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Wasteland #1
Cities in Dust
A hundred years after the Big Wet, Earth has been left a broken, infertile world of rock and sand. The town of Providens is like many others on the post-Big Wet planet—small, mostly illiterate and struggling for survival. But while most communities are like Providens, not all the cities that survived the Big Wet are. Some are like Newbegin, burgeoning metropolises that combine pieces of past societies with the new status quo. When Providens welcomes a stranger named Michael into its midst, will the quiet man lead them to the better world of Newbegin or shatter what little order still exists?
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
20 people are currently reading
576 people want to read
About the author
Antony Johnston
340 books383 followers** Sign up for Antony's newsletter at http://ajwriter.substack.com **
Antony Johnston is one of the most versatile writers of the modern era.
The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde was based on his graphic novel. His murder mystery series The Dog Sitter Detective won the Barker Book Award. His crime puzzle novel Can You Solve the Murder? reinvented choose-your-own-story books for a mainstream audience and was a Waterstones Paperback of the Year. The Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers are in development for TV. And his productivity guide The Organised Writer has helped authors all over the world take control of their workload.
Antony is a celebrated videogames writer, with genre-defining titles including Dead Space, Shadow of Mordor, and Resident Evil Village to his credit. His work on Silent Hill Ascension made him the only writer in the world to have contributed to all of gaming’s ‘big three’ horror franchises.
His immense body of work also includes Marvel superheroes such as Daredevil and Shang-Chi, the award-winning Alex Rider graphic novels, the post-apocalypse epic Wasteland, and more. He wrote and directed the film Crossover Point, made entirely in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.
An experienced podcaster and public speaker, he also frequently writes articles on the life of an author, and is a prolific musician.
Antony is a former vice chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, a member of International Thriller Writers and the Society of Authors, a Shore Scripts screenwriting judge, and sits on the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s videogames committee. He lives and works in England.
Antony Johnston is one of the most versatile writers of the modern era.
The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde was based on his graphic novel. His murder mystery series The Dog Sitter Detective won the Barker Book Award. His crime puzzle novel Can You Solve the Murder? reinvented choose-your-own-story books for a mainstream audience and was a Waterstones Paperback of the Year. The Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers are in development for TV. And his productivity guide The Organised Writer has helped authors all over the world take control of their workload.
Antony is a celebrated videogames writer, with genre-defining titles including Dead Space, Shadow of Mordor, and Resident Evil Village to his credit. His work on Silent Hill Ascension made him the only writer in the world to have contributed to all of gaming’s ‘big three’ horror franchises.
His immense body of work also includes Marvel superheroes such as Daredevil and Shang-Chi, the award-winning Alex Rider graphic novels, the post-apocalypse epic Wasteland, and more. He wrote and directed the film Crossover Point, made entirely in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.
An experienced podcaster and public speaker, he also frequently writes articles on the life of an author, and is a prolific musician.
Antony is a former vice chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, a member of International Thriller Writers and the Society of Authors, a Shore Scripts screenwriting judge, and sits on the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s videogames committee. He lives and works in England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
January 27, 2014
Set in a post-Apocalyptic world, something called the Big Wet has (ironically) left Earth a desert planet and wiped out civilisation. In its place are small scavenger towns scattered about defending themselves from the attacks of roving gangs of sandpeople (malformed humans). Ramshackle cities have sprung up and a new society has appeared with a new religion and a mad leader. After Michael, a scavenger, shows up in the town of Providens, the town is destroyed and the survivors head off to Newbegin, the nearest human city, for sanctuary.
Wasteland sounds mildly interesting but it’s far less so. The protagonist, Michael, is a very one-dimensional hero character – he’s the capable, tough loner who’s nonetheless helping out a group of vulnerable people. Han Solo minus the personality, basically. The others… well, there’s a tough female character who’ll probably wind up with Michael in later books. And then there’s…um…that guy…nope! That’s how interesting these characters are! The bad guy is like an anime archetype, at least on the surface – underneath he’s your usual tyrant whose power has gone to his head and he’s going a bit crazy, Caligula-style.
The whole book is basically walking – the group walking from their burned town to the city, so if you like Lord of the Rings, you’ll probably get a kick out of that. For some reason the “Big Wet” means we’ve all devolved into a hyper-religious pagan/superstitious society. The sandpeople are just Star Wars ripoffs. There’s something about different racial groups in the city being persecuted but really none of these things make me want to continue with this series.
The art doesn’t help. I don’t have a problem with black and white art but some colour could’ve been useful in distinguishing between characters. They all live in the desert so mostly wear flowing, baggy robes which covers up their faces and obscures their bodies so they all look alike. That and the uninspired backdrop of sand and junk and it’s an unexciting and very dull comic to look at visually.
I’m not a big fan of post-apocalyptic stories but even by those standards I think this book was very sub-par. It’s not doing enough to stand out from the others, and frankly it’s an extremely boring book. I didn’t care about any of the characters, their plight, this dreary world they lived in, or anything at all. Wasteland has its fans as it’s gone on for many volumes but I’m definitely not one of them.
Wasteland sounds mildly interesting but it’s far less so. The protagonist, Michael, is a very one-dimensional hero character – he’s the capable, tough loner who’s nonetheless helping out a group of vulnerable people. Han Solo minus the personality, basically. The others… well, there’s a tough female character who’ll probably wind up with Michael in later books. And then there’s…um…that guy…nope! That’s how interesting these characters are! The bad guy is like an anime archetype, at least on the surface – underneath he’s your usual tyrant whose power has gone to his head and he’s going a bit crazy, Caligula-style.
The whole book is basically walking – the group walking from their burned town to the city, so if you like Lord of the Rings, you’ll probably get a kick out of that. For some reason the “Big Wet” means we’ve all devolved into a hyper-religious pagan/superstitious society. The sandpeople are just Star Wars ripoffs. There’s something about different racial groups in the city being persecuted but really none of these things make me want to continue with this series.
The art doesn’t help. I don’t have a problem with black and white art but some colour could’ve been useful in distinguishing between characters. They all live in the desert so mostly wear flowing, baggy robes which covers up their faces and obscures their bodies so they all look alike. That and the uninspired backdrop of sand and junk and it’s an unexciting and very dull comic to look at visually.
I’m not a big fan of post-apocalyptic stories but even by those standards I think this book was very sub-par. It’s not doing enough to stand out from the others, and frankly it’s an extremely boring book. I didn’t care about any of the characters, their plight, this dreary world they lived in, or anything at all. Wasteland has its fans as it’s gone on for many volumes but I’m definitely not one of them.
June 25, 2018
This starts off pretty decent, but i found myself getting more interested as it went on. Although the juxtaposition between the two storylines was kinda jumbled and i was more interested in the story with Michael than the story with Newbegin, this was a pretty good first volume in the series. And it leave a off on a few cliffhangers making me want to dive right into the next volume.
September 30, 2011
Yeah, another post-apocalyptic comic, but I'm still looking for one that satisfies what I really want to see. And sometimes, I start feeling like the only way that will happen is if make it myself.
It's not that I have anything against a nice, straightforward black-and-white ink comic. When I popped this one open, I was pleasantly reminded of the old 2000AD anthologies and their great spare feel as well as the vibrant, precise action of manga. But the art in this book is a bit too spare.
Thin, even lines delineate a mostly-white background, but lacking the stylized contouring and detailing which tend to define the Franco-Belgians. Likewise, we do not get the vast pools of black which helped to provide depth and focus in 2000AD, nor the madcap hatching which lends manga its vitality.
The somewhat flat, even style tends to hurt dynamic action scenes, since the eye must always tease the figures out of the background, being denied delineation. There are some attempts to use photoshop effects to blur foregrounds or backgrounds, but it’s jarring compared to the otherwise clean, precise lines. Other uses of photoshop techniques here and there stand out just as much, lending an unpolished look. As George Lucas has demonstrated: adding a veneer of computer effects over a simple structure doe not make for a very appealing look.
For some reason the art is especially blank and undelineated in wide, establishing shots. The purpose of these shots is to quickly communicate a sense of the world to the reader, which is why they tend to be detailed and dynamic. Leaving them as flat expanses negates much of their impact.
We start to get more depth and use of dynamic value range as the series goes on, and there are some panels here and there which depict the comic I wish I were looking at, but these high points are inconsistent at first, though the do improve. I find it to be a bad sign that the creative talent didn’t try to find an inker or values painter to help them work out the first issue, since leading issues are so important in building a fanbase, but this book is covered with effusive recommendations from various magazines and industry people, most which I find rather overstated, so it must not have turned people off too much.
The dialogue can be stilted and the exposition leaden. An unfortunate lack of subtext predominates. Characters tend to say just what they mean. Their intentions are clear and their dialogue communicates those intentions with little guile or subterfuge. This can leave the characters feeling flat, since much of the way an author portrays personality is by carefully choosing how a character expresses themselves--or what they hide.
Most people tend to communicate on more than one level, especially in situations with conflict and shifting social dynamics. That doesn’t mean the character must be subtle or clever, just that their fears and desires tend to color their everyday, apparently straightforward communications. Without that, they all begin to sound the same and the story loses both tension and interpersonal development.
But it’s always a bad sign in both dialogue and characterization when you have one character constantly saying ‘so you are actually funny’ to another character who, while having an irreverent tone, has not said or done anything which is humorous. This is especially true if that irreverent tone seems to have more to do with detached cynicism than humor. Never have one character attribute personality to another character, especially when that personality is not demonstrated.
The take on the post-apocalyptic has some odd little tweaks, mostly of a fantastical or sci fi nature. Between the mysterious, robed, psychic hero and the attacks of Sand People, it can start to feel like a post apocalypse playing out on Luke Skywalker’s homeworld of Tatooine. Yet we don’t really get into any of the meat of the story in this opening arc, just a lot of mysteries. I would have enjoyed something more conclusive in the last chapter, otherwise it seems somewhat pointless to break the comic into arcs, if it just ends in an ongoing cliffhanger. I’m not saying everything should have been wrapped up, but it’s always nice to get some smaller arcs to lead up to the bigger set pieces.
The worldbuilding is evident from the beginning, with lots of terms and phrases which, while unusual, are hardly confusing or difficult to parse. Indeed, if I had any complaint it was that the language and cultural differences were really not extreme enough. I would have appreciated some larger hints, surprises, and conflicts to show how much this world has truly changed.
So far it’s nothing that a post-ap enthusiast hasn’t seen before: wandering mystery dude, little towns, sheriffs, religious tyrants, super evil slavers, mutated ghoul/zombies. When I first heard the title, I immediately recalled the cult classic game of the same name, which was the precursor to the Fallout series, one of the most original and well-written explorations of a post-apocalyptic world (at least, the first two games). But so far, this Wasteland has failed to live up to its namesake. It’s trying, and there are a lot of ideas floating around, but the delivery is lacking. The world, characters, and plot are all present, but they aren’t doing anything to set this book apart.
My Suggested Readings in Comics
It's not that I have anything against a nice, straightforward black-and-white ink comic. When I popped this one open, I was pleasantly reminded of the old 2000AD anthologies and their great spare feel as well as the vibrant, precise action of manga. But the art in this book is a bit too spare.
Thin, even lines delineate a mostly-white background, but lacking the stylized contouring and detailing which tend to define the Franco-Belgians. Likewise, we do not get the vast pools of black which helped to provide depth and focus in 2000AD, nor the madcap hatching which lends manga its vitality.
The somewhat flat, even style tends to hurt dynamic action scenes, since the eye must always tease the figures out of the background, being denied delineation. There are some attempts to use photoshop effects to blur foregrounds or backgrounds, but it’s jarring compared to the otherwise clean, precise lines. Other uses of photoshop techniques here and there stand out just as much, lending an unpolished look. As George Lucas has demonstrated: adding a veneer of computer effects over a simple structure doe not make for a very appealing look.
For some reason the art is especially blank and undelineated in wide, establishing shots. The purpose of these shots is to quickly communicate a sense of the world to the reader, which is why they tend to be detailed and dynamic. Leaving them as flat expanses negates much of their impact.
We start to get more depth and use of dynamic value range as the series goes on, and there are some panels here and there which depict the comic I wish I were looking at, but these high points are inconsistent at first, though the do improve. I find it to be a bad sign that the creative talent didn’t try to find an inker or values painter to help them work out the first issue, since leading issues are so important in building a fanbase, but this book is covered with effusive recommendations from various magazines and industry people, most which I find rather overstated, so it must not have turned people off too much.
The dialogue can be stilted and the exposition leaden. An unfortunate lack of subtext predominates. Characters tend to say just what they mean. Their intentions are clear and their dialogue communicates those intentions with little guile or subterfuge. This can leave the characters feeling flat, since much of the way an author portrays personality is by carefully choosing how a character expresses themselves--or what they hide.
Most people tend to communicate on more than one level, especially in situations with conflict and shifting social dynamics. That doesn’t mean the character must be subtle or clever, just that their fears and desires tend to color their everyday, apparently straightforward communications. Without that, they all begin to sound the same and the story loses both tension and interpersonal development.
But it’s always a bad sign in both dialogue and characterization when you have one character constantly saying ‘so you are actually funny’ to another character who, while having an irreverent tone, has not said or done anything which is humorous. This is especially true if that irreverent tone seems to have more to do with detached cynicism than humor. Never have one character attribute personality to another character, especially when that personality is not demonstrated.
The take on the post-apocalyptic has some odd little tweaks, mostly of a fantastical or sci fi nature. Between the mysterious, robed, psychic hero and the attacks of Sand People, it can start to feel like a post apocalypse playing out on Luke Skywalker’s homeworld of Tatooine. Yet we don’t really get into any of the meat of the story in this opening arc, just a lot of mysteries. I would have enjoyed something more conclusive in the last chapter, otherwise it seems somewhat pointless to break the comic into arcs, if it just ends in an ongoing cliffhanger. I’m not saying everything should have been wrapped up, but it’s always nice to get some smaller arcs to lead up to the bigger set pieces.
The worldbuilding is evident from the beginning, with lots of terms and phrases which, while unusual, are hardly confusing or difficult to parse. Indeed, if I had any complaint it was that the language and cultural differences were really not extreme enough. I would have appreciated some larger hints, surprises, and conflicts to show how much this world has truly changed.
So far it’s nothing that a post-ap enthusiast hasn’t seen before: wandering mystery dude, little towns, sheriffs, religious tyrants, super evil slavers, mutated ghoul/zombies. When I first heard the title, I immediately recalled the cult classic game of the same name, which was the precursor to the Fallout series, one of the most original and well-written explorations of a post-apocalyptic world (at least, the first two games). But so far, this Wasteland has failed to live up to its namesake. It’s trying, and there are a lot of ideas floating around, but the delivery is lacking. The world, characters, and plot are all present, but they aren’t doing anything to set this book apart.
My Suggested Readings in Comics
March 17, 2019
A mash-up of several post-apocalyptic books, movies and comics, Wasteland offers the readers similar tropes - lone hero wandering the "wasteland", a potential love interest, standard zombie villains and a hidden backstory which is revealed as we go along. Still, if you have time to kill then this ain't a bad book for it.
My Rating - 3/5
My Rating - 3/5
August 20, 2007
100 years after the Big Wet. Somewhere in America …
So begins yet another post-apocalyptic graphic novel. The first issue in this 6-issue compilation interested me. There was unrecognized technology, a letter in the old language, two persons with special powers, and of course the world after an apocalypse. Unfortunately, the rest of the trade moves into well-worn territory of the cross-country trip and fighting different kinds of bad guys. There is some political/religious intrigue in the major city that somehow tied in with the letter in the old language, but it was all a bit too "we're going to draw this out for a couple years" and not interesting in itself.
All in all, it's not badly done, but it doesn't hold my interest.
So begins yet another post-apocalyptic graphic novel. The first issue in this 6-issue compilation interested me. There was unrecognized technology, a letter in the old language, two persons with special powers, and of course the world after an apocalypse. Unfortunately, the rest of the trade moves into well-worn territory of the cross-country trip and fighting different kinds of bad guys. There is some political/religious intrigue in the major city that somehow tied in with the letter in the old language, but it was all a bit too "we're going to draw this out for a couple years" and not interesting in itself.
All in all, it's not badly done, but it doesn't hold my interest.
November 11, 2019
A post-apocalyptic road story. The 2 protagonists travel the wasteland, in the aftermath of a huge destruction, from isolated town to town, seeking answers. The characters are bland, flat and uninteresting. The art is also on a bad level. Too much white, little use of ink, makes it difficult to read and there are also some Photoshop effects blurring the foreground that make it look like a video game screenshot. Definitely not good...
May 24, 2008
Weird and slightly boring post-apocalypse road story. Strange religious political intrigue, superpowers, and mutant attacks all should have added up to a wonderful tale of mayhem, but the pacing is off. Plus the art is so stylized to the point of visual incoherence. Cliffhanger ending does not encourage me to read on, unfortunately.
July 14, 2016
Interesting start to a series. Got this book as part of humble bundle. Enjoyed this enough to get my hands on the second volume. Nothing earth breaking in the story itself, but I did click with the world building and characters.
March 9, 2008
This is a great, fun book -- if you're a fan of the end of the world and Planet of the Apes (two of my favorite things) this should suit you nicely!
September 15, 2015
I like it.
Interesting setting, interesting worldbuilding. Interested to see where it leads.
Interesting setting, interesting worldbuilding. Interested to see where it leads.
December 12, 2020
Oni Press was one of the many publishers and studios which popped up in the late 1990's after the success of Dark Horse and Image. Oni’s stable of titles, such as Scott Pilgrim, Queen and Country, and Courtney Crumrin, keep the publisher in the spotlight while many of its contemporaries have faded away. Their current ongoing success is Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten’s Wasteland series.
As the title implies, Wasteland takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, in this case one ruined by a mysterious event called the “Big Wet." In general, post-apocalyptic is not one of my favourite genres. I find that they end up torturing the main characters for the audience’s amusement. Johnston does a great job of actually keeping the plot moving while presenting dangers to his band of travellers. The main journey is interwoven with the politics of Newbegin, one of the few remaining cities -- a location that isn’t even reached until the final pages of the first book, Cities in Dust.
The description on the back cover mentions the mysterious drifter Michael and the powers he wields, but these facets are actually in the background for much of this volume. Instead, the story focuses on Abi, the sheriff of the tiny settlement of Providens [sic]. Abi’s strength and leadership as her people endure numerous hardships keeps a spark of optimism running through Wasteland.
Helping her along are her friend/possible lover/professional disagreer Jake, wise old storekeeper Doc, and Golden Voice, a preacher of a new religion based on the Sun and Moon. The aforementioned Michael keeps trying to escape from Providens, and he can always be counted to speak his mind bluntly.
What really impresses me about Wasteland is the world-building. It’s clear that Johnston and Mitten have a full narrative planned out, but we only get to see bits and pieces of this new world as we come across them. Golden Voice, for instance, is introduced a few issues before he retells the creation story of the Sunners. Shortly thereafter, a major theme of religious intolerance is introduced as the Lord Founder of Newbegin plans to force the Sunner slaves to worship him.
Existing alongside all of this are the Sand-Eaters, a mysterious and savage species who bring death wherever they go. It’s not clear whether the Sand-Eaters are mutated people or another species entirely; they speak a strange variation of English, but their bite causes terrible wounds. I’m very interested to see where Johnston is planning to go with them.
Language is another key factor in showcasing this world. What we would call “our” written English is a lost language, readable only by a knowledgeable few. The language spoken by the characters has odd verb tenses, with the suffix “-age” added on to words (such as “drivage” instead of “driving”). As the name “Providens” implies, their written language has degraded from ours. It’s indicative of a world that used to be like today, but has undergone a horrible change for the worse.
The one sticking point is that the "f-word" and "s-word" have both survived the apocalypse and have become key vocabulary words throughout the cast. I don’t think cursing should be banned in comics, but I think it would have been better had they invented a new word to replace modern curses. On the other hand, a newly-minted curse word could end up sounding silly with overuse, such as Battlestar Galactica’s constant use of “frak."
I think that the black and white art is actually beneficial to the story. If the book were in colour, much of the setting would be rendered in a variety of browns, making for dull pages. Mitten’s shading evokes the colour enough without actually seeing it.
My favourite example of this is again in Golden Voice’s creation myth story, told with stylised figures and shapes. It might have seemed almost goofy to see all of this coloured in, but I can mentally put in the blues and yellows. One drawback is that empty backgrounds are far more noticeable in black and white, and Mitten leaves a few too many backgrounds bare, which can sometimes interfere with following the story. This is an issue which gets corrected as the book continues, though.
Wasteland features a strong female lead, and it also has excellent world-building and art and a premise that has drawn me into buying more trades of the series. It helps that the book is only $11.99 and contains the equivalent of seven issues. Warren Ellis endorses it on the cover (a very awesome piece by Ben Templesmith), and I can’t argue with his assessment.
As the title implies, Wasteland takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, in this case one ruined by a mysterious event called the “Big Wet." In general, post-apocalyptic is not one of my favourite genres. I find that they end up torturing the main characters for the audience’s amusement. Johnston does a great job of actually keeping the plot moving while presenting dangers to his band of travellers. The main journey is interwoven with the politics of Newbegin, one of the few remaining cities -- a location that isn’t even reached until the final pages of the first book, Cities in Dust.
The description on the back cover mentions the mysterious drifter Michael and the powers he wields, but these facets are actually in the background for much of this volume. Instead, the story focuses on Abi, the sheriff of the tiny settlement of Providens [sic]. Abi’s strength and leadership as her people endure numerous hardships keeps a spark of optimism running through Wasteland.
Helping her along are her friend/possible lover/professional disagreer Jake, wise old storekeeper Doc, and Golden Voice, a preacher of a new religion based on the Sun and Moon. The aforementioned Michael keeps trying to escape from Providens, and he can always be counted to speak his mind bluntly.
What really impresses me about Wasteland is the world-building. It’s clear that Johnston and Mitten have a full narrative planned out, but we only get to see bits and pieces of this new world as we come across them. Golden Voice, for instance, is introduced a few issues before he retells the creation story of the Sunners. Shortly thereafter, a major theme of religious intolerance is introduced as the Lord Founder of Newbegin plans to force the Sunner slaves to worship him.
Existing alongside all of this are the Sand-Eaters, a mysterious and savage species who bring death wherever they go. It’s not clear whether the Sand-Eaters are mutated people or another species entirely; they speak a strange variation of English, but their bite causes terrible wounds. I’m very interested to see where Johnston is planning to go with them.
Language is another key factor in showcasing this world. What we would call “our” written English is a lost language, readable only by a knowledgeable few. The language spoken by the characters has odd verb tenses, with the suffix “-age” added on to words (such as “drivage” instead of “driving”). As the name “Providens” implies, their written language has degraded from ours. It’s indicative of a world that used to be like today, but has undergone a horrible change for the worse.
The one sticking point is that the "f-word" and "s-word" have both survived the apocalypse and have become key vocabulary words throughout the cast. I don’t think cursing should be banned in comics, but I think it would have been better had they invented a new word to replace modern curses. On the other hand, a newly-minted curse word could end up sounding silly with overuse, such as Battlestar Galactica’s constant use of “frak."
I think that the black and white art is actually beneficial to the story. If the book were in colour, much of the setting would be rendered in a variety of browns, making for dull pages. Mitten’s shading evokes the colour enough without actually seeing it.
My favourite example of this is again in Golden Voice’s creation myth story, told with stylised figures and shapes. It might have seemed almost goofy to see all of this coloured in, but I can mentally put in the blues and yellows. One drawback is that empty backgrounds are far more noticeable in black and white, and Mitten leaves a few too many backgrounds bare, which can sometimes interfere with following the story. This is an issue which gets corrected as the book continues, though.
Wasteland features a strong female lead, and it also has excellent world-building and art and a premise that has drawn me into buying more trades of the series. It helps that the book is only $11.99 and contains the equivalent of seven issues. Warren Ellis endorses it on the cover (a very awesome piece by Ben Templesmith), and I can’t argue with his assessment.
November 14, 2022
I wish the story was more engaging. It's as lifeless as the artwork. In part, that seems to be the point - it's a post-apocalyptic setting. It has several original elements and small details that should keep me interested. I guess I'm not much of a Mad Max fan if the TnA is missing.
Michael is a scavenger and trader with strange powers that help him survive the desert wasteland. During one of his runs he finds an audio device containing a recording in the old Togue few can still understand. It mentions a place called A-Ree-Yass-I, the place where manking's downfall began. It becomes Michael's goal. While in Providence he meets sheriff Abi and Jakob. He reluctantly helps them fight off a large group of Sandeaters - humanoid blood-thirsty monsters - and then wanders off. Abi feels a connection with Michael, but she must first focus on getting the Providence survivors to the nearest town of Newbegin.
Michael is a scavenger and trader with strange powers that help him survive the desert wasteland. During one of his runs he finds an audio device containing a recording in the old Togue few can still understand. It mentions a place called A-Ree-Yass-I, the place where manking's downfall began. It becomes Michael's goal. While in Providence he meets sheriff Abi and Jakob. He reluctantly helps them fight off a large group of Sandeaters - humanoid blood-thirsty monsters - and then wanders off. Abi feels a connection with Michael, but she must first focus on getting the Providence survivors to the nearest town of Newbegin.
September 12, 2017
I heard wonderful things about this comic. Many people compares it to "Mad Max", "Dune", "The Gunslinger" or the best works in the spaghetti western genre: problem is, I found basically nothing more than a tribute to the aforementioned names. The setting is wonderful, and the plot goes okay, but I couldn't find anything in the main character or the world that Johnston presents that made is special in the realm of post-apocalyptic stories. Art is crude and fitting the narrative, but it wasn't outstanding either. Although it is good, I found it so little engaging that it took me more than three months to keep on reading Chapter 4.
Long story short: it is okay, but it is not brilliant. Maybe it improves in the remaining volumes, but right now I don't feel like reading them.
Long story short: it is okay, but it is not brilliant. Maybe it improves in the remaining volumes, but right now I don't feel like reading them.
February 15, 2018
Artwork was great, story was interesting, i enjoyed most of the comic just at times the story would switch, which i didn't understand it wasn't flashbacks it just switched to a whole new character
Pros
Good artwork
Most of the story you can follow
most violence scenes where between people killing sand eaters or other people.
swearing (uncensored)
Cons
Random switches between characters
The cryptic language, i didn't like the idea of it
Pros
Good artwork
Most of the story you can follow
most violence scenes where between people killing sand eaters or other people.
swearing (uncensored)
Cons
Random switches between characters
The cryptic language, i didn't like the idea of it
January 14, 2018
I haven't read a lot of books without color. It took me a minute to acclimate.
The art work was phenomenal, but what truly got me hooked was the story! The plot lines that begin in this first volume are truly well thought out and are thought provoking.
I enjoy books that truly, truly mirror human nature.
This one is definitely a classic!
The art work was phenomenal, but what truly got me hooked was the story! The plot lines that begin in this first volume are truly well thought out and are thought provoking.
I enjoy books that truly, truly mirror human nature.
This one is definitely a classic!
January 21, 2017
Fantastic Story. Fantastic Art.
I was searching for a graphic novel to add to my new Kindle and Wasteland came up on a comic message board. I downloaded a sample and was immediately hooked. I bought Vol. 1 and didn't look back. Great story and even greater art.
I was searching for a graphic novel to add to my new Kindle and Wasteland came up on a comic message board. I downloaded a sample and was immediately hooked. I bought Vol. 1 and didn't look back. Great story and even greater art.
December 2, 2020
There are better apocalypses. The main characters aren't particularly memorable or very original. Tough-but-cute heroine, tougher-but-unlikeable hero, ugly and deformed villain. The art is all black and white and while not bad is often a little confusing when too much is going on in a panel. I am not in a hurry to read the next one.
August 13, 2017
I wish I had more issues on Comixology. I enjoyed this introduction to the post-apocalyptic world.
November 9, 2017
Mm ok...
August 31, 2018
Good volume.
October 21, 2018
Read for TLP
February 4, 2019
Feels like I've gone back to the Cursed Earth - in a good way.
February 6, 2020
The art was a little tough but the ending made up for it.
August 18, 2022
A solid first volume. The art felt a little confusing at times (especially during combat scenes) though this wasn't a major issue.
February 10, 2024
2.5 stars
November 12, 2024
Does this get better in succeeding volumes?
January 19, 2018
Standard post-apocalyptic desert tropes with some very slight supernatural touches, Also a surviving rebuilt city with some evil politics vs an underground tribal religion. Curious to see where it goes.
April 28, 2008
One Hundred Years After The Big Wet.
Somewhere in America...
Wasteland is another one of my many books put aside during some rather busy past few months. I am taking a very brief break form the Potter series and I am now making an effort to reacquaint myself with this book and the mythology of the post-apocalyptic world we find our characters in.
I remember seeing an ad for Wasteland before it had come out and just by the cover of the fist doubles-sized issue I knew this book was going to be a special read. The book has three great talents behind it; created and written by Anthony Johnson, created and drawn by Christopher Mitten, and with cover art by Ben Templesmith.
The story of Wasteland begins one hundred years after our world ends and this new world begins. It tells the story of Michael a lonely wondering scavenger with not much memory and special powers and the survivors of a destroyed town, Providence, which Michael may have indirectly caused. One of the survivors, Abi, who also has special powers and is sheriff of Providence, shows interest in Michael because she knows without his survival skills and fighting ability her fellow towns people wont make the trip to what will be their new home in Newbegin.
One weakness in the story is that the main character Michael seems to suffer from Wolverine-itis. We’ve seen the hard-edged loner with a missing past and troubled future brawler before but, hey, it works.
Some of the strengths in this book are and what makes the book such an enjoy to read is the attention to detail. The details of the characters and the details of the world they live in. What most post-apocalyptic stories try to do and fail and what Wasteland succeeds in is making the language of the characters a believable one. I never found my self cringing when characters said, “Sun-damned, or Praise Mother-Sun”, because I knew that their religion was basted around the Sun and the Moon and what they said felt natural.
Wasteland is on great example of a comic that is off the supper hero beaten path and one that people new of old into comics should check out.
Somewhere in America...
Wasteland is another one of my many books put aside during some rather busy past few months. I am taking a very brief break form the Potter series and I am now making an effort to reacquaint myself with this book and the mythology of the post-apocalyptic world we find our characters in.
I remember seeing an ad for Wasteland before it had come out and just by the cover of the fist doubles-sized issue I knew this book was going to be a special read. The book has three great talents behind it; created and written by Anthony Johnson, created and drawn by Christopher Mitten, and with cover art by Ben Templesmith.
The story of Wasteland begins one hundred years after our world ends and this new world begins. It tells the story of Michael a lonely wondering scavenger with not much memory and special powers and the survivors of a destroyed town, Providence, which Michael may have indirectly caused. One of the survivors, Abi, who also has special powers and is sheriff of Providence, shows interest in Michael because she knows without his survival skills and fighting ability her fellow towns people wont make the trip to what will be their new home in Newbegin.
One weakness in the story is that the main character Michael seems to suffer from Wolverine-itis. We’ve seen the hard-edged loner with a missing past and troubled future brawler before but, hey, it works.
Some of the strengths in this book are and what makes the book such an enjoy to read is the attention to detail. The details of the characters and the details of the world they live in. What most post-apocalyptic stories try to do and fail and what Wasteland succeeds in is making the language of the characters a believable one. I never found my self cringing when characters said, “Sun-damned, or Praise Mother-Sun”, because I knew that their religion was basted around the Sun and the Moon and what they said felt natural.
Wasteland is on great example of a comic that is off the supper hero beaten path and one that people new of old into comics should check out.
February 6, 2013
This series was originally published back in 2007, but it is definitely worth looking at again, even six years later. WASTELAND is one of those comics that you can read again and again...it is almost ageless. And I’m saying all of this after reading it for the first time just last week!
This is post-apocalyptic fiction at its finest. Oni definitely found a real gem when they published this series. I’m not sure if it is still going on, but I’m going to find out and start collecting it, if so.
WASTELAND is written well and the illustrating is tight, although I have to admit that this is one comic I would like to see in color. Still, the black and white can pack a powerful punch when needed. It also has great characterization, complete with a sordid and mismatched cast.
For me, the best thing about WASTELAND is the story itself. One of the descriptions on the back of the cover states, “Part Deadwood, part Dune, and all kick-ass...” This is a perfect way to describe it. This graphic novel has mystery, intensity, major science-fiction, and a whole lot of brass.
The WASTELAND series is available now, so give it a look for sure.
This is post-apocalyptic fiction at its finest. Oni definitely found a real gem when they published this series. I’m not sure if it is still going on, but I’m going to find out and start collecting it, if so.
WASTELAND is written well and the illustrating is tight, although I have to admit that this is one comic I would like to see in color. Still, the black and white can pack a powerful punch when needed. It also has great characterization, complete with a sordid and mismatched cast.
For me, the best thing about WASTELAND is the story itself. One of the descriptions on the back of the cover states, “Part Deadwood, part Dune, and all kick-ass...” This is a perfect way to describe it. This graphic novel has mystery, intensity, major science-fiction, and a whole lot of brass.
The WASTELAND series is available now, so give it a look for sure.
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