What's The Furthest Place From Here? #1
Readers get immersed in the post-apocalypse in What’s The Furthest Place From Here? #1, by writer Matthew Rosenberg, artist Tyler Boss, and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The best way to describe this book is that it’s all teenage rebellion and scene-setting that works wonderfully.
This first issue introduces readers to a world of teenage gangs in the apocalypse, as Sid and the Academy-Alabama, Prufrock, Oberon, Mallory, Poly, Ari, Lafayette, Layla, and Marky- try and survive in their record store headquarters. Former member of the Academy Slug returns to them, terribly wounded, and brings attention from another gang, trespassing in their territory and looking for a grown-up. Sid and Slug talk as he dies, and he tells her about the City and how he knows what’s wrong with her and gives her a gift. She joins the fight and uses the gift- a gun- to end the whole thing. As that’s happening, mysterious beings called the Strangers take Sid’s body. In the aftermath of the fight, the Academy has a funeral as the other gangs meet to decide their fates. Sid takes over lookout, and in the morning, she’s gone.
Rosenberg constructs an interesting world right off the bat, one that draws readers in. There are no grown-ups in this world, and children are brought to the gangs by the Strangers. The City is treated as a myth. Music is how each member of the Academy defines themselves. Each gang is a clique. There’s a mix of the familiar and the mysterious that works so well. Rosenberg plays it up perfectly, presenting a compelling narrative with enough mystery to make readers come back for more.
The characters are just sketches at this point, but it works because this is an unfolding world. This is a long comic, and it presents enough to get things going. Sid is probably pregnant, something these kids don’t understand because it’s never been a part of their lives before. The Strangers have given them everything, and Slug brings knowledge they don’t have, which hasn’t been revealed to readers yet, and a weapon that no one else has. The building blocks are all there, and it feels like a big part of this book is going to be how they’re put together. The book has a great vibe, and it’s worth picking up for that alone. Plus, it’s sixty-four pages for 4.99, which is a ridiculously good value for a story this great.
Tyler Boss’s art really gets everything across. Sid is vulnerable and young, and Boss gets that across. The visceral violence of the gang fight is effective, and the black and white landscape of the world outside the record store is wonderful. The way the book is colored is great, too. There’s a warmth to the Academy’s headquarters, expressed in the colors, that feels like the warmth of a vinyl’s sound. Boss is doing wonderful work in this comic, and it really has to be seen to be believed.
What’s The Furthest Place From Here? #1 is a wonderful first issue. Rosenberg, Boss, and Otsame-Elhaou work together beautifully, creating a world that sucks readers in and leaves them begging for more, like a great 7-inch. It’ll be great to see how this album, as the metaphor goes, plays out.