The Field on the Edge of the Woods: Book 2 by Frick Weber

9/10

This is the satirical second part adventure that concentrates on the Angel of Death that became the skull and bones Grim Reaper. Others are in the dark while trying to stop the end of mankind, but that’s not the fun part yet.

It is an unusual and surreal dark comedy, as you couldn’t just label it a comedy in a fantasy setting – that is much too mainstream for this essential second half of what could be steps the Angel of Death takes to achieve his goals.

The story is a mix of tongue-in-cheek humour and toilet humour that avid comic book readers will appreciate as it doesn't happen often. You couldn't imagine such as Terry Pratchett or Ian Rankin writing like this, but that's the point this second novel is trying to make - it does not want to be mainstream - it wants to shock, amaze and most of all make you laugh. It’s Monty Python in a comic book.

This is fifty pages of fun and dark humour in black and white and call it what you will, a comic or graphic novel. One implies that it is for kids, the other for the more adult among us. The book’s cover is like the first one and has an old look to it. It is leather bound cover with an oval window in the centre showing a huge sword instead of a well, and looks like it means business.

As graphic novels are much more sophisticated and colourful these days, it is refreshing to find a second part of a series of four novels going back to its roots. We had thought that the days of the black and white comic had been left back in the early nineties, but here it has seen a very positive and welcome resurgence. The thick black outlines and tones add to the comical look of the story which tends to jump out at the reader.

Michael ‘Frick’ Weber (writer and Emmy award winner), Loran Skinkis (inker, graphic artist) , Gary Morgan (penciler and illustrator) are the real stars of the show who stay up way after the wives and kids are in bed to produce something professional they can look back on and go – Yeah, we really rocked!

For those who want to see the first book and read the second after it, they can be bought on the Android, iPad, and Kindle Fire via the Cloud 9 Comix app.