| Title | : | Hinterkind 1: The Waking World |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401245188 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401245184 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 144 |
| Publication | : | First published October 2, 2013 |
After 300,000 years at the top of the food chain, it took only seven months for humanity to become an endangered species.
The Blight killed nearly everyone, and changed everything. As skyscrapers sprouted forests and wild animals took over the deserted streets, the planet's new rulers emerged from their age-old hiding places: elves and trolls, faeries and fauns, centaurs and satyrs--all the forgotten races behind countless myths and legends returned to reclaim the world they had lost to mankind.
Now, in a tiny village tucked away in what was once Manhattan's Central Park, two rebellious teenagers are about to discover the true nature of the world beyond their small island home--as well as the unseen menace that threatens both human and Hinterkind alike.
Hinterkind 1: The Waking World Reviews
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Also reviewed for
Tattoo Girl Reads
It was not enough, it was too much, and the art was fugly.
Does that make sense?
I'll try to explain.
Blight happened, and now humanity is on the verge of extinction.
What's Blight, you ask?
I'm assuming that it was a virus or maybe a biological weapon, but I can't say for sure, because it wasn't really explained.
It happened.
Now the characters live in a post-apocalyptic world.
And you know what every dystopian world needs, right?
A girl with an odd name who's good with a bow and arrow!
Ok. Not that one.
Meet Prosper and her mad Quiver skills:
But then again, she doesn't really seem to be more than a must-have generic character in this story. She's even got an 'accent' of some sort.
Not sure WhatTheFuck the accent is supposed to be, since it ebbs and flows with no real rhyme or reason. But I suppose if the world as we know it ever comes to a screeching halt, we'd all start talking like hillbillies.
Because?
Because!
Generic world, generic characters.
But it's not really generic, because they've thrown in fairies, and ogres, and satyrs, and goblins, and...other stuff.
Right?!
Maybe. But I didn't see anything really original with any of the fantasy element, either.
The Sidhe are fighting among themselves, and the rest of the mystical beings are out to get the humans.
Oooook.
Wait!
Prosper's BFF has grown a tail! Wonder what that means?!
Annnnnd we're gonna drop that storyline for now...
Hmmm. Well, maybe we'll find out what's up with this group of Frankenstein-looking humans? Wonder what's up with those guys? They look pretty evil!
Looks like they were some leftover part of a government branch of...
Oops!
Nope, that another thread we'll pick up later, I guess.
All of the above felt like a cut & paste job of other characters/plots that I've seen before.
There just wasn't enough originality to keep me interested.
So how was it too much?
Alright, take a hodgepodge of different characters, each following their own plot thread, and mix them thoroughly in with several different genres.
What do you get?
A hot sticky mess.
You have Prosper & BFF trekking though the woods (because he's suddenly grown a tail, and needs to run for it?), Prosper's grandfather and his 'team' wandering around (looking for another group that may be lost?), the Sidhe traitor and his group of creatures, the Sidhe Queen (who likes to read, and want's to keep humans as slaves) and her angry daughter (who wants to burn all the humans alive), the people back at the human compound, the government agents(?) that seemed to have turned into hybrid monsters, and another group of cannibalistic fairy-mercenaries running around...just for good measure.
There's too many characters, and not enough time to address them very well in this volume.
Pick one or two, and focus the story on them. Once the reader has a grasp on them, you can introduce more and more characters. But when you throw everyone in at once, then no one gets the attention they deserves.
The end result for me, was that I couldn't care less about any of them.
Now.
Add that horrible art into the equation, and you can see why I probably won't be picking up the next volume. -
Hinterkind is the uneasy spawn of Sweet Tooth and Fables, both Vertigo books that were popular so Ian Edginton decided, why not smoosh them together? … Because you get Hinterkind, that’s why!
It’s an arbitrary number of years in the future - let’s say 300,000, why not? - and humanity has become an endangered species. The Blight, a plague that wiped most of us out, has left the cities of the world ghost towns, the foliage reclaiming the architecture so places like Noo Yawk look like those gorgeous Cambodian temples covered in overgrown jungle.
People have started mutating into animal-type hybrids; there’s an elf queen, hundreds of years old, who’s ruling a beach somewhere; there’s another elf hunter who, together with a cyclops, satyr, and gaggle of goblins, hunt humans to be sold as food; there’s another elf, this time a punk, who’s also hunting humans because there’s no other way of tying her in with the main storyline; and because there isn’t enough loud nonsense going on, throw in some patchwork human morlocks who live underground and also do terrible things to humans and finally - vampire sky pirates!!
Too much, guys, way too much. And none of it really meshes either - it feels like Edginton had two or three different stories, stuck them together, and hoped they would sort of work, but they don’t. The post-apocalyptic humanity thing works fine by itself but the humans slowly turning into animals thing alongside it is much too similar to Sweet Tooth. Then the mythic creatures appearing feels too much like Fables but mixed in with the Sweet Tooth stuff, it’s just a mess!
Where did these fairy tale people come from? Are they the result of the plague? It’s implied they’ve been hiding away for years and only emerged once humanity perished - where were they hiding? Oh, it doesn’t matter, I don’t really care. And that’s the thing: there’s a lot of world building going on here but none of it adds up to anything original - it’s just not developed very well. It’s all stuff cobbled together from other sources that we’ve seen before.
There’s not really a plot. Prosper Monday (terrible name) is the granddaughter of Asa who decides to look for some humans that have gone missing on a hunting expedition or something. They get caught up with the various evil elf people and their associated fairy tale colleagues, and Prosper and Asa are tossed about from one group to another.
Neither characters are that interesting, nor are any of the various factions. Hunters hunting is too simplistic while the elf queen’s storyline is the same old dreary power-grab. Nobody is particularly likeable, the art is quite horrible - there are streaks in the colouring that looks awful, plus Prosper and the elf hunter Jon Hobb look very similar so it’s sometimes unclear, with the murky art, who we’re seeing in a scene. Francesco Trifogli’s covers are ok but the interior art is rushed and sketchy.
Hinterkind is just awful. A confused and boring collision of excessive, contrived, bad ideas, terrible characters, and a directionless, stop/start plot with too many strands, none of which engage. Avoid this disaster like the plague in the book - another swing and a miss from Vertigo! -
(3,5 of 5) Hinterkind. Not really appreciated here. 3,2 rating is pretty low on Goodreads and I can see what could be a problem for other readers. But for me, it's not so bad. It's a post-apocalyptic world, where few enclaves op humans survive and the hinterland came back to claim the Earth. Yes, all the mythic and fairytale creatures are real here. And their years in hideaway from humankind left them quite bitter. So we have postapocalyptic survival, fairytale/mythic creatures, some post-government doomsday paramilitary organisation in the mix. Add the "Saga" touch (the authors are heavy-handed on abusing the main characters and killing side characters in the gruesome matter quite often)... Well, the Hinterkind reminds me Saga a lot. Small personal quest is on the way to the bigger things, the killing, the rather simple art, the humans alongside with different "fantastic" creatures and kinds. But Saga is masterfully executed. Hinterkind is like making a dish without one ingredient which you replaced wit something other. All the other ingredients are the right one, but they're not of the greatest quality. So you end with that desired dish, but you feel it's something missing, something is not as you want to be. And that's Hinterkind. But it tastes OK, the story is interesting and thrilling, art is somehow fine and there is nothing actually wrong here. But it doesn't feel right either. So I'm halfway between 3 and 4 stars. It's better than 3, but not that good to rach for 4 stars. But I'm really interested how the story will go.
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This rating/review is based on an ARC from netgalley.
Woof.
The plot was awful and the art was also so awful! This is definitely the very worst comic I've read. The only good part were the wide shots of New York City overrun by plants, and even then it is pretty cliché. The creatures were like
Saga but worse. The plot was kind of like a mix of Saga,
Sweet Tooth, and other dystopian junk, to make an overall uncreative mess. Also so many of the women in this comic were drawn like men! All women don't have to look like top-heavy, borderline nude barbies; but it seems like the artist just isn't good at drawing. Full stop. -
How can you mess up post-apocalyptic fantasy? It's like making bad chocolate.
Unfortunately Hinterkind did mess it up.Writing isn't particularly good and storyline is just dull.Only reason I didn't give it 1 star is somewhat interesting setting. -
Long after an apocalyptic plague devastates humanity, a band of survivors eke out a living in Central Park, surrounded by overgrown high-rises and rusting cars. A young heroine named Prosper who's an expert shot with a bow, and her male acquaintance with a dark secret, decide to disobey the adults and leave the camp. They find the world overrun with creatures of myth and folktale, starting with a troll living under the ruins of the George Washington bridge; with humans in decline, these creatures emerge from the shadowed places. Led by the Sidhe, they plan to enslave and/or eat all the remaining humans.
The Greg Tocchini cover is fantastic, and part of the reason I picked this up, but the interior art by Francesco Trifogli is sketchy and line-heavy, like he forgot to erase some of his pencil marks before passing it on to be inked and colored. His art is capable but workmanlike, though it's worth noting the character designs are distinct and evocative; while they're in line with Fables, the colors seem a bit bland and muted after my recent binge on Image's crazy color schemes. Ian Edgington's writing is hit or miss; there's obviously a lot going on here, and there's the promise of world-building and an expansive plot, but there are notable flaws: the characters are generic, it's a bit talky and dialogue-heavy at times (e.g., we're introduced to the Sidhe as they engage in expository infodump), and too many elements are introduced only to seemingly be dropped and forgotten.
Vertigo seems to have established their current niche as inventive/unique fantasy, but stop me if you've read this one before: dystopic plague apocalypse, teenage heroine of destiny, fairy-tale creatures... it's easy to cast this as a mashup of The Walking Dead, Y: the Last Man, and Fables, with elements borrowed from other SFF staples. I think the back cover does it a disservice by comparing Hinterkind to Fables and The Unwritten, as each of those others broke the fantasy mold. Fables recast "happily ever after" fairytale characters as war refugees; The Unwritten is a metafictional trip, like if J.K. Rowling had a son named Barry who as an adult realized his mom's stories--starring him as the thinly-disguised Harry--were real.
Hinterkind, meanwhile, does not push any envelopes or expand the genre like those other Vertigo series. It's very content to have its main idea--apocalypse plus resurgent myth creatures--be its boldest element, where everything else falls back on the same stock Hero's Journey we've seen a billion times. While it's not terrible, Hinterkind is not exceptional---here's a volume of grade-A average, filling, hearty, and bland. It's good entertainment for a few hours, and maybe for you that's worthy of another star or two, but we're living in a golden age of SFF comics: there's a multitude of can't-miss, must-read, top-shelf series to get caught up on, like Saga, East of West, Rat Queens, and the now-completed Fables. No small surprise, Hinterkind was cancelled after 18 issues; I wouldn't be averse to reading volumes 2 and 3, but they can wait for a sale, they're not going anywhere. -
Hinterkind is a post-apocalyptic fantasy story that is set some time after an unspoken something happens to the earth, nearly wiping out the population of humans. You know, like what happens in post-apocalyptic stories. Except in this story, the Hinterkind happen to be a bunch of mythical creatures that have come forth to reclaim the earth and take out their vengeance on the last of humanity.
This is a fantasy story with lots of ambition and even though it’s set on earth, it’s set in a different earth than we know and that requires world building. World building in comics can be a little easier than in novels since you can see what’s going on in and you don’t have to rely on lots of details on what the characters are seeing, but it seems that in lieu of having to build up all of these images for everyone, Edginton has set out to make this book as difficult to follow in every other way possible.
Six issues into this book (aka the first volume) and I have yet to come across a character that I like. A certain selfishness comes along with being the remaining survivors in a post-apocalyptic world; survival of the fittest and such. Somehow these characters manage to be whiny and entitled each in their own way, making it hard to enjoy reading about them. There are a few groups of characters that we follow in the first volume (with different, intertwining stories) and I don’t know which one I like reading about less. Consequently, I don’t really have any interest in learning what happens to any of them. The part of the story where mythological creatures actually exist and are coming back to reclaim the land is a neat premise but there’s nothing given to me from that drawing me back into the larger picture.
The art is mostly good and I find myself enjoying it generally and then something will be off and it throws me a bit. The art is definitely the better half of the equation between that and the writing. It’s also worth mentioning that the incredible cover for the first issue by Greg Tocchini and Francesco Trigolfi is what initially drew me in.
As fewer and fewer Vertigo titles seem to be hitting shelves (although more than not too long ago), I really wanted Hinterkind to knock it out of the park. It had a lot of potential to be great and maybe it still will turn out to be something worthwhile, but right now with so much to read out there, I don’t have time to continually invest in a series that’s forgettable at best.
VERDICT
Pass. As much as I would love to recommend this series, it just misses the mark on all fronts. Hinterkind feels like a mediocre first issue throughout the entire first arc and unless someone recommends the following issues after this, I don’t think I’ll be carrying on with the series. -
I'm not terribly impressed so far. The beautiful Greg Tocchini cover artwork is merely a bait and switch for the sketchy art of Francesco Trifogli, and Ian Edgington's writing is simplistic. It's like reading a 1940s anti-Jap comic with cuss words and modern slang in it. The Hinterkind are all levels of bad, whether they wanted to kill or enslave humans--not so different from a World War II comic. It's all about revenge and survival, and the fantasy twist doesn't brighten anything up. It eschews complexity for a simplistic good vs. evil story. That's not to say there are no nuances, but it's a shocking throwback to a time even before Stan Lee started the process of sophisticating comics back in the 1960s. The characters are not well developed, and seem created to advance a not terribly interesting post-apocalyptic plot. While I'm often underwheled by emotional impact in comics, I honestly did not care about anyone here. It's all Kill! Enslave! Make money! Survive!, and the younger Hinterkind seem like punks.
At one point, Prosper Monday's grandfather, Asa, praises her for being able to make a literary reference to the Eloi of
H.G. Wells's
The Time Machine. Apparently, this is Edgington being full of himself, because the leader of some Frankensteinian, ultra-right-wing patchwork survivalists is called Colonel Doctor William Godwin, sharing a name with
Mary Shelley's father. Hardy har har--that's so clever I could never have thought of it, but I wouldn't use it unless I were writing comedy.
There's a strong implication that this first volume is setup for something better, but if the second volume is no improvement on the first, I'm dropping this. Of course, I could be hurting myself. I though Fables was pretty lame and predictable until around volumes 7 or 8, and I didn't care too much for Transmetropolitan until volume 3 really kicked the plot into motion. At least Fables had nice artwork and Transmetropolitan had intricate enough artwork to keep me wanting to make return visits in spite of being unimpressed. -
First off my thanks to NetGallery and the publisher for providing me with a copy to review. With that said as much as I enjoyed the first TPB in this series it does feel somewhat derivative of many current dystopian science fiction trends.
A plague hits the world and technology takes a huge tumble. Much of the human race has died off, and what remains has set up agrarian communities. Bows and arrows have pretty much replaced guns, and communication between settlements is maintained, but not without difficulty. What has come out of hiding with the humans mostly gone are the Hinterkind, Sidhe, orges, etc. want their place back in the sun.
Enter young adults Prosper Monday and Angus. Prosper is working towards becoming one of the New York City settlement's hunters. Angus is her best friend. Her grandfather Asa is a medical doctor, possibly one of the few left. NYC has been unable to contact Albany for months, and Asa convinces the leadership to let him go on the two month round trip to find out what has happened to Albany.
To avoid spoilers, something leads Angus to leave the settlement and Propser uses this as an excuse to follow her grandfather. Along the journey we meet branches of the Hinterkind, who see humans as nothing more than food, and humans who have survived, if you can call it that, the plague.
In some ways the events and politics that we witness at the Sidhe high court are more interesting.
The story and characters in many ways just bring back too many memories of the The Hunger Games and the television show Revolution. There is little to differentiate Prosper from Revolution's Charlie or Hunger Games Katniss (except Katniss is much more psychologically damaged). Asa reminds me of Revolution's Miles and the world building again brings back memories, at least current ones of Revolution.
Despite all of that I do believe I can recommend this TPB. The world building and characters setup is well done. The plot threads that will lead into the next collection, are for me, worth following. Along with Coffin Hill and FBP which I hope to catch up with soon I have hopes that the Vertigo line is undergoing a mild resurgence. -
3.5 stars.
The bad reviews for this book almost scared me off. I thought the premise sounded pretty awesome--sort of The Walking Dead meets Fables--but a 3.3 average GR rating? Ouch. (And yes, I rounded down to 3 stars, but I'm harder on my books than the average GR reviewer so I would normally expect this to have around 4 stars. :P) I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't happened to win it in a First Reads giveaway, but I'm glad I did because I ended up quite enjoying it. It's a fun, quick read for folks who think they'd like some fantasy thrown into their post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's true that there's nothing here so far that myriad other post-apocalyptic and dystopian books, TV shows, and movies haven't already covered, but it was an enjoyable rehash of familiar tropes.
I think part of the issue may be that this book is marketed to adults, but it felt very YA to me. There were a few swear words and a bit more graphically depicted violence than you'd find in the typical YA graphic novel, but overall I would recommend this to a teen before I would an adult. So I guess I'll go ahead and stick it into that still-nebulous "New Adult" genre and call it good.
In sum: Nothing new, but a quick and enjoyable read nevertheless.
I won a this book in a First Reads giveaway. -
Pintaba bien a priori esta nueva serie de Vertigo, pero se ha quedado en un mehh, sin mas. Nos plantea un mundo post apocaliptico en el que hace decadas que el ser humano ha dejado de ser dominante. La naturaleza a reclamado su sitio, las ciudades están llenas de verde esplendor y bichos hambrientos. Una plaga diezmo a la humanidad y en la ciudad de Nueva York, una comunidad vive en lo que una vez fue Central Park.
Como digo, la idea, aunque manida, pintaba bien porqué en el ocaso del hombre, otras razas habían vuelto a salir de las oscuridades. Los Sidhe, trolls, goblins, y toda clase de "monstruos" que hasta hace poco eran simplemente leyendas, ahora campan por el mundo, devorando humanos y resurgiendo.
En este lío tenemos a los protagonistas, que se encuentran con todo este percal, al emprender un viaje fuera de ciudad. La idea es buena, el dibujo es vistoso, pero no me acaba de funcionar. Una vez leído el primer arco argumental, ya puedo decir que no voy a seguir con esta serie. -
I don't know why, but I had been putting off reading this. Now that I have finally read the first arc, I feel kinda silly for waiting so long.
When Vertigo went through their little change up a while back, I kind of thought it was the death rattle of the glory days. However, with new titles like this, I can feel the hope inside of me bubbling up with excitement.
This story has some great characters, an intriguing world, wonderful plot development and some very pretty pictures. These first six issues set the board very nicely and I am very thankful to be along for the ride. Can't wait to see where it takes me. -
I was admiring the cover and that's what made me pick up this book series, I've gotten the next 2 volumes of Hinterkind and all of them have amazing cover art. It got me really excited to read them after seeing the cover of the book so, when I finished reading the book and I was completely disappointed. This throws us into a world with no explanation and just comes off as completely confusing. The opening I thought was nice setting up some dystopian type future. I like that central park, a place to enjoy nature, became the town surrounded by nature and ruins. I like them passing the alice statue so it foreshadows some fantasy is about to happen in this time. Then it completely falls apart from there. There are no really established rules to the fantasy we're looking at so it just comes off as having no ground to stand on, no idea what this time period is suppose to be? With the ruins of New York should mean more time has passed than just 7 months! (I only know it's been 7months from the description) Did magic return the cities to forests? How much technology do they have? What's the time period? If so there should be some kind of history that tells/shows us that. Do they want humans for slaves, food, or revenge? Not very clear.
The characters are a bit blank, that wouldn't be too bad if there was a strong story and world of fantasy to explore. I'm interested in the concept of fantasy creatures waiting to take back their world again. I'm going to try one more volume to see if they can get this story off the ground.
The art I didn't think was too bad, the cover art was gorgeous! I like the concept and I hope it picks up soon. ~Ashley
If you want to dive into a fantastical world with unusual creatures and a ton of story I recommend
Saga, Vol. 1 (This book is for mature readers) -
Received in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
Nature has reclaimed the Earth and humanity has been decimated due to an unexplained catastrophe called the Blight. Creatures of myth and legend, hidden for millennia during mankind's era of dominance, have emerged from the shadows and formed factions with the aim of ruling this new, old world.
There is not a lot new here. Hinterkind reads as the bastard child of Fables and Game of Thrones, with a liberal dash of Saga, mixing post-apocalyptic fiction with elements of fantasy and political intrigue. Our main characters have not shown much depth, their actions largely predictable. Many seeds are sown for future stories (a boy with a tail, a deadender military faction, who will wear the Sidhe crown?), but it feels derivative, even compared with stories built on the bones of centuries-old folktales like the works cited above.
The political content is sledgehammer-subtle, including persecuted fairies who try to "pass" and are labeled Uncle Toms (yes, really: "Uncle Toms"). The boy with the tail fears being exiled or worse for the crime of being different, but look at the muscleman posters on his bedroom wall and you'll read the gay metaphor in mile-high letters. Equally heavyhanded is the foreshadowing: "Someday you may have to make a choice," sayeth wise grandfather to plucky heroine, mere pages before she is put in that very position.
The artwork by Francesco Trifogli, a new name to me, is above average. Both his page and character design help in the storytelling and in keeping the myriad characters straight. His figures remind me of early Guy Davis before he inked his own work, or of Vince Locke. Rough in places, but effective. (My major pet peeve: Colorist Cris Peter has a maddening habit of depicting characters in shadow with these horizontal lines going through them, as if the figures were
reflected in a streaky mirror. She really needs to stop doing that.)
Maybe it's that fantasy isn't my preferred genre, or that I have already read plenty of (better) fiction mined from the same material as this. There are elements here to recommend the series to the completely uninitiated reader. But I won't be revisiting Hinterkind anytime soon. -
As a rule, I'm prepared to give new works the benefit of the doubt and assume that what might otherwise earn the label "cliche" might just be the repetition of a classic trope or even a bit of homage. Cliche's come so fast and furious in "Hinterkind," one cannot avoid the "C" word.
The plot? Decades after an unnamed plague wiped out much of humanity, a settlement of survivors scrapes by in Central Park. A pair of teens (pretty girl who shoots a bow with flawless aim and boy who secretly loves her and hides terrible secret) sneak out of Manhattan against the adults wishes. At first they think they're encountering mutants, but no, creatures of magic that were previously hunted to near extinction are reasserting dominance. Since we can't just learn about this following the Pseudo-Katniss and Companion, we're dragged to the West Coast. There an ageless elf queen (called "Sidhee" after the Irish myth) is struggling with her hot headed ageless but still slightly younger daughter who wishes to wipe out humanity. Oh, and of course there are pockets of crazy soldier types bent on doing evil and...well you get the idea.
In the end, there seems little in the way of plot here to make this stand out, and the wooden pulpy dialogue does nothing to help matters. I will say that I wasn't familiar with Francesco Trifogli art and this is the book's one bright spot. The images blend the series' science and magical elements, the lines wavy and even indistinct. I especially liked the opening sequence that found our heroes hunting a zebra in a forest. The next panel pulls back and we realize that the forest is an exposed top of a New York skyscraper (and yes, I too wondered whether and why a zebra climbed a few dozen flights of stairs, but it was pretty).
The racks overflow with comics that I'd label as "can't be missed." Saga. East of West. The tragically soon to be ending Fables. With such rich work begging to be read, who can make time for "Hinterkind"?
A digital copy of this book was provided through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. -
Originally posted to my blog:
https://diminishingthoughts.wordpress...
Hinterkind focuses on the divide that is between human and hinterkind- creatures of myth that no one knew existed until the world was basically destroyed.
We start out with Prosper and Angus, two teenagers out hunting in the forest who are rebellious and don’t understand the meaning of ‘Don’t leave’. After running away from their town they meet a man named Jon and from there, their lives are completely turned around
I liked what this comic had to offer. It clearly showed the differences between the humans and the hinterkind, or lack of differences. I think that was the point of it all. A quote that stood out for me was:
“You’ve never been good at accepting anything other than yourselves. You even turn on each other– black, gay, jew, muslim. You look for any excuse to grind someone else under your boot heel!”
…which is true. This whole comic focused on how the world was torn apart and separated. People didn’t suddenly join up with the creatures to help repair the world. They hunted them down and some in turn, became what they seemed to hate the most.
It took me a few days to complete this but once I sat down, I read it all in one sitting. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to reading the second volume. The writing was amazing and the art work was great. All the detail that was put in the book, especially where the forest is concerned was fantastic. -
I won a book! I received this book as part of the Goodreads First Reads giveaways.
This book arrived with a copy of the 2013 guide to DC Graphic Novels - a nice touch - it's interesting, AND a good marketing gimick! (Heavy on the superhero books, though.)
The story has a lot of promise: some undefined illness fells the majority of humans, letting the planet go back to Mother Nature (trees grow on the top of the Empire State Building, and the planet seems to have warmed, there are tropical birds and animals living in NYC), leaving room for all the OTHER races - trolls, centaurs, the Sidhe - to come back out of hiding. And they are PISSED.
There are two strong female characters - well, actually, four strong females, and two strong male characters. There's nothing particularly sexist or objectifying about the story or art. So that's nice.
Plus a nice line: towards the end, one of the guys stumbles upon a woman with wings. "What are you?" he asks. And she answers: "In charge."
But it just didn't grab me. There is a certain something about the artwork, something that I find in many comics, that just does not appeal to me. There was no magic, no life, no SPARK in the eyes of anyone - it was all very flat. And for me, the art is 75% of the experience with a graphic novel. So my experience here was very flat. -
Ian Edginton - writer
Francesco Trifogli - illustrator
Sometime in the future, an unknown catastrophe has decimated the human population of Earth. At the same time, perhaps as a result of the unnamed catastrophe, the older races of Earth, long thought to be legend or myth, return from hiding to claim dominion over the World. Now humans are an endangered species, while Elves, Trolls, Goblins, Faeries and all manner of mythological creatures roam across the land. When the the last remaining human settlements begin disappearing without a trace, it's up to Prosper, a young farm girl from the human village in Central Park, to uncover the mystery. In doing so, she may be the last hope the human race has to survive.
A gripping new fantasy series from veteran writer Edginton. Trifogli's art is fantastic - he switches from graceful, dramatic action sequences to wide, sweeping panoramas to close, intimate drama with natural ease. I can't wait to see what comes next in this series.
Highly recommended. 5/5 -
I'm always excited for a new Vertigo series, and the art here is pretty cool, but the story is familiar and nothing to write home about. The dialogue is rough and the characters are unrelatable archetypes, little more. A lot of neat ideas implemented here are mucked up by an over abundance of cornball tropes. A lot of the designs are very interesting and the colors are inventive, fitting perfectly with the unique universe, but the story doesn't provide the necessary framework for this to be a fulfilling read. It was worth checking out for ten bucks, but there's a lot of untapped potential here.
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I read the first three issues in singles and wasn't really hooked, I much preferred Coffin Hill, the other Vertigo book that came out at the same time. Whilst the statement remains true, I do look on Hinterkind a bit more favorably after reading this trade. It's got some interesting ideas and intriguing characters, with a lot of moving parts for just 6 issues, but just as it gets going, the trade ends, so whilst I'm looking forward to volume 2, it still left me a little disappointed. The artwork is lovely however, very pretty and almost painted, plus it's taken the whole 'apocalyptic future' element that can get a bit boring and given it a facelift. Well done Hinterkind, I am intrigued.
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The Hinterkind tells the story of a post-apocalyptic America, where humans are almost extinct and the dominant species are those formerly relegated to myth and fantasy, i.e., trolls, elves, sidhe, that have grown to despise humans. The story is fast-paced with lots of action and I found myself really drawn into this post-civilized world where so much is focused on mere survival. There are a lot of threads here that remain unresolved and I look forward to volume 2.
[I received this book as a netgalley in exchange for my honest review.] -
This is the tale of Prosper Monday told in graphic fashion and excerpts of her future writings.. After a series of disasters rack the world with disease diminishing the human population, Prosper Monday and other survivors of New York City find out that they are not alone. The Fae are coming back big time - all of them both fair and dark. Other players known and unknown are also entering the board. What part each will play will be made known in the next lavishly illustrated issue! Guess we will just have to wait.
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I used to be mad for stories in which magic returned to the world. But then once there weren't so damn many of the bastards (see also: alternate timelines, vampires, and above all steampunk). Some intriguing possibilities are suggested, and the overgrown future Manhattan is gorgeous, but this can't help feeling like very well-trodden ground.
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Pretty much what I expected from the blurb. The best thing about this seems to be that it is pretty straightforward and action oriented. The worst thing about it is that the story doesn't really offer anything new or particularly interesting yet. However, the various factions and sub-factions clashing later seems worth continuing the series.
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So-so. There's a good story in here somewhere, but it's hiding in a bunch of random.
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Eh. Messy art, okayish story. I just expected more. The premise seems like it could be used better.
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Story is pretty awesome but the artwork leaves a bit to be desired...
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Frankly, I was a little underwhelmed. Like when you're watching a movie and you keep waiting for it to get better and then the credits roll.
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Felt like a mashup of Fables + Saga. I really like it. Looking forward to the next volumes!
