Comic Review: Winterworld- Frozen Fleet #1- A Warm Book about the Cold

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Esteve Polls
Colours: Diego Rodriguez
Publisher: IDW
Released: 20th May 2015


I like Winterworld because it takes its time. It is confident, it has a story to tell, it doesn’t panic, there is no rush to impress here, the story is all, and it’s a good one.

Don’t worry if you haven’t read the book before, it’s not difficult to follow.

The story is about humanity, about living in a cold place where you struggle to keep your belly full, and to survive the biting cold not just of the weather, but of the human heart.

I’m not being clever here, that’s what the book is about. It’s about the coldness that infects the human heart, not about the weather.

Winterworld Frozen Fleet #1 has human disappointments, contradictions, and an encounter with a savage tribe. The savage tribe hunts in a pack, like wolves they have left their humanity behind, becoming Darwinian, like a pack of suit wearing executives at HSBC bank, morality no longer figures in what they do. They want something, and if they have to stamp on an anonymous human face to get it, well, that’s not going to be a problem for them.

Being cold is a test. Can you keep the warmth in your heart alive, or will the cold erase your humanity? How many of us compromise our moral values for a career, a relationship, a car, friends, some petty material warmth that puts the soul man in a freezer, and the animal man in a pack of wolves?

I contemplate these issues when reading this book, and then something lurks from beneath, a mystery, and the story that was taking it’s time becomes hugely exciting, ending on a cliff-hanger, with questions, with our heroes, our soul warriors in alarming peril.

That’s how you write a comic book. Emotional connectivity, an underlying questioning of what it is that makes us human, then danger, momentarily thwarted, ending with the protagonists looking down the barrel of a gun.

Winterworld is a far better comic book than I ever thought that it would be. There are no gimmicks here, this is a book reliant on superior story telling, not click bait gimmickry. Chuck Dixon poses questions about what it is that makes us human, he touches the heart, massages the brain, then puts his foot down on the accelerator and kicks his narrative into high octane action overdrive.

When the action kicks off you care because he’s taken his time, told a story, and made you emotionally connect with the people now fighting for their lives. That’s how you write a good comic book, and that’s how you make people care.

The world is cold, we all need a bit of warming up every now and then, and Winterworld: Frozen Fleet #1 is the perfect hand warmer for these austerity bitten times. It’s so easy to fall into apathy, to go into survival of the fittest mode. Why not just get a job at a bank and screw people over for a living? After all, that’s what all the successful people are doing, right?

I think I’ll turn down the chance to screw people over. I don’t want to join the pack of wolves. I’ll stay alone, reading comics, trying to stay warm, and trying not to let the cold of the world freeze up what remains, flickering, warmly, stupidly, optimistically, within.


Rating: 10/10 (A superior comic book about the human heart)

Comic book review: Winterwold #4- Decent comic book to be made into a television show shocker

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Bruce Guice
Publisher: IDW
Released: 19th November 2014


Winterworld is to be made into a television show. I find that a bit surprising really, as the book is good, and most television programmes are, well to point out the bloody obvious, they are usually bad, very bad.

I’m a bit shocked that a book about an independent, self-sufficient, decent man is going to be allowed on television in 2014. The mainstream media continuously pumps out anti man/anti-family programming that portrays men as order following statists, psychopaths, criminals, fools, losers, geeks, metro-sexuals, flaming best friends or juvenile weaklings dominated by bossy women, so this surprises me. Yeah, it’s very surprising, but in a good way for a change. I wait with frosty Winterworld breath to see how they mess it up. Nah, only joking. I’m sure it will be great. After all, if they follow the excellent comic they can’t really go too far wrong.

Issue #4 sees the end of the first arc. It features a determinedly unintimidated Wynn (the young ‘charge’ of the main protagonist Scully) versus a bunch of Al (Abraham) Gore worshipping fanatics and their new god, a killer whale. Will she become the latest sacrificial offering to the eco-friendly fish god who is silently stalking her through the frozen sea? I won’t spoil the outcome, but I approve. It’s good, and this month’s front cover of the killer whale preparing to gobble up our daring young heroine is the best cover of the series so far.

Tomas Giorello takes over as the artist for next month’s arc, and I couldn’t be happier. Bruce Guice has been very good, but with Giorello taking over it’s going to get even better. Giorello’s work on King Conan for Dark Horse comics was absolutely stunning, and in my eyes he’s one of the very best artists working in the comic book industry today.  Excited? You bet I am. I can’t wait to see what he does with the icy landscapes of Winterworld.

Winterworld is a rare comic book. Simple, yet good, with no underlying statism and characters that I can relate to and care about. There’s a refreshing absence of wagging fingers telling you to bow down to uniformed ‘heroes’ and watch what you say less you might upset the feminist liberal thought Police. It’s just a good old-fashioned comic book. Hopefully it will make a good old-fashioned television show as well. God knows we need something decent to watch on the lying box these days.

Rating: 8/10

Comic book review: Winterworld #3- The cult of Gore

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Butch Guice
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 8th October 2014


Why was I reading a comic book about some bloke, his teenage ‘charge’ and her cute badger? Why was I reading what is ostensibly just another post apocalyptic, dystopic wasteland book? I wasn’t quite sure. There was something about the writing, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, until now.

Issue #3 has clarified a few things in my mind. I know why I’m reading the book now, and I’m glad that I let my subconscious mind guide my comic book reading choices.

This isn’t going to be a long review. I hate them, and who reads them anyway? There’s going to be nothing about the art here. There will be no analysis of the panel layout and narrative flow. I have something very simple to say, a quick point, and so I’ll make it and get out of here.

Creepy cults are common in comic books and action based narratives. You know how it goes, right? Charismatic leader, brainwashing, ridiculous ideas, end of world scenario, cult is bad.

There’s a ‘cult’ comic book out there at the moment that’s doing pretty decent business. That book is called ‘Sheltered, by Ed Brisson and Johnnie Christmas. It’s not a bad book, it’s okay, and it’s doing the cult thing quite well. The problem however is that it’s just another cult book, in a long line of cult books. The book is William Golding's Lord of the Flies, updated, somewhat, for the ‘Prepper’ generation. The main problem I have with ‘Sheltered’ is that the cult it chooses to demonise is a cult that is politically safe to do so. It’s a safe area, and because it’s safe it doesn’t really say anything. The biggest cult problem of our times is the cult of government worship, but comics don’t go there. Some cults must not be discussed.

Winterworld #3 introduces a cult that isn’t often acknowledged, at least in the neo-liberal mainstream media, as a cult at all. No, it’s not the cult of government worship, but it’s a good second best.

The cult that is being addressed here is the cult of man-made global warming believers.

I couldn’t believe it when I first read this. A 2014 comic book where the UN funded, Al Gore worshipping corporate man-made global warming fanatics are shown to be the deluded, nonsensical cult of gibbering, creepy morons that they actually are.

Chuck Dixon, thank you.

I have in my hands a comic book that appears to be mocking the corporate sponsored, anti-human, anti reality cult of man-made global warming. How did this get pass the liberal censors? Has anybody noticed this yet? I’m reading a ‘cult’ book where the cult is based on a real-life, ideology driven cult.

Wow.

Brilliant.

I knew there was something about this book, something that was keeping me reading. Now I know what it is. It’s the writer.

Chuck Dixon is a rare comic book writer who knows what is going on, and I’m so grateful that I’ve managed to find him. Somehow, subconsciously I’ve managed to stumble into something alive, something refreshingly honest in this age of corporate mainstream deception.

Winterwold is a book that is exposing a cult that actually needs exposing. This is what comic books should be doing, but so few of them actually are.

Thank you Chuck Dixon. Thank you for sticking your head above the parapet. Thank you for treading the less trodden path. Thank you for introducing real world ideas and concepts into the depressingly conformist and painfully politically correct neo-liberal world of 2014 comic books. This might start a new fad. Reality being addressed in comic books. That would be something new, and something worth exploring, don’t you think?

Rating: 9/10