4 out of 5

While there’s been a biographical streak throughout Concrete, something about ‘Crete’s journey to Nepal – in ‘Everest: Solo,’ which stretches on for 50+ pages – feels a bit more indulgently travelogue than Chadwick’s other explorations, more focused on snapshots of the environment as opposed to Paul’s (and thus Concrete’s) musings on the same.  When our lead eventually gets to the mountain and quest mentioned in the tale’s title, things shift back to the more preferred format of introspection, and ‘Heights’ settles in to the same genius blend of survivalist tromps, sci-fi, and psychological mutterings that were well on display on the first collection, ‘Depths.’

‘Everest’ is certainly Chadwick stretching his wings, though, trying on the longer format tale (as he mentions in his intro); the other stories collected here are a fraction of the length but have a similar calm pacing, with Paul’s graceful linework, masterful paneling, and Bill Spicer’s thoughtful (and again, calm) lettering letting the verbose script breathe page after page.  The fascinating places to which our creator can take his creations, all within a relatable scope, are ridiculously engaging, in a unique ‘Concrete’ way that somewhat defies proper hype (“…and the concrete dude grows antlers and sits in a chair for several pages…”).  But as that ‘unique’ adjective suggests, such is one of the reasons we’re reading Chadwick’s work, and what makes ‘Heights’ an undeniably excellent addition to any comic library.