Andrea Sorrentino

A comic shop coworker turned me on to Jeff Lemire's work. I'll be honest, I'd been resisting him for two reasons.

The first is (and I'll fully admit to the stupidity of this) I've seen the artwork for his Sweet Tooth series and hated it. I know absolutely nothing about that series, but the art just turned me off.

The second is the book he did with Gord Downie, late singer of The Tragically Hip. Here, I fully admit to being a shitty Canadian (I don't drink beer, I don't like snow, I despise show more anything to do with hockey, and three of my least favourite Canadian musicians/bands are Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, and The Tragically Hip. So, once again, that means I avoid Lemire.

But my coworker was quite insistent, so I picked up Lemire's Descender series and, while it didn't blow me away, it was entertaining.

Which is a tortuously long way of bringing me around to this series. Now, this is a series I'd actually had my eye on for a while, but we never seemed to have the first volume in stock. When I was finally able to get my hands on the first three volumes, I decided to wade in.

I'm so glad I did. I think I finally get what all the stink is about when it comes to Lemire. He takes his time with the story, quietly and unexpectedly dropping little bombs along the way, knowing exactly where the story may sag a bit, and blowing things up with interesting little clues or revelations.

And the art. Okay, can we just step back for a moment and admire Andrea Sorrentino's magnificent art for a moment? He's fucking incredible. Once again, his art comes on in a very understated way (but occasionally, he'll flip a panel 90 degrees, or 180 degrees, just to show the reader that things are not right here). But as the series carries on, his art becomes more abstract on occasion, deftly providing a visual equivalent to Lemire's words about this mad world. Hell, he almost gets Ditko on us in spots, and I love it.

So, while this first volume only sets up more and more questions, answering none, I am all in for this ride. show less

Series Info/Source: This is the first volume in the Gideon falls series. I believe there are six volumes in this series. I got this as a birthday gift.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed the first volume of this series. The illustration is done in a dark and sketchy style that fits the tone of the book perfectly. Some of the frames are laid out in a very creative way making this a truly artistic masterpiece of a graphic novel. You can tell a lot of thought went into how the illustrations and panels show more are presented and I really appreciated and enjoyed that aspect.

The story is dark and eerie and I love the strange psychological elements to it. Basically, you have two different men (and at the end other people too) who are drawn to this strange black barn in the town of Gideon Falls. The story explores madness, death, evil and is truly mind-bending and strangely compelling. I can’t help but get flashbacks to the Locke and Key series; they are very different stories but similar in tone.

Despite the different POVs and the jumping around, the story is cohesive and easy to follow. There is an eerie mystery here that really makes you think. The characters are all kind of disastrous people but still strangely engaging.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel and definitely plan on continuing the series. The artwork and story are so thoughtfully put together and the story is darkly compelling. I am dying to know what happens next and eager to see how far down this evil rabbit hole our characters end up falling. This is so creepy, but in a good mentally challenging way! show less

Sets a Lovecraftian tone for what is to come, but isn't much fulfilling on its own.

A geologist comes to a remote island lighthouse to investigate a mysterious deep hole that has appeared in the rocky soil. He repeatedly flashes back his mother's mysterious death as he deals with the mysterious lighthouse keeper. Birds mysteriously flock around the hole. Mysterious things happen, like eyeballs popping up everywhere. Or are they?

But what's it all mean? It's a mystery.

This reminds me too much show more of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, which starts cool and mysterious -- and features a lighthouse to boot -- but never ends up going anywhere. I'm very pessimistic about this getting better. show less

I have so many questions as I finished Volume 1. First off, the art was fantastic. The turmoil of Logan was palpable through the pages. And this comic was gritty and graphic in a lot of places. I maybe got a stomach ache a few times based on what I was reading. All in all though, great job by Jeff Lemire!

This volume collects Old Man Logan (2016) issues #1-4.

There is a lot going on in this volume, but I was able to follow it very well. We find Logan in I believe the current version of the show more Marvel universe. We have lady Thor, another Hulk, Old Man Rogers, etc. I am not going to look at what universe that is though. I just don't have the energy to do the research. But somehow, someway, Logan wakes up in New York before the fall. And that fall ended up being the end of all of the Avengers, X-Men, etc. pretty much the good guys when the super villains got together and wiped them out.

Logan thinks that maybe he has been sent back in order to stop the fall from happening, which means he can start taking out people who he has an axe to grind against. First stop, a man who smacked his son (yes Logan has kids in this one) in a different time and place. And next, Banner. Yeah our Hulk apparently went full on evil after the fall and his scenes were gross. I maybe got queasy with him talking about him siring kids with his cousin She-Hulk and how she was the only one who could "handle" him. GAH!

I think that the volume combined shows how disoriented Logan is with the new time and place he is in and his need for revenge against those who he believes must be killed. This Logan does not seem to have a code anymore. It is straight up kill or be killed.

We have a look at a lot of familiar faces in this one. I am not going to get into them here though. I thought the writing was graphic as were the panels. I would suggest not eating while reading this. And the flow was top-notch between showing the past (future) and present (different timeline?) so at least I was not confused by that.

I definitely think that this volume kicks off with Logan feeling out of time and out of place and wondering what he is supposed to do if it's not to avenge those he loved and lost. show less