The contrast between the normal world and the world of the Spill Zone is shocking. The colors are stunning throughout, as well.

It’s vibrant and exciting, even in the book’s quietest moments. Seeing Addie race through the streets on her motorcycle all the while pursued by a giant wolf demon is intense. The artwork in Spill Zone is exciting and kinetic as Puvilland crafts action scenes that leap off the page. It gets more complicated as the book carries on–a small enchanted doll certainly adds a big wrinkle–but at the core, Spill Zone remains about Addie and her sister.Īlex Puvilland’s contributions to the graphic novel cannot be understated. That’s not what the story is about it’s about survival and family. While this is only the first book in a planned series, it’d be just fine if we never found out the exact details of the incident. It’s enough to know that Addie lost everything (except for her younger sister) in the disaster that created the Spill Zone. The writer Scott Westerfeld is more concerned with characters, and Spill Zone is stronger for it. The mysteries of the Spill Zone stay mysteries.

It’s dangerous work, but you get the sense that Addie is drawn to it. She sells these pictures to collectors and uses the cash to support herself and her sister. Armed with a camera, she rides her motorcycle into the Spill Zone and captures images of the horrors, and occasional beauties, that now inhabit the town. This is where the book’s main character, Addie, comes in. The town is cut off and abandoned, stuck within a perimeter set up by the army.

The town’s former residents float around like they are suspended on invisible meathooks and strange, possessed creatures roam the streets. The exact ins and outs of this accident are unknown, but something was spilled and horrors have been unleashed. The story of the Spill Zone centers on two orphans living outside of a town that suffered a catastrophic event. They constantly leave you wanting more in the best possible way. A book like this could easily get bogged down trying to explain too many things, trying to make sense of the horrors, but Westerfeld and Puvilland only give you enough to information to turn the page. The book moves fast and lets you fill in the details instead of wallowing in them. The strength of Spill Zone, the new graphic novel by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland, is in what it doesn’t tell you.

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