WOLF COUNTRY #4
Jim Alexander’s indie, politically-charged horror comic goes from strength to strength with issue four. If the third was a slow burn story, whirling up partisan and spiritual machinations and devious scheming, then its follow up is the ‘fangs out’ action set piece.
The warring factions of vamps and werewolves in the fully realised western setting picks up from where the previous issue so tantalisingly left things. Although the plot to this one doesn’t have the same mystery or reveals as its predecessor, it does prove that Alexander knows how to articulate thrilling battles as well as deception and intrigue.
And there’s violence in abundance, with artist Will Pickering relishing the brain splatter and bite wounds. His Spartan style of black, whites and greys is all gothic strokes and block colours, injecting the feel of the Universal monster movie as well as the spaghetti western. It’s a pleasant contrast to Luke Cooper’s vibrant front cover, which is something of a tradition now.
It’s Alexander’s writing, however, that elevates the issue. It’s elegant and loaded, with a sliver of grim humour. He plays with each panel with his text for maximum impact, making a little violence pack an intellectual punch. Wolf Country is fanatical religion verses a democratic state, and with issue four neither are pulling their punches.
INFO: WOLF COUNTRY #4 / AUTHOR: JIM ALEXANDER / ARTIST: WILL PICKERING, LUKE COOPER / PUBLISHER: PLANET JIMBOT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
