Fell

Book Reviews

Sean Hansen

Fell
by Warren Ellis
Illustrated by Ben Templesmith

Homicide detective Richard Fell has been transferred across the bridge to Snowtown, a feral city among feral cities. Packs of crazed domestic breed dogs roam the city, residents put up a spray-paint tag of an intersecting S and X to keep them safe via protective magic and they’re reduced to using a well for water at April and Regret Street. That’s just how things are. Written by Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan, Desolation Jones) and illustrated by Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Hatter M), FELL is about a detective’s steady personal decline in the crusade to try to make an unlivable city safe again.

One of the things that helps establish FELL as a unique title is the format in which the story is told. Each 24-page issue is self-contained, with the first 16 pages comprising the actual story section. The remaining pages are adorned with art by Templesmith and essays by Ellis. While each issue stands on its own, there is still an overarching story to enjoy as added value for regular readers. A pro of the format is the price. At $1.99, FELL is one of the cheapest comic singles available, and it provides a value greater than many books that sometimes cost twice as much.

Ellis is able to wrap up each issue neatly and without the dull humdrum of many other works in cop fiction (CSI for instance) by avoiding the police procedural and instead making the murder and the mystery embody a facet of Snowtown and by expressing a definite idea in most issues. The facets of Snowtown are obvious enough, but the ideas expressed range from protective magic and the atrocities of Pol Pot to the trap of cycles of violence. To his credit, Templesmith uses his signature art style to capture the ethereal grit of Snowtown and of Richard Fell. FELL No. 5 is due out May 17.