Review: Wolves by Becky Cloonan

Wolves - Becky Cloonan (w/a)
Self-published, $5.00, Buy it here

It has been impressive over the last few years to see Becky Cloonan evolve from a promising new talent to mature, established artist with a voice of her own.  That voice, though, is not a typically feminine lilt, but a frost-bitten, guttural snarl.  Leaving behind much of the manga influence in her early work, she now draws with ferocious energy and incredible detail.  The first glimpse we had of this evolved style was in the Northlanders mini-series “The Girl in the Ice” — Brian Wood’s brow-beaten Norsemen being a perfect vehicle for Cloonan’s craggy, crepuscular linework — which acts as a neat prelude to her latest self-published mini, Wolves.

Written and illustrated by Cloonan, Wolves, is a beautifully composed short.  It achieves what many short-stories strive and fail to do, that is, give them impression of a larger world at work beyond its own plot.  Given that it takes place in a medieval fantasy realm, this is a singularly impressive feat.  And, yes, it probably owes a debt to Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and George R.R. Martin, but her own voice elevates it above mere escapism into something more touching and universally human. 

The story concerns a swordsman sent to hunt a werewolf which, in Cloonan’s hands becomes an exploration of guilt, love and jealousy, with the werewolf’s mythological and psychological roots brought to the fore.  That she says so much in a mere 20 pages is impressive enough, but the tightly-constructed plot is almost completely overshadowed by the haunting, visceral art on display.

From simple footsteps in the forest snow, to the climactic fight with a hulking werewolf, every panel is charged with tense energy.  Cloonan seems to capture each moment mid-action, creating a relentless pace to the story.  Not only that, but her flair for motion in her drawings is also able to show through, with blood and saliva flying across the page, or the tangled mess of the hunter’s hair caught in the wind.  It’s the small details like that which invite us to resist the speed of the narrative and simply soak in the art.

All this bodes well for the next mini from Becky Cloonan, Orcs, which will presumably be a similarly-styled fantasy story, but where she takes the conceit this time could be very interesting indeed.

-- Gavin Lees

Posted in: Gavin Lees,Review