Fell 1, September 2005

My New Home. I Think Maybe A Lot of People Killed Themselves Here.
so i’m reading this book. and i’m really enjoying it. And along the way i have a few questions and make some mental notes to look into them when i finish. and then i get to the Back Matter section and there are the answers.
Now i’ll buy anything Ellis writes. ANYTHING. i think the man’s a genius and will ride along on whatever trip he’s taking. But this is good. He sticks almost exclusively to the nine panel grid. and crams a nice chunk of information onto every page. The back matter goes into how the whole idea came about. Every time i read an Ellis story about these seemingly perpetually miserable people i’m thinking it will get old and unbelievable but somehow he keeps me there, addicted and dirty and abused. And i want more.
Richard Fell is a talented cop, relocated to Snowtown. “Over the bridge” and beyond redemption. His Lieutenant, Beard, has passed the point of no return and is totally apathetic. He almost encourages Fell to get drunk immediately and stay that way until the city kills him. We have a few flashbacks to Fell’s father. Looks like he’s got a photography hobby or career and young Richard remembers this fondly. Richard himself is a kind of camera. He’s a gift for reading people instantly and through this meets a bartender, Mayko.

Now in this bar scene, Fell flops down a book with the title NPL: Reading Minds. I’m a big sucker for little unmentioned Easter eggs so this is one of the questions i have that turns out to be addressed in the Back Matter. Although in the Back Matter its NLP - neuro-linguistic programming. Guess that was a little mistake by Templesmith.

Templesmith, by the way is wonderful in the book. Ellis writes to his style perfectly and some beautiful pages are created. Photographs that Fell takes are there. Lighting and color and disproportion are all superb. Lovely stuff.

A complete tale, self contained, $1.99 “slab of culture”. It totally works, i’ll buy everyone. Like there was any way i wouldn’t.