Farmhand #2by Sheena McNeilReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 8 Zeke's past comes back to haunt him, he has terrible job interviews, and he gets caught up in the dangerous world of the family business. Zeke's kids have a rough day at school, but his son is saved for no apparent reason by an unusual kid. Zeke's wife meets a strange woman who gives her some strange mint. Meanwhile, Jed helps a patient and gets a distressed call from another.This issue is quite full of different angles as it tries to follow all the main (and almost main) characters at once. It does a fairly good job of balancing them while building the mystery, danger, and all-around weird happenings. The opening is a series of panels that give us a quick-n-dirty history of Zeke that is insightful on a few levels; plus, it ends with a trouble from the past, which is just the complication Zeke was not looking for in this move home. While I'm curious about Zeke's past, I'm more curious about the woman his wife meets. I have quite the suspicion, but talk about opening a can of worms! And it makes me more than a little worried for Zeke's family. I'm also a bit shocked that his wife didn't notice what we readers were obviously supposed to notice. Zeke's job interviews are hilariously terrible. The story spends one panel on each before moving to the much more plot-important interaction with a worker at Jed's farm and some hired thugs. Things are definitely much worse and much more dangerous than I gathered from the first issue. This interaction, while highly stylized, is still real-world scary as the two men are forced into the trunk of a car, filled with things that include "random tools for torture", by mercenaries with guns. Rob Guillory tries very hard to infuse the scene with humor, but this is a different type of horror than the rest within this series. The rescue introduces a new character, a pastor, who may bring in a new angle to the overall plot. I look forward to finding out. The scene where Jed gives a patient a new nose from his garden is both funny and scary, especially after we see what prompts the distress from a former patient as the cliffhanger. Still, having it be a nose provides more humor than anything else. The school scenes are insightful into the two kids' personalities. The rescuer is crazy-fast, but he also walks off without a word to anyone, seemingly mad or annoyed. So, I'm confused. The son's reaction is funny and fitting, but why didn't this mystery kid help any of the other kids getting bullied? And why the odd reaction after saving him? It doesn't add up. There are lots of fun details in the art that help me enjoy the read even more. This issue is a lot of stage-setting, which I'm okay with given how great the hook was in the first issue (and that it continues along that line to further hook us with the scenes with Jed). If you're looking for something different to read -- something for zombie fans with weird science, danger, and mystery -- this comic is for you! Written: August 26, 2018
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