Comic Review- Cemetery Beach #1

[bedsitter23]

Cemetery Beach #1 by Warren Ellis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have been following Warren Ellis enough to watch him go from 'brilliant new writer' to comics legend. Ellis has it pretty good right now, successfully transitioning into novels, and (presumably) picking up a nice paycheck from DC to resurrect the Wildstorm universe.

Ellis has still maintained a level of quality over the years that has been as strong or stronger than his peers. His short run on Moon Knight relaunched the Marvel character to a new audience. Recent titles like Injection and Trees proved he still has it. Shipwreck was a much better book than probably an Aftershock comic deserved to be (mainly let down by the art). Even Wildstorm has turned out to be 'not bad', which is probably the best we could have expected from that particular project.

Cemetery Beach rejoins Ellis with his Trees artist Jason Howard, and has a fantastic cover. It's pretty much the tropes we have come to expect for Ellis. There's some sort of underlying story that we don't yet fully comprehend. Something maybe vaguely The Prisoner or Stranger in a Strange Land with a 'fish out of water' or 'mysterious unclear circumstances' type of story that seems to involve time travel.. There's a secret magic order (!) with colorful characters, which describes more than one previous Ellis book. The lines are witty, and Howard's art is nice.

That it is a good start, there is a lot of action, and to a certain extent, that probably doesn't help the title in a single issue format. Not that Howard can't draw action well. It is just that it takes a way from the seriousness, and with Ellis's humor in this one, a sketchy style, it really feels to me more like Mark Millar's recent Millarworld work than anything else.

Besides, any complaints I have will seem trivial when it undoubtedly gets released in trade, and minor annoyances that issue #1 is more exposition and action than anything will blend into a more cohesive work and not be even noticeable. My assumption is that it will likely fall somewhere around Trees in the Ellis canon, which is more than fine.



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