Manifest Destiny: Volume 1- Flora and Fauna

I picked this up at London Comic con last summer because Westerns and frontier stories are my secret love and I sincerely hope one day to be either Laura Ingalls Wilder or John Marston, ride a horse as my primary means of transportation and tote a Winchester repeater. Either way, I was drawn to this comic series by its Western Expansion vibes having never actually heard of it before.

The series follows the 1804 adventures of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark, who I didn't realise at the time of reading were real people, and whom it now occurs to me are the guys that Fitzwilliam talks about in The Revenant. So you live and learn. Anyway, Lewis and Clark, as I believe they are known to actual history, are assigned by President Thomas Jefferson the task of blazing a trail across the West, from St. Louis to the coast. En route they are to: establish a trade route, familiarise themselves with the new land, note landmarks and terrain, establish links with the natives and document the flora and fauna that they encounter.  Smoothing out the territory for the safe and rapid expansion of The United States of America. Your basic to-do list for building a country. Apparently this is all quite true- I don't know, I'm from England, all we ever did in history lessons was Nazis and Henry VIII.

However, Manifest Destiny is history with its horror adventure hat on. Tensions amongst the men on board the mission is rising. Lewis and Clark discuss the disturbing lack of obstacles they have encountered thus far. America is eerily quiet. Some of the more unsavoury men on board the expedition ship can't help but notice that the crew is comprised almost entirely of men without family and convicts...a coincidence? Or is this mission more dangerous than they have been led to believe? This question is answered fairly early, when the group is attacked by some sort of creature that has the body, legs and head of a Bison and the torso and forearms of a man. Obviously the President was not quite as crazy as he might sound. The introduction of some sort of living fauna disease later in the story brings a whole new organic cousin to the Zombie family and makes for some surprisingly beautiful artwork.

One of the most appealing things about this series for me was the characters. Lewis is a keen, boyish scholarly type, sketching and recording and generally being interested in everything like a kid in a sweet shop. Clark is more sturdy and military and just wants to shoot things. I really liked the banter between them both and am looking forward to the development of this rugged, historical bromance. There's a gross convict and possible mutineer/deserter with a gloriously weak chin called Jensen that I'm looking forward to witnessing his comeuppance. Of particular note also d a gloriously badass Native American teen called Sacagawea whose backstory I must know instantly. I sense she will be quite crucial, as the expedition has been ordered to rendezvous with her and her unborn child seems to be of great interest to Lewis & Clark. The baby's apparent father, all-round slimeball Toussaint Charbonneau seems to have negotiated its sale.

Manifest Destiny is off to a brilliant start. I'm always up for some pre-America as you know it stories, but I think this series has a genuinely broad appeal. The combination of excellent protagonists, some dastardly crims, some sort of (pregnant) teen warrior killing machine, contagious plant diseases, tension, danger, monsters all wrapped up in a thrilling adventure story is pretty exciting. the art style is beautiful, and some of the "Unspoilt America" spreads are breathtaking. Even the infected plant victims are strangely arresting- green doesn't feel like gore. If more history was like this perhaps we could finally get over Henry VIII. I've already bought volume 2, which is apparently Amphibia and Insectia so brace yourself for some spectacularly gross giant insects. 

The Outcast vol.1, by Robert Kirkman and Paul Azaceta

Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is taking his horror southern gothic supernatural, rather than zombie for this new series from Image. The Outcast is the story of Kyle Barnes, an isolated loner that lives in a tumbledown house on the edge of society. We discover early on that many people close to Kyle have been possessed by demons over the years- his mother, his wife (now ex) altering their behaviour and personality unrecognisably and placing themselves, Kyle and their families at huge risk.

The novel begins with a mother becoming speechless with horror at the sight of her son, growling, dripping blood; apparently demonic. She contacts the local religious shepherd Reverend Anderson who has become a bit of a dab hand at the old exorcisms- it seems there's a bit of an epidemic in West Virginia. Stumped by this particular case, he calls on the help of Kyle, who he spots out reluctantly grocery shopping with his sister. It seems that despite his low-profile, reclusive lifestyle, Kyle has a bit of a reputation for expertise with demonic possession. Plagued by literal and metaphorical demons all his life, Kyle joins the Reverend in his next round of exorcisms, revealing powers of demonic expulsion that the Reverend simply didn't believe possible. Kyle is reluctant at first, but realising that he can't ignore these tortured souls he concedes. Together they begin to rethink what they both know about demonic possession, demons and exorcisms and begin working together to see if they can understand anything definite about the phenomenon .

Firstly, I liked the inclusion of the backstory of Kyle- we're taken through moments in his childhood where he was beaten and abused by his possessed mother. These are pretty harrowing really, and it softens the reader towards the so far surly Kyle. Once I realised that these were in fact flashbacks, not new cases of 'possession of small boy', I thought it effectively answered some questions about why Kyle is the way that he is and it broke up the cycle of exorcism, moping at home, exorcism, pep talk from Reverend Anderson. I had to go back and re-read a few bits to make sure.

There's a lot of set up in this volume, and not much so far by way of pay-off. I understand that it's a first volume, but so far it's not really asking any questions that are interesting enough to keep the reader wriggling on the hook. The identity of the Fedora man seems quite obvious, but the reader is vaguely intrigued to see if their assumptions are correct, which is about the closest thing to an emerging subplot that this volume has offered. Even if our assumptions are correct, it's hard to tell what the implications on the story are going to be. The reason, motive, and source of the demons are unexplained so far, but I guess it's unreasonable to expect that at his stage. The readiness of people to accept the existence of demonic possession is unexplained too- nobody seems shocked to find out that demons exist, they just see odd behaviour and bam! Jump straight to demonic possession as an explanation. But then it seems odd that Kyle is socially shunned if possession is such a common ailment.

Whilst the jury is out to some extent on the plot and the characters, it's hard to deny the quality of the artwork. It looks brilliant and the pages are incredibly atmospheric, with its bruise-like palette of broody blues and purples and greys. I loved the long shots of the outside of Kyle's house, with the long, shadowy outline of Kyle moping on the front lawn at all hours. The book does an excellent job of creating a 'sense of place'- the reader understands the mood and the oppressive feel of the town almost automatically, so instant is the understanding of the images. The gloomy colour really works with the whole lurking-shadowy-demon theme and it gives the whole thing an under-lit early X files vibe. I loved the little boxes within the panels that just sneak in an extra, last minute detail- a gripping hand, a rolling eye, like a crash zoom on the page. I've not seen that before and that's really effective at showing the immediacy of the action.

I'm undecided as a whole. I'll give volume 2 a go to see where the story goes next, but at the moment I don't feel massively drawn into the plight of the characters or even to the mystery of the demons' interest in this place or its inhabitants. I hope it's a Sunnydale style Hellmouth, because that has got some serious full-page potential. I like the reverend's religious musings and sense that it might be building up into a bit of a crisis of faith, but it's too early to tell. I don't know if I was expecting it to be more Walking Dead or what, but I didn't find this as compelling as I expected- it sort of loses the momentum built up in the opening sections and runs out of steam a little bit.