FreakAngels

In one of his Bad Signals today, Warren Ellis requested that anyone with a blog mention FreakAngels, the weekly webcomic he does with Paul Duffield. Normally, I'm not one to just do something like that, but I read the thing every week and... well, it's a Warren Ellis comic that I haven't mentioned here before.

This week is episode 15, so that's 90 pages you can read if you haven't already. Jesus, it's been 90 pages? It doesn't feel like that, because this is a very relaxed, expansive comic. When I think about it, I can see how it's been 90 pages, but it doesn't feel like it. FreakAngels is, in many ways, the prototypical Warren Ellis comic and, in others, not. Normally, Ellis is more plot-oriented than we see here. So far, there have been little pieces of plot, but Ellis has spent more time just establishing who people are, how they relate to one another... what this world is like. Like I said, it's relaxed and expansive.

Take this week's episode, for instance: five of the six pages are devoted to two characters we haven't seen yet, but Ellis gets across everything we need to know, really. Jack loves Sirkka, Sirkka loves Jack and everyone else, Jack can't live like that, so he lives on his boat. We also get another hint that the FreakAngels serve the community--possibly to make up for previous behaviour.

Paul Duffield's art is really good. His people are a little simplistic/rough, at times, but he draws lovely landscapes and has body language down. His art has been telling the story quite a bit and has been essential in establishing this world.

I would talk more about the plot, the characters, try to sell you, but you can go read it all right now, online, for free... so why bother? Just click here and take a look.