The Field on the Edge of the Woods by Frick Weber (The Field on the Edge of the Woods #1)

9/10

One night Gary goes to sleep and wakes up in another place entirely surrounded by dark, foreboding forest. He is a man who has taunted others, made fun of those less fortunate than him and enjoyed doing it to the full. He's slept around with lots of women, even though he is a married man, and done things most folk only dream of.

So, in this story he's classed as a bad type of character who deserves what he is given. As if that wasn't enough he meets others along his journey, and like Alice in Wonderland he comes across several characters almost5 as crazy as he is.

Films and Comics.com are a new company who are just starting out. If their comic book style is anything to go by they will certainly go far. This is the first of four planned volumes about the life of an ordinary man from the modern world who goes into another place stranger than anything seen before. The comic art has a good mix of inked contrast and a great sense of humour without going over the top. It is detailed without being too complex on the eye, the art has that woodcut look about it, which goes well with the story and the medieval era it is set in.

It is sequentially perfect, the reader will be able to tell that those working on this comic novel have studied comics in detail so as to make this one appeal to others. They do know their subject matter well. The story shows enough promise to make readers want to get the next volume and, as it is bound like a book and not like the standard first part of a comic, the price is reasonable too.

There are plenty of characters to get the interest flowing. The Woman of the Woods is a darkish figure, Poopsie the demon has a sense of humour that knows no bounds, whereas the Dark Nasties needs no real introduction and speak for themselves. Then there are the three wise demon monkeys, Rags and Hank the mule, who will undoubtedly become a personal favourite of the reader. The Riders and The White Rider should not be confused as one is dark, the other light, and both just as funny as each other.

This is the best that comic fantasy can bring to an audience who has already taken to the Harry Potter series of novels. Poopsie is the one who finds Gary in the forest sporting his own line in t-shirts and shows Gary what the forest is all about. The humour never stops in this comic series meant for older teens. Gary is a Film and TV producer, so when he meets Rags they seem to have a lot in common. Rags has a script and he wants Gary to read along in Morgan Freeman's voice. The reading of this script is what starts the rest of the comic going as he discovers a new forest where new characters; The White Rider, Pilate and Chenoa exist but only in a tale of his making.

In the back of the volume there are many bonus images, mini posters of The White Rider and The Woman of the Woods in all her glory, plus a four page comic layout showing the concept images and what they looked like before the inking.

The Field on the Edge of the Woods marks an an impressive debut that is great to read again and again. The fun is in the characters and the design of the comic in general. This graphic novel is certainly recommended for those into gaming, D&D and the Warhammer books.