Fell Volume 1: Feral City by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith

Before I begin to talk about this book, I have to be honest; I love almost everything written by Warren Ellis, and I find Ben Templesmith’s art absorbingly brilliant. You can quite safely assume then, that I really liked Fell Volume 1: Feral City (containing Fell issues #1-8). You would be spot on in this assumption.

Fell follows the life of Detective Richard Fell as he works the miserable streets of Snowtown, dealing with the frequent homicides that plague the area. He meets the scum of the earth within the pages of each story, but true to Ellis form, there are always lots of broken, yet honest and human characters intermingled to lighten the bleakness. Detective Fell himself, who clearly has some skeletons in his closet, casts a ray of hope into otherwise bleak situations, doing his damnedest to correct the few wrongs of the city that he can. He is supported by Mayko, a bartender, and his “its complicated” girlfriend, who understands the pulse of Snowtown but seems to have kept herself above the worst of it. Ellis has this ability to create characters that seem deep and complex (or at least bizarre), and even side characters that he paints with broad strokes seem to have more to them, be it a secretary whose husband left her for a (literal) bitch, a Lieutenant who takes a pharmacopeia of pills to get by the day, or an eerily silent nun wearing a Nixon mask.

Throwing Ellis characters into any bleak situation, you can pretty much expect a good story. Something to raise the spirits, or send you crashing into a morose state, and always leaving you with something to dwell on after you have closed the book. The issues of Fell are no exception, and reading any of the first eight issues will give you a solid story that will leave you impressed. From the first introductory tales that depict the absolute apathy of the majority of Snowtown’s residents, straight on to issue eight’s “a night in the life of” you are rewarded with stories that show society’s darkness and those that stand against it. My favourite Ellis stories are those that depict the absolutely bleak inhumanity of the world and the depravity of the human condition, coupled with tales of individuals who, while not perfect, believe they can make some sort of difference.  Fell is this kind of book.

There is one story that I feel stands out above the others -which is hard in a collection this good- and really demonstrates what Fell is all about. If you only wanted to read one issue, issue seven would be the one I’d point you towards. It’s a fairly straight tale, but with an Ellis bent to it. Detective Fell interviews an alleged murderer and the events are recapped throughout the issue. Straight up stuff, right? And it is. Or would be if it didn’t feature hallucinogenic drugs and Warren Ellis writing. This issue also shows Templesmith at his best. His use of colours to create the mood and atmosphere is spot on, and in line with the best of Templeton’s other works. And while Templesmith likes to work in grid-like panels in Fell, the way he keeps most of the dialogue heavy interview sequences constricted this way creates a wonderful dichotomy when he opens up the page a bit for the event driven sequences. I should also add that my favourite Templeton images always feature his unique blend of greens, yellows and reds in the background, which we get here for two fantastic pages. The art synchs up so well with Ellis’ writing in this story, it makes for a great issue. From cool and subdued beginning, to a fantastic and emotionally wrenching final few pages, issue seven made the book for me.

I find it hard not to just hand a copy of Fell Volume 1 to everyone I know, it’s just that good. You have to be okay with somewhat disturbing subject matter of course, and not everyone loves Templesmith’s art, (crazy as that may sound to me),  but if you can get beyond that ,(or have the refined tastes of someone like myself), this book must be added to your backlog. Or hell, bump it up to the top spot and get reading.