The Winter Men [Paperback]

Brett Lewis (Author), John Paul Leon (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2009

In the modern, post-collapse Soviet Union, criminal gangs rule under the aegis of a crumbled government, and old soldiers roam the streets...as do old superheroes. One such man is Kris Kalenov, a former member of the Russian elite military force 'Red 11', now a Moscow policeman. Caught up in a kidnapping case, Kalenov encounters the dark heart of the New Russia at every turn, bringing him into conflict and allegiance with friends and enemies alike as he searches for both a missing girl, and the secret of the Soviet super-project codenamed 'Winter'. Author Brett Lewis and artist John Paul Leon ("Static") present a tour-de-force graphic novel soaked in vodka, blood and sweat. Warning: This title is for adults only!

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Lewis and Leon postulate that the Soviet Union developed a supersoldier before it imploded—just one, which was abetted with special forces individually encased in “rocket-tanks”; the “tankmen,” it’s hinted, were biotechnologically enhanced, too. The supersoldier disappeared, but five former tankmen remain. Kris Kalenov, now one of Moscow’s finest, gets specially assigned by the mayor when a little girl with a transplanted liver is kidnapped. The organ confers some supercapabilities on the child, including being able, when grown, to bear a supersoldier, thereby launching a new race. Kris contacts fellow ex-tankmen Drost, an army “rapid reaction corps” commander; disarmingly gorgeous bodyguard Nina; and Nikki, a gangster, and the game’s afoot. Played out in the context of “Mafiya” gang warfare and ex–secret police faction-fighting, it’s graveyard-humorous, lethally tough, and curiously sluggish; its best sequence is an interlude in which Kris takes Nikki along for a day of ordinary police work just for, uh, laughs. Leon’s glorious, mercurial comics-realist artwork almost completely compensates for the script’s lack of zest. --Ray Olson

Review

"A book with a singular voice and style the likes of which I've not seen for a long time." - AintItCool.com "[an] intense mixture of black humour and pathos... Lewis has located this powerful metaphoric aspect of genre fiction and uses it to great effect" - ComicsBulletin.com "About the best pair of creators I've seen teamed up on a book in a long time" - ComicCritique.com "The kind of stealthy, striking series that'll be passed around by word-of-mouth, dug up in bargain bins, feted across the fandom conversations of years to come." - Joe McCullough, JogLikesComics" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: WildStorm (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401225268
• ISBN-13: 978-1401225261
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.4 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #862,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absoluteley astounding piece of work, January 6, 2010

By 

DvdWhore (El Paso, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Winter Men (Paperback)

Buy this book now! Seriously. This is one of the greatest stories that I have ever read. In any genre. In any medium. And I have read thousands. This is simply amazing. Seriously I don't even know where to begin. I guess to oversimplify it I would call it a Russian version of Watchmen. Every line drips with poetry. Every page has striking imagery. Every character is a real person, complex and layered just like the story. These are master storytellers going at full throttle and without compromise. Be warned, this is not for little kids. It is dark, complex, filled with social commentary, black humor, lots of sex and violence, and not for one instant does any of it feel forced or done for shock value.These creators are trying to give you a glimpse of a modern Russia where gangsters, politicians, cops, intelligence officers, soldiers, mercenaries, and businessmen are all but indistinguishable from each other in there never ending cutthroat battles and manipulations for power. Strategies. Alliances. Betrayals. Conspiracies within conspiracies are the norm here. And caught in the middle is Kris. A former soldier who starts off trying to solve a kidnapping case and quickly gets sucked into much larger schemes that include everything from new Russian Mafya to secret government super soldier programs. The paranoia never stops and the killing never slows. This is a dark and dangerous world they have created and the truly disturbing part is how much like our own it resembles. It is a masterpiece.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than a comic book, March 4, 2010

By 

Mark J. Chiarello "ChiarelloLaw.com" (Winston Salem, NC) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Winter Men (Paperback)

I have never had any particular interest in the comic book as an art form, but this completely changed my perspective. On a recommendation I acquired the soft bound compilation of the whole series. Read as a whole it is an absorbing story. I was astounded by Lewis's ability to convey a rich and nuanced narrative in so few words. You owe it to yourself to experience this gritty post-Soviet haiku.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NASTROVIA, March 4, 2010

By 

NY Neuro (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Winter Men (Paperback)

As someone without a lot of experience with graphic novels I have to say The Winter Men is proof that I've been missing out. The writing is action packed, funny and above all else smart. The art really brings the reader to a whole new level of interaction with the plot. I was blown away and will be looking for more from this genre. Keep em coming.