Wonderland Annual: Reign of Madness

Wonderland Annual: Reign of Madness

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Story by Dave Franchini & David Wohl

Written by David Wohl

Illustrated by Eman Casallo, Ismael Canales, Juan Francisco Mota

Allan Otero, Maxflan Araujo & Walter Pereyra

Lettered by Kurt Hathaway

Hundreds of years before the Liddles ever stepped foot there, and long before it was destined for its inescapable chaos and insanity, there was Wonderland, the realm of dreams. It was a peaceful land of hope and imagination, but under its surface grew a darkness waiting to spread its tendrils into all that was. And as it was finally released, the evil seeped out into this extraordinary world, pulling two sisters into the center of its plot to bring madness to the inhabitants of all it touched, turning all it corrupted into nightmares of their former selves.

A war has been building for the very soul of this realm, and madness aims to reign over all that resides there. But, can the hope of a few and the love of a sister keep the evil at bay and fight what is destined to be?

I have to say that I am a fan of this book. The story fits perfectly into the world of Wonderland and goes a long way to showing how the Madness that still infects the realm today started.

I very much am enjoying the way this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we get fully caught up in the madness and enjoy every single moment of it.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the layers of the story emerge, grow and evolve throughout the book is beautifully rendered. I like seeing how the layers open up avenues to be explored and how there’s no clear cut ending so that we can still get more stories before the Liddles come to the realm. The way these avenues add depth, dimension and complexity to the story is phenomenally rendered. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely well achieved.

The interiors here are beautifully rendered. I do like that what we see is so cohesive and it doesn’t look like multiple creators are working on the project. I am in love with the fact that backgrounds play as big of a role in this as they do as they enhance and expand the moments perfectly. They also 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 story. The linework is sensational and how the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work that we see is sensationally well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show some remarkable eyes for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show some beautiful understanding of how colour works. The creativity and imagination that we see throughout is extraordinary.

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This is the kind of book that makes us want to see more stories set in Wonderland at various times in its history. This is so well written with excellent characterisation and some absolutely beautiful interiors that brings the madness in wonderland to life in some truly extraordinary ways.