Alone v4: “The Red Cairns”

You know this is a serious issue because the credits that usually go on a page by themselves are crammed at the bottom of the first page. This one is packed, scary, and exciting. And then there’s the cliffhanger…

Growth and Evolution

After the events of the previous album, our small gang of wandering kids has grown.  They’ve more than doubled, as a matter of fact.  A bunch of kids from that theme park have joined them. You’ll recognize most of them instantly.  It’s a mixed group, though many of them don’t seem to be pulling their weight.  They’re used to a charismatic/scary leader running everything for them, I guess.

On the even scarier side, they took in these two:

You remember them from volume 3 as the two creepy people at the end who know something about what’s going on, but aren’t telling.  They’re the foxes in the hen house, and they start to show their cards in this book, though it’s still under the covers.

They might not be bad guys, entirely though. They might just be the people to show us the truth behind what happened and what caused the sudden loss of population.

No, wait, I take that back. There’s a scene in this book that — well, they’re bad guys.

With the increasing population they’re dealing with, hunting for food and supplies in the city is more important than ever and takes up more time.  Also, politics is rearing its ugly head.  Who’s the leader?  (Hint: Dodzi)  Who has what jobs?  Who needs to do more?  What should and shouldn’t be allowed?

They’ve walled off some streets and set up a camp in the town square:

They’ve also started a “council,” which is your basic first form of government:

The Action Begins

And then things get a little crazy.  An attempt to save someone sets the kids into conflict with a group of vicious wild monkeys. A mistake in leadership leads Dodzi to question his role.

A more ambitious, well thought-out plan is executed, instead.  These kids aren’t dumb.  They just have a lot on their minds.

The second half of the book turns into a harrowing action sequence involving big heights, fighting smarter not harder, and judicious use of a firearm. Monkeys can be tough to beat and impossible to reason with.

There’s also a chase scene involving a four wheeler ATV kind of vehicle dragging shopping carts behind it as they run from the bloodthirsty monkeys they found in the first place thanks to the wandering rhino with fancy jewelry on its horn.

I love a book which lets me write a sentence like that.

And then there’s that last page, where something huge happens.  It’s a major cliffhanger.

Along the way, we get more hints and clues as to what happened with the adults.  There’s a bigger game at play here, and I’m excited to learn more about it now.  When the series first started, I didn’t care so much.  Now, I just want Vehlmann to write a bit fat page of exposition and tell me everything.

Thankfully, he’s showing the kind of self-control necessary to drip it out.

Along the way, as he teases it out, he’s letting us in on how the kids are reacting to the situation and how that changes over time.  We’re still getting glimpses into how emotional a situation this is, and how much some crave a return to some kind of normalcy.  (Should they start school again?  Or is survival more important?)

There’s a lot of thought going into this book that you might not realize at first until you step back and assess what’s going on. All those little things add up. When characters are in peril, those little moments humanize them to the point where you feel the appropriate stress at the sight of their struggles.

Gazzotti Goes Foggy

I just wanted to point out this artistic trick Gazzotti uses.  It’s a foggy morning in France, so he draws the pages differently.  He gets rid of all solid black areas. This reminds me of Scott Kollins’ work on “The Flash” a decade ago, used for a different effect.  Some of the linework is even broken up  to make room for the fog clouds.

The colors help it, as well.  They’re all desaturated and mostly void of texture to help with that hazy look.

I think it helps here that Gazzotti is his own colorist, so he can plan the two parts together to work so well.

It only lasts for about four pages before the next action beat, when things suddenly and almost mysteriously clear up quickly.

Recommended?

Yes! Things are heating up. The new additions to the cast promise to stir things up quickly.  New threats are seen.  An old threat returns (yes, I kept that quiet up until now).  And a change in [SPOILER] sends [SPOILER] away, leading to [SPOILER].

I’ll say this about the cliffhanger: It’s classic old school soap operate/Saturday afternoon material, but getting there requires you take one big leap in character logic.  I’m not sure how much I believe that move by that character, but it’s not completely unprecedented so I can’t complain.

I don’t want to nit-pick. I just want to read the next book.  NOW!  (Thankfully, it’s available in English.)

— 2018.022 —

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