Little Comic Book Update: Stitched #1 & #2 (Avatar Press)

Back in episode 133 I reviewed the short film "Stitched" by Garth Ennis. And I mentioned that it was a prequel to an ongoing comic series from Avatar Press. This past week I picked up issues #1 (November 2011) and #2 (December 2011) at my comic shop.

The short film was actually not a prequel but instead a film adaptation of the first issue. In this issue we're introduced to the three Americans (Pruitt, Twiggs and Cooper), who were dispatched to rescue Bravo 1-5, a coalition forces team that's been entrenched in Afghanistan. But after an unexplained mechanical failure, all but the three members of the crew were killed when their helicopter crashed.

After encountering undead creatures controlled by figures in black cloaks, the US personnel are rescued when the coalition team arrives. Then the two teams begin to compare notes about their separate encounters.

In issue #2 we get some background information on the coalition team survivors (Baz, Barclay and Dave) and how they lost one team member to a group of undead controlled by two black robed figures.

In this issue the creatures are described as a new (or possibly old) sort of IED, that they are triggered into action when someone stumbles upon their talisman (a can containing pebbles) and that, so long as the pebbles make noise, the creatures continue to attack.

And, as one coalition force member finds out, they're extremely danger at what they do.

"Stitched" is written by Garth Ennis, and the translation to comic form is done by Mike Wolfer. From a writing and story flow the comic is very well done. Each issue so far has done a good job of introducing the reader to the mythology, establishing the heroes, and also setting up some inter-personal struggles between the coalition members (including some humorous background on one who had a "close encounter" once).

Wolfer's art is nicely done, with easily identifiable characters and consistent landscapes. The covers include variants based on photographs of the actors from the short film as well as wrap-around and gore covers.

The story has just enough hope and hopelessness so far from the characters that I'm very interested in what happens next. And in the long term I think there's a lot here that they can do with the story. So on our buy it, borrow it or don't bother scale, I'm going to rate "Stitched" a borrow if not a buy. If you like zombie comics then this is going to be at least a borrow, even though I don't consider the stitched creatures to be zombies (at least, not yet). And if you liked "28 Days Later" then I think you'll want to add this comic to your stack. I can't quite put my finger on it yet, but it definitely has that vibe for me.