5 out of 5

On my Wiebe kick lately, I’m so happy to have found his early book ‘Snow Angel,’ on the generally irrelevant Arcana imprint, illustrated by his Peter Panzerfaust partner in crime Tyler Jenkins.

I’ve been enthused about Wieve out the whazoo lately, even needing to write him an e-mail recently to tell him how much of his work I’ve been devouring with pleasure.  It’s probably insulting to say that an early work is the best thing I’ve read so far, but Snow Angel… is the best thing I’ve read so far by Wiebe.  There are three big elements to that – the compact nature of the story, the fact that it didn’t have to be issue-ized pacing-wise, and that Tyler Jenkins art is colored and drawn with frenetic, masterful skill.  He displays the same energy in Panzerfaust, but the large tableau of that story makes some bigger action moments a bit difficult to sift through, whereas Snow Angel’s more insular tale is much easier for Jenkins’ pen to capture.

A gangster’s daughter, raised into the profession.  That’s your story.  It’s not a new concept, and Wiebe doesn’t push the plot in any mind-blowing direction, but what he thus far has ALWAYS done well is find that perfect balance between honesty and emotion, where we can absolutely relate to our leads but aren’t pushed out by the writer’s need to find some poignant point to make or to over-write it.  Wiebe keeps it simple but true, moving the thoughts forward, moving the story forward.  ‘Angel,’ the daughter, has so much to prove to dad, but its mingled with the same rebellious teenage spirit that brought us all to make poor decisions at a time.  You can imagine how that might have more dire consequences when you’re a gangster.  This percolates into a really badass gunfight at one point, just expertly energized by Jenkins.  Color has also played a big part in setting the mood in Wiebe’s books, and Snow Angel is, yet again, a prime example of this, the pages cast in solid yellows or oranges, only our black pencil/ink lines and shadows delineating space from emptiness from characters.  This type of focus works for this book on all levels.

I really do recommend all that I’ve read from Wiebe so far, but Snow Angel is a perfect encapsulation of all of Kurtis’s many talents.