When I saw the first issue of Warren Elli’s TREES on the shelf one new comic day in 2014, it took less than a quarter of a second to decide I was buying this book. And I didn’t regret that decision for a moment, because this book combines three things I love: comics, aliens, and Warren Ellis.
The title is set ten years after the aliens have landed. At least, we think they’re aliens. Honestly, we’re not sure. They come from space. They are hundreds of feet tall. That stand silently upon the earth. They do nothing, they say nothing. They’re just like monolithic poles sticking up out of the ground. People call them trees.
In all the time they’ve been here, they’ve never acknowledged humanity. They’ve never moved. Nothing has ever emerged from inside one. Every so often they spill their waste on the ground where its left to destroy everything in its path. But other than that, they’ve left humanity alone.
If only that indifference were a mutual feeling.
Volume 1: In Shadow, tells the story of several characters living in a world affected by the Trees.
Tian Chenglei is a young painter from a small village who has just moved to the “special cultural zone” of an Asian city near one of the Trees. He’s unsure of the world, feeling like an alien himself, newly landed and alone. He meets up with a young transgender woman who finally, for the first time in Chenglei’s life, makes him feel like he belongs somewhere.
In Italy, Eligia’s boyfriend Tito runs a gang that keeps the town of Cefalu under its thumb until an old man offers to educate her in how the take care of herself without having to rely on the abusive Tito.
And at an arctic research station, Marsh discovers small plants growing near a Tree located by their station. His colleagues want to think it’s nothing, but Marsh knows there’s no possible way these particular flowers could be here. He studies them further and comes to the realization that they might be linked to the Tree in a more intimate way.
Originally, I was reading this series month to month as the issues came out, but I soon found it difficult to grasp from issue to issue. And then when my local shop stopped getting it, I decided to just read it collected in trade, and that really opened the story to me in a whole new way. Connections were made, arcs were revealed, and the book just took on a deeper meaning.
Ellis has never shied away from tackling difficult topics and from what I’ve read, he’s never been one to write down to his audience. TREES is no different. This isn’t some action-packed shoot-em-up with lots of chase scenes and one-liners. TREES is a serious look at some deep subjects, and all with the backdrop of this incredibly mysterious and very frightening thing always looming over the characters. He looks not just at how the people are affected by the Trees and the implication they bring with them, but also at how the world as a whole has moved since they landed.
And then there’s the climax. What a way to end the first arc. If the end to this first collection insures nothing else, it insures I’ll be getting issue #9 when it comes out, even if I have to read it digitally, because there’s no way in the world I’m waiting 8 months for another trade to see what happened next. Those last 16 pages changed every single thing Ellis had set up in the previous pages and I’m dying for more.
But let me not ignore the art by Jason Howard. I never thought I would see someone who was able to make a stick in the ground look so terrifying. Howard gives the Trees a foreboding and a presence that is somehow both grand and intimate at the same time. And while Ellis lets several pages of panels go by in a row with no dialogue, Jason Howard’s art tells the story wonderfully on its own.
I hope Howard is on the book for as long as it runs as his pencils marry so well to Ellis’s words, giving TREES a very unique look among all the other comics that come out every month.
I recommend TREES Vol. 1: In Shadow to anyone who loves a good read and isn’t afraid of a book that’s smarter than they are.
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About the author
Off to a good start
Big Warren Ellis fan, and this has all his trademark paranoia elements, but slower paced than other works I've read. Art is decent, but a bit confusing in some frames. Overall good read, though don't expect any major answers in volume 1
Top reviews from other countries
Alice Moss
Can't wait to read more!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2017
Uatu
Un comienzo prometedor
Reviewed in Spain on October 20, 2015
Uatu
Reviewed in Spain on October 20, 2015
Acompaña la historia un competente Jason Howard capaz de aportar detalle y grandiosidad o narrativa y dinamismo según lo requiera la página. Dotar de fuerza una conversación alrededor de una mesa de comedor o plasmar la enormidad de los "arboles" que se han adueñado del planeta alrededor del Cristo de Corcovado.
Para mi un comienzo interesante de los que invita a seguir leyendo para averiguar donde nos llevará...
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