ECHOL ANDS
Great Wide Hope
★★★★★
► RELEASED OUT NOW!
► Publisher Image Comics
► Writers JH Williams III, W Haden Blackman
► Artist JH Williams III
ISSUES 1-3 Print vs digital has been a big debate in the comics world for years, often coming down to a mix of convenience or personal taste – but certain comics demand to be read in print, and the latest example is the fantasy epic Echolands.
This new ongoing series hails from writer/artist JH Williams III, who’s spent most of his career upending traditional comic-book visual storytelling with his painterly, detailed art. Promethea, Batwoman and Sandman Overture all showcased Williams’s wildly experimental approach, with the action portrayed almost entirely in beautiful, inventively designed double-page spreads.
Now Williams (along with his Batwoman co-writer W Haden Blackman) is telling the story of Hope, a Red Riding Hood-esque thief in a crowded, mixed-up realm where magic, technology and mythology all live side by side. Having stolen a mysterious gem from an evil wizard, Hope and her friends are forced on the run, and these first three issues barely pause for breath between eyeopening action sequences and bursts of grisly violence.