What's the Furthest Place From Here? #1

What’s the Furthest Place From Here? #1

Image Comics 2021

Written by Matthew Rosenberg

Illustrated by Tyler Boss

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

The world has ended. All that remains are gangs of children living among the ruins. But Sid believes there must be something more out there. When she disappears into the wastelands, her gang will risk everything to bring her home. A story about the things that matter most—your survival, your loved ones, and your record collection.

This is quite possibly one of the weirdest, most disjointed and odd stories I’ve read in quite some time and I’m obsessed with it! There are things I have been able to garner from what we see and learn and it kind of has this post apocalyptic Children of the Corn kind of feel to it that is weirdly fascinating. Once you hit a certain age you age out of the clan that you are in and I don’t know what happens next but you have to leave, at least from what I can gather. Now Sid’s boyfriend aged out and he disappeared leaving her with child, not that anyone knows what that means because apparently none of them have had children before. I think, I believe, this is the catalyst that will lead her and by extension her family on a quest to find a mysterious city in the wastelands. Now I could be off base I dunno but it seems logical enough to me at this stage.

I’m a fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how they learn information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing the characters, the story and this world that they live in as it prepares us for what’s next.

I really like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I also really like the way the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored and many of these engage the reader and take them off page while it adds this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are simple yet complex at the same time. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how the varying weights and techniques are utilised to create the detail within the work we see is extraordinary. The way that backgrounds are being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is phenomenal, and in the plaid shirt or the patterned floor are real standout moments. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really show a great understanding of how colour works.

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This is pretty out there and anything this outside the box in terms of thinking is something that we all should be reading. This is a huge issue, three-in-one and it really does a lot to get the reader invested, engaged and intrigued by what we see. With some solid if cryptic writing and excellent characterisation alongside these bespoke interiors we see the next big thing coming to life right before our eyes.