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| Frostbite #1 |
Of all the comic books that have been in the reading stack
over the past few months, I was probably intrigued by Frostbite a little more
than most. It’s a Vertigo title, and that label carries with it the Hellblazer
and Swamp Thing cred that I have come to adore.
If you’ve seen Frostbite on your local comic book store
shelves, then you already know the details. The story is by Joshua Williamson
with art by Jason Shawn Alexander, and the duo is presenting some pretty
riveting things in this series.
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| Frostbite #2 |
Basically, the earth has entered another ice age, and a
mysterious disease called (you guessed it, frostbite) freezes people from the inside
out. There was no cure, until a doctor and his daughter found one. You get
where this is going, because it’s a storyline that a lot of us have seen before
in comics, books, movies, and much more. The two need to get the cure to a
location and hire a team of professionals to get them there. Unfortunately,
(and a bit cliché) there is a big bad hunting down the doctor and his daughter.
So out to the frozen tundra they go, being pursued on all sides by adversaries.
Not exactly what anyone would call a good time, unless of course you’re simply
reading the book.
The thing that puts Frostbite on the next level is the depth
of Williamson’s story. There are heat booths, which emphasizes the mini-economy
that has popped up around something we all take for granted—simply being
warmed. There are breakouts of society, Jack Frosts, Snow Queens, Firemen, and
much more that have taken root to find a new way of life. That depth is what
helps sell, what is probably a pretty much well-trodden dystopian tale. The
frozen world is a bit unique, but in a lot of ways the books is Mad Max in Antarctica
with a bunch of crazy people running around.
Still, the art from Alexander is something that is pretty
interesting all along the way. The characters take on lives of their own, which
is really the point of a good comic book. When the writing and art combines
effortlessly, the result can be something borderline poetic. Does Frostbite
succeed? Well, it’s too early to tell only three issues in, but the early
returns look promising.
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| Frostbite #3 |
Williamson manages to draw readers in by giving them a stake
in the characters. Unlike the superhero books stacked up in reading piles
across the world, the independent world is loaded with characters WITHOUT fifty
years of canon backing them up. Simply caring about what is happening to these
characters is a challenge many books aspire to, but simply fall short.
It’s not a knock, just a note on the state of the industry.
It’s easy to care about Batman and Spider-Man, because they’ve been a part of
your life for decades, Keaton (one of the main characters on the contracted
transport crew in Frostbite) has earn years of respect in a few short pages or
the book stays on the shelf never to be opened.
Without giving too much away, because I hate spoilers and
the corresponding alerts, the story moves fast in issue number one and only
accelerates from there, and that is exactly how a comic book should read. Put
the action into the pages and let the narrative develop, this exceeds my
Vertigo anticipation.
So by all means, give Frostbite a chance if you’ve liked the
Mad Max worlds, Highlander stories, or even some of the Star Wars stuff. The
world isn’t as well-developed as those, but it holds all sorts of potential and
possibility. From an investment standpoint, Frostbite is probably a buy and
hold. Without a major movie or TV series, it’s going to be limited in appeal
based on the darker story and strong imagery. That alone should grant it some collectability,
but in the end, this a story that I’m going to see through to the end. And the
eventual sequels that is.
