Written by: Kurt Busiek
Art by: Ben Dewey & Jordie Bellaire
Publisher: Image
You know what’s kinda crazy? The Autumnlands: Tooth and Claw #8 is the first comic I’ve reviewed where I’ve actually read the physical comic. All the others I’ve had digital review copies of, but because life is a thing that sometimes has problems, I never got the this week’s .pdf. Whoops.
Holy crap is reading these by hand so much better. It’s literally been years since I’ve done that. I mean, I go and buy some of the comics I review every month because I want to support the artists I like, but I never read them; I just go with the digital copy. And digital copies pale in comparison!
I’ll be honest, at this point, my reviews for this TA:TaC are starting to come off as “broken record” and little else. I praise the art—it’s flawless in this issue—and then I complain about how slow-moving this whole series is. You mean to tell me I have to wait a full month to get what amounts to half a chapter’s worth of story instead of a full? There’s so much story left! How dare you!?
And then I end these reviews with something clever or witty or I dunno; I hardly reread my reviews.
So let’s pretend I did that just now because it’s all true and instead talk about a few gritty little details: Issue 8 continues from where we left off. Do you remember where we left off? There was a giant, walking bug made out of wood and metal that had Learoyd just as confused as myself. Well, he goes and takes a look and, holy crap, there’s another human!
This series just took a turn I never expected.
If this were any other comic, this new human (a woman at that!) would be explained in this issue. Her story would be the entire 30 or so pages, and then we’d await Issue 9. But because this is TA:TaC, we get a brief piece of info and then Learoyd is tossed aside, just as confused as when he started.
It’s a little annoying, if I’m being honest. He gets zero words in edgewise throughout this ordeal and then we’re done. A mystery is introduced and damned if it won’t remain a mystery for another few issues. That’s just how this series works.
I really, really respect that of Kurt Busiek and Ben Dewey. It takes guts to tell a story this way. It annoys me sometimes, but when all is said and done, I really do think we’ll be better off for it.
Also, there are some Scottish speaking rams which is all sorts of fun. Come for the world building, stay for the Scottish speaking rams—that’s my motto!
