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84th out of 1,189 books
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Fell, Volume 1: Feral City (Fell Singles Issues #1-8)
by
Warren Ellis (Goodreads Author),
Ben Templesmith
Detective Richard Fell is transferred over the bridge from the big city to Snowtown, a feral district whose police investigations department numbers three and a half people (one detective has no legs). Dumped in this collapsing urban trashzone, Richard Fell is starting all over again. In a place where nothing seems to make any sense, Fell clings to the one thing he knows t...more
Paperback, 128 pages
Published
June 6th 2007
by Image Comics
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In one of the opening stories, we encounter a coroner eating a sandwich over this corpse, while our protagonist, Detective Fell, can barely contain his vomit. A tomato drops from the sandwich into the corpse, and coroner goes after it with his pincers:
Fell: If you retrieve that piece of tomato from where it fell and then put it in your mouth I will shoot you.
Coroner: ...I was simply going to remove it. I have to go over the bridge for organic tomato, you know.
Four p...more
Fell: If you retrieve that piece of tomato from where it fell and then put it in your mouth I will shoot you.
Coroner: ...I was simply going to remove it. I have to go over the bridge for organic tomato, you know.
Four p...more
One of my favorite comics ever, collected here into a trade paperback. The comics themselves were short, only 19 pages, but extremely dense, each one telling a complete story.
The setting is a creepy suburb called Snowtown, a dark, bleak place overtaken by urban decay. Fell is a detective exiled to this place, and fights something of a losing battle against the hopelessness and pointless, horrific violence that pervade the place.
The stories themselves are dark and ofte...more
The setting is a creepy suburb called Snowtown, a dark, bleak place overtaken by urban decay. Fell is a detective exiled to this place, and fights something of a losing battle against the hopelessness and pointless, horrific violence that pervade the place.
The stories themselves are dark and ofte...more
This was quite an intriguing graphic novel collection; each chapter contains a short, to-the-point, self-contained story, but each one also gives a few hints concerning the overall story-arc of the series. The main characters are likable, while flawed, which I don't always find to be the case with crime-noir. This initial volume delivers an exciting setting and a fast and rewarding pace within the small stories while also setting up some larger mysteries that will only be examined over time th...more
warren's so good at what he does that it is incredibly subtle here, in these 8 nine panel 16 page short crime stories about a cop actually trying to do his job in an abandoned, blighted urban environment. you could be distracted by the recurrent ellisisms, (tough, damaged protagonists, extemely f-cked up social mores, cigarettes, heavy drinking) but (and honestly, if anything is an ellisism, this is too), there is a beating, loving heart vibrating at the center of this morass. detective...more
Not for the faint of heart.
Warren Ellis's writing is often full of everything that lurks in the shadows and goes bump in the night. He explores the underbelly from the underbelly's point of view. That's what Snowtown is, from the perspective of detective Fell. Everyone is hiding something, even our savant Detective who is akin to TV's "The Mentalist" or "Psych" with his powers of observation, common sense. But he also has the ability to imagine the worst, and ...more
Warren Ellis's writing is often full of everything that lurks in the shadows and goes bump in the night. He explores the underbelly from the underbelly's point of view. That's what Snowtown is, from the perspective of detective Fell. Everyone is hiding something, even our savant Detective who is akin to TV's "The Mentalist" or "Psych" with his powers of observation, common sense. But he also has the ability to imagine the worst, and ...more
Susanne
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Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Susanne by:
the internets
Shelves:
graphic-novels
And thus Mr Ellis is redeemed, at least in this humble reader's opinion. (I didn't like Crooked Little Vein.) This was my first graphic novel by the man, and I will buying my local comic shop bare of anything else in this series. Feral City lives up to its name triumphantly. Crime abounds in Snowtown, shady characters inhabit the scenes, and the panels exude a darkness and a grittyness that make you glad you're not there.
(It's certainly one of the *darkest* books I've ever read - there...more
(It's certainly one of the *darkest* books I've ever read - there...more
Snowtown is the kind of town you hope could never exist. Only a bridge separates it from a city we'd probably all recognise but Snowtown seems to be from another time, or another world. Broken by rampant violence, crime and crippling poverty, Snowtown is empty of life, colour or hope and the vulnerable town people have reverted back to superstitions and magic for protection from the crime around them ("If Snowtown knows who you are, it won't come and get you")Detective Fell is new to S...more
I really got into collection, developing an even more profound respect for Warren Ellis and a new found respect for Ben Templesmith: the illustrator. The comics themselves were short, only 19 pages, but dense and provocative in their dystopian chaos, each self-contained vignette telling a complete story, all brewing together a much bigger picture, framed in a noir-esque bizarro woodwork with enough light doled in for small flurries of hope to shine through the bleak urban landscape of nowhere.
...more
Crime meets horror in this collection of eight stories about Detective Richard Fell -- once a high-flying investigator in the big city, now exiled across the river/bay to a rotting urban wasteland called Snowtown. Imagine Brooklyn or Queens, sitting across the water from Manhattan, or Oakland sitting across the bay from San Francisco. Now imagine them without any daylight and barely any city services, with packs of wild dogs, and rampant with psychopaths. Fell is that lonely knight walking down ...more
I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Up till now, I've only read Ellis's superhero stuff and really hadn't been all that impressed. Fell, however, seems to be a story he really wants, maybe even needs, to tell.
The basic plot is that Fell, a homicide detective, screws up somehow and gets sent from his downtown district over the bridge and into Snowtown, the worst area of the unnamed city where he works. Each chapter focuses on a single case and they range from random b...more
The basic plot is that Fell, a homicide detective, screws up somehow and gets sent from his downtown district over the bridge and into Snowtown, the worst area of the unnamed city where he works. Each chapter focuses on a single case and they range from random b...more
This is easily one of my favorite things I've read by Ellis to date, and if he'd be willing to keep at it for a while I'd consider giving it the number one spot. As usual with Ellis' work, it's the story of a mundane-yet-capable guy with a heart of gold thrown into a terrifying world full of perverts and evil men; in this case, it's a dishonored police officer transferred to work over the river in Snowtown, a crumbling urban sprawl full of broken people and burdened with an ineffectual governmen...more
Attention writers of tv shows "Castle", "Lie to Me", "The Mentalist", "Bones" etc. etc. etc. THIS is how you write a detective/consultant that can "read" people and situations. To be fair, the setting of Snowtown would be difficult to translate to television correctly (even for Showtime) without leaving out the most gruesome aspects. They are completely necessary to the story and for that reason Ben Templesmith's (30 Days of Night)scratchy fever-...more
OH wow ... the chapter/issue with the ex-crackhead mom and the creepy house and the restraining order just about did me in! But there's also a real sweetness to it and it's a fresh and original cop story. I love the bartender, and really anything having to do with the bar. Nice art too.
Another impressive work from author Warren Ellis (follow him on twitter, @warrenellis). He writes with a raw energy, blending the prototype Man (with implicit vs Nature) with the modern Man (with implicit vs Society). His conflicts, wanderings, and themes are unique, often shocking, and utterly beautiful.
This volume (which is several chapters) is a great start to a new series. Fell is an detective in a shadowy city, on the border of madness and reason, covered with mist and cold. ...more
This volume (which is several chapters) is a great start to a new series. Fell is an detective in a shadowy city, on the border of madness and reason, covered with mist and cold. ...more
This series is so great. It's dark, it's violent, it's funny and it's intelligent. And the art suits the writing perfectly... I don't know if I've seen a better pairing.
Only 9 issues of Fell have been published (8 of which are in this trade paperback). I thought maybe sales weren't great and that's why publication of it had stopped, but I found out that it came to a halt because Ellis's computer crashed and he lost all of the scripts he had written. He has been re-writing them, an...more
Only 9 issues of Fell have been published (8 of which are in this trade paperback). I thought maybe sales weren't great and that's why publication of it had stopped, but I found out that it came to a halt because Ellis's computer crashed and he lost all of the scripts he had written. He has been re-writing them, an...more
It's really tempting to give this five stars, between Warren Ellis' totally brutal approach to the police procedural and Ben Templesmith's gorgeous art, but... what's really going to make this one great is if it goes anywhere (and don't get me wrong, part of the genius of Feral City is the way that there's clearly some over-arching story going on even as each issue is a stand alone story, and a great one). I trust Ellis almost implicitly at this point, but still. Fell is incredible, but it fee...more
This one was just too dark and dystopian for me. Detective Fell is a cop working in Snowtown, home to the dregs of humanity. The eight stories included in this book deal with a wide variety of human depravity. I respect Ellis' skills as a writer but I found the subject matter too bleak to enjoy (other than the interrogation scenes, which were very entertaining). Templesmith's slightly distorted artwork complemented the stories quite well. I'm sure that there are some who will love this book...more
As usual, anything illustrated by Ben Templesmith has my vote. Luckily, writer Warren Ellis is pretty great, too.
This is a dark, gritty, disturbing world that Ellis and Templesmith have created. Everyone has his or her own twisted secret.
I do not recommend this for anyone who is even the slightest bit squeamish, as there are a few pretty disgusting bits. If you're into splatterpunk, are a fan of Templesmith's work (such as Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse or 30 Days of Night), ...more
This is a dark, gritty, disturbing world that Ellis and Templesmith have created. Everyone has his or her own twisted secret.
I do not recommend this for anyone who is even the slightest bit squeamish, as there are a few pretty disgusting bits. If you're into splatterpunk, are a fan of Templesmith's work (such as Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse or 30 Days of Night), ...more
There are things about this book that seem purposefully outrageous ... like say that secretary shouting "I can do things to men that no poodle can dream of," or the Lt. hunched over an evil dead style copy of the Necronomicon proclaiming that the city's problems with crime are over 'cause he's learning magic. But it works and works well because at the end of the day it plays a lot more like a graphic adaptation of Homicide Life on the Street that anything else. And, for those who misse...more
Why the hell did I put off buying this for so long? I've read about it for years, Ellis's experimental 9-panel 16 pg comic with art by Ben Templesmith.
Fans of Ellis's writing will find a lot to love, here: a flawed hero who wins some and loses some, odd and sometimes disturbing facts seamlessly woven into the story, and not too much of, as another reviewer said, the usual ranting.
Two nits: The style of Fell's dialogue sometimes blends into that of the minor characters, w...more
Fans of Ellis's writing will find a lot to love, here: a flawed hero who wins some and loses some, odd and sometimes disturbing facts seamlessly woven into the story, and not too much of, as another reviewer said, the usual ranting.
Two nits: The style of Fell's dialogue sometimes blends into that of the minor characters, w...more
Detective Richard Fell is a cop who cares. Which gets him into a lot of trouble, and clashes with his occasionally unorthodox methods of law enforcement. Exiled to a precinct in Snowtown that is little short of hell on Earth, Fell is trying to make a name for himself after some shady event in his past made it impossible for him to work as a detective across the bridge in the good part of town.
Fell isn't big on due process, but Snowtown gives him a lot of latitude in doing things his ...more
Fell isn't big on due process, but Snowtown gives him a lot of latitude in doing things his ...more
On the other side of the bridge is Snowtown, a blighted urban area whose superstitious residents mark their territory with the Snowtown tag: “You put it up, you belong to Snowtown. If Snowtown knows who you are, it won’t come and get you.”
And who comes to get you? Most notable among the cast of villainous characters is a Richard Nixon masked nun seen buying a gun and handing out a knife. But Tricky Dick isn’t responsible for filling the Coroner’s Lair. Causes of death range from alco...more
And who comes to get you? Most notable among the cast of villainous characters is a Richard Nixon masked nun seen buying a gun and handing out a knife. But Tricky Dick isn’t responsible for filling the Coroner’s Lair. Causes of death range from alco...more
Bleak noir episodes in the pavement pounding life of exiled detective Richard Fell. The stories themselves are taut and minimalist, but at times too simple. This might be for the best, however, as it foregrounds Templesmith's incredibly expressive art, which is weird, stark, and haunting, at times tightly drawn, at others brutally distorted. It's a perfect reflection of Fell himself, whose crime-solving activities rely on his obsession with details while chipping away at his sense of moral cl...more
Federiken Masters
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
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Que estaba a mano
Cosa rara. Cosa macabra. Cosa experimental. Cosa concisa. Cosa llamativa. Qué cosa, estos autores. Si algún día se dignan a continuar la serie, quizás yo me digne a escribir una reseña un poco más elaborada. Eso sí, vamos a aprovechar para quejarnos de la edición española: ¡Contratad un puto corrector, coño! Hacía rato que no veía tantas burradas, tantos errores de traducción y estilísticos en un comic relativamente serio. ¡Dios le da pan...!
"I could learn to hate this town."
Life in Snowtown leaves its mark.
No-one knows that better than Richard Fell, late of the NYPD, transferred to the dead-end, no-hope nowhere of Snowtown for reasons only later revealed.
Tasked with solving crimes in a place where murder is a matter for shrugs and belonging is a brand seared literally into the skin, the dour but brilliant Fell elects
to observe and reason his way from bad to worse situation in Warren Ellis' and B...more
Life in Snowtown leaves its mark.
No-one knows that better than Richard Fell, late of the NYPD, transferred to the dead-end, no-hope nowhere of Snowtown for reasons only later revealed.
Tasked with solving crimes in a place where murder is a matter for shrugs and belonging is a brand seared literally into the skin, the dour but brilliant Fell elects
to observe and reason his way from bad to worse situation in Warren Ellis' and B...more
Bar none, the best pure writing Ellis has done since Planetary. Ellis is very hit or miss, he is a man of too many ideas & doesn't always filter them properly. This is Ellis at his A game, he creates a fantastic world perfectly matched with Templesmith's art. A couple of the episodic stories in this collection are as good as anything he has ever written. A shame this series seems to have disappeared.
Falling somewhere between Constantine (the kickass graphic novels, not the crappy movie), Se7en, touches of Stephen King and modern-day Lovecraft, Fell opens a window into an awful yet compelling dark universe that you just can't leave - an ocean of night lit with a few sparks that make you simultaneously mourn humanity's demise and celebrate it's stubborn resurrection. Brilliant series.
Maybe my favorite thing Ellis has written since Transmetropolitan. Ellis’ hard-boiled detective Fell and Templesmith’s visuals are a perfect match, combining to make me all kittenish on the inside. Might benefit from a less episodic format but who am I to argue with genius? Good stuff, and fulfilled the noir hankering that the certain other comic titles left wanting.
This book is really excellent. I just re-read issues 5-9 (this collection contains issues 1-8), and I forgot how much I like this. It's really top-form Ellis. Each story seems to be based on true events, as we find out in the "Back Matter" section (a non-sequential-art section of a note from Warren about the backstory on the issue, fan letters, sometimes other fiction pieces, musings on the series, etc). And the supporting characters are all great, Snowtown is an amazing fictional ...more
I like graphic novels a lot. There some I might even count among my favorite books of all time. This one was decent, but definitely not at that level.
This starts with the basic city gone completely to hell idea. Its place in the United States or world is not really clear. In this case it is Snowtown and it isn't very nice there. New guy (Det. Richard Fell) comes to be a homicide detective. The art is not bad. A little bit arty, but not so arty that it comes at the expense of understa...more
This starts with the basic city gone completely to hell idea. Its place in the United States or world is not really clear. In this case it is Snowtown and it isn't very nice there. New guy (Det. Richard Fell) comes to be a homicide detective. The art is not bad. A little bit arty, but not so arty that it comes at the expense of understa...more
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Has written comics & graphic novels, books, journalism, animation, tv, film, videogames and anything else that looks like it might pay a bill or buy whisky.
Second novel, GUN MACHINE, due from Mulholland Books in autumn of 2012.
More about Warren Ellis...
Second novel, GUN MACHINE, due from Mulholland Books in autumn of 2012.
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