The World Below [Paperback]

Paul Chadwick (Author, Artist), Ron Randall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2007

Fifteen years ago, from a hole in the ground in rural Washington, a tiny flying machine emerged and Charles Hoy found it. From all appearances, this small vehicle wasn't built with any existing human technology and Hoy made a fortune selling that technology to the first eager customer. Now with his fortunes dwindling and his curiosity piqued with more than a decade of questioning, Hoy has hired a team of adventurers to enter this vast, underground realm in hopes of bringing back even greater discoveries. But while the team expects the unexpected and is prepared for danger, nothing they can imagine will prepare them for The World Below.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chadwick's works, like his well-known Concrete, have always maintained a fiercely individual slant, but this collection of his two miniseries raids the back catalogues of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, the Challengers of the Unknown and a plethora of underground exploration yarns. Chadwick sends "the Team of Six" into a hostile subterranean landscape replete with horrific monsters, strange natural phenomena, incredible technologies and lost civilizations with predictable results. The characters are much better written than what's usually seen in team books, with a story often interrupted by some random, oddball threat that is usually solved with a bout of action or a firefight. The action set pieces are quite lively, thanks to the author's no-nonsense artwork. It's clear that Chadwick was trying to develop a piece that would yield narrative rewards if given time to find its audience and thrive. However, the series was ended early, necessitating a rapid conclusion that solves most of the plot threads, resulting in an engagingly illustrated, deeply flawed but interesting curiosity. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In 1998 Chadwick took a break from chronicling his signature hero, Concrete, to take on a more conventional adventure. The World Below follows a team of six hired to explore a series of underground caverns containing potentially lucrative alien technology--and also bizarre creatures. As Chadwick's introduction notes, it's something of a precursor to Lost, featuring a disparate group thrust into a mysterious, menacing environment and incorporating flashbacks gradually revealing the cast's backstories. If the fantastic beings Chadwick conjures up are compellingly imaginative, and the action is gripping, the characters never really come to life. Lackluster sales that forced him to wrap up the story line rather abruptly when the title was cancelled didn't help, either. Chadwick kept the tale interesting by peppering it with philosophizing a la Concrete, and his highly wrought drawing and adept page design are as effective as ever. It's no match for Concrete, but 99 percent of other comics aren't, either, so that's no reason not to enjoy this lesser work's modestly successful blend of derring-do and thoughtfulness. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (February 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593073607
• ISBN-13: 978-1593073602
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,076,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Neat idea, but fairly mediocre, August 13, 2007

By 

Andrew Otwell "heyotwell" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World Below (Paperback)

Maybe it's not really fair to criticize this book, since TWB was meant to be a long series, and was hastily truncated to six episodes. It's a fun idea: an alien world is discovered beneath the earth, and a team is sent to bring back valuable technology. But the writing's uneven, it can't quite decide if it's a potboiler serial adventure or something else. None of the characters amount to much in the six episodes, and the underground universe is just barely fleshed out by the end, and the series ending feels completely dashed off.

Still, it's a quick and fun read with some exciting and clever parts, and some great drawing, especially some of the second- or third-string alien creatures.

5.0 out of 5 stars Killed too soon..., December 8, 2010

By 

Jared Prophet (Portland Oregon) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World Below (Paperback)

I read these when they first came out, over 10 years ago. Fun and exciting. Paul Chadwick came up with some fascinating non-standard monster designs. The characters are intriguing. The situations are generally unexpected and the Peril is palpable. Fun read. I didn't manage to get the final issue back then, and was unable to find one, so I bought this collection. Solid purchase.

Concrete has never been my thing so it is my hope that Paul Chadwick might someday return to Action/Adventure and create a new series. Maybe in a digital cbr/cbz downloadable format to eliminate the manufacturing costs so it can't get killed by bean counters.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great adventure sci-fi story, October 20, 2010

By 

ComputerPROs & Comic Books - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World Below (Paperback)

This was a superb graphic novel. Reminds me of Jules Vernes. Feels like a classic sci-fi adventure and features wonderful evocative artwork by the great Paul Chadwick. Such imagination. It spurred me to take up spelunking. Highly recommend for adventure-minded readers.