Writer: Ales Kot
Artist: Matt Taylor
Colourist: Lee Loughridge
Publisher: Image Comics
If you have not heard about the stellar comic coming out of Image Comics, Wolf, then it is safe to say you are missing out on a great book that is still fairly new. You follow the main character Wolfe who is set ablaze on the hills around Los Angeles singing songs and shortly after shedding his skin. He is an immortal being and deep in some mobster vampire shit as he takes on non-human affairs that happen in LA, who can see, interact and talk with the dead and ghosts. At the same time we are introduced to a scene where a young girl stands covered in his parents blood with police escorting her. Mid car ride Anita begins talking to herself and jumps out of the police car right in the middle of the road. Wolfe wakes up back at his house after his ordeal with vampire mob lord Sterling Gibson and gets a visit from his good stoner friend Freddy Chtonic, a guy who seems to be part of a species originating back to Chthulu and tentacle faced beings… who is also getting kicked out of his apartment because the landlord who is a literal vampire is raising his rent to unaffordable amounts. The next day Anita arrives on Wolfe’s doorstep with information that he must help her and reveals that she can also interact with the dead/ghosts in the same ways as Wolfe. This is where the story jets forward on a big detective adventure digging deeper in the vampire ranks to uncover just what the hell is going on in LA. This story goes to some great places while remaining down to Earth, and if you are looking to break into a great dark yet lightly humoured story about mythological people living as regular people in our modern life with greater powers at play that need to be figured out in order to save everything. Wolfe loves myths.
The latest issues happen five years after the end events of Wolf #4, some things have gone down and it would seem the main characters Wolfe and Anita Christ are separated. Without going into spoiler territory it would seem that there is a lot of mystery as to what happened after the end of issue #4 for the characters in the book as some big event must have happened which split Wolfe’s rag tag group. The beginning of this second story arc ‘Apocalypse Soon’ sets the mood and setting by giving us lots of character interaction between Wolfe’s group as well as lets the reader know what is happening to Wolfe. We are given some great flashback panels that set up part of his history and gives some deeper insight into Wolfe’s character. Leading up to Anita’s 18th birthday, she is on a kick of passion to uncover the secrets behind Wolfe’s whereabouts and begins to act on her passion to find out what has actually happened to Wolfe and not just what is heard within earshot. Ales Kott’s writing is down to earth and realistic, however the accents he writes and how he writes certain character’s dialogues in this book can be confusing to follow sometimes. He has a great backlog of work to show for his great writing but I find this story to be some of his most playful writing while being an otherwise dark book. The man who brings the work to life Ricardo Lopez Ortiz mashes up multiple art styles with a heavy pop art influence that is very attractive and gives the book a playful yet dire & dirty feel. His art is dynamic and the colourist does a fantastic job of making the art all that more attractive. This is the start of the second book in this fairly new Image Comics series with the first volume ‘Blood and Magic’ released there is no better time to jump into this series as the first story was captivating and brought us into this great world of mystery and mythology. Issue #5 was compelling and with issue #6 released I would say that this book is on an upward and onward trajectory that could have a lot of steam behind it for a long running life. Pick these books up at your local comic book store today!
~ T.J Head
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