview with this site that every question has an answer within the book, I have the utmost assurance that all faith I’m currently willing to put into the book will be rewarded.
Continued belowThe one thing that does generally leave me scratching my head, though, is the return of Morley into the landscape of Green Wake. Returning Morley to Green Wake is a bit of a curiosity. Given the shifting nature of the book, you would imagine that a new arc would work well from the perspective of a new narrator. Certainly after all the subtle commentary made on the backstory of Krieger, that perhaps now would be a good time to have him continue on the detective work he and Morley used to do as a team. However, the return of Morley is still a welcome one, and while I may be a tad bit pensive on the logistics of how a man who forgave himself can forcefully throw himself back into the world of Green Wake, I’m willing to see what Wiebe has planned for poor Morley.
I must say, though — while I do love the mysteries that Wiebe is spinning here, you could not have this title without Riley Rossmo. In the same way that a game like Silent Hill had a distinct visual aesthetic, Rossmo’s innovative design structure (that is quickly becoming iconic to the artist) takes Green Wake’s visual component above and beyond. Like a (somehow!) clearer version of a Bill Sienkiewicz page, Rossmo’s jagged and vicious pencil/ink work combined with his gorgeous muted color scheme and sense of visual tone are just as much the element that makes Green Wake such a visceral entity. If Green Wake the town is itself a live entity, it’s Rossmo’s art that truly allows it to come to life. While I admittedly found it slightly off-putting at first, I’ve grown to truly love what Rossmo does with his pages, and even if Wiebe someday decides that Green Wake is actually a sugar high fantasy of a kid stuck in a bouncy castle, I’ll keep reading just to see how Rossmo draws it.
Image is becoming quite known for great ongoings with intriguing mysteries now, and Green Wake is certainly an excellent addition to that long list. While I questioned the initial pretense at first for the second arc, the issue establishes precedence for the ongoing nature of the series, and I’m very excited to see what Wiebe and Rossmo have up their sleeves. If it’s anything like the first arc, it’s sure to be a fun ride.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
