Age of the Wolf

[Mark Taylor]

I wasn't a fan of the first run of the story, at that stage it seemed to be taking itself a bit too seriously at times and there were certain plot elements and character motivations that just didn't seem to make a great deal of sense (although at least some of these are explained later on). However I did think it picked up and became a great deal more readable from the second part onwards.

[Mark Taylor]

Personally I quite like the artwork as well, although in my ideal universe it would probably be drawn by Fraser Irving or Henry Flint. Obviously both of these would be very different from the actual strip and also from each other, but I can kind of visualise in my mind what they might look like.

[Hawkmumbler]

I have never read part one, but wasn't impressed with part two and was bored stiff with part three. Not a fan, but I do like Jon-Davis Hunts line work even if the colours could do with a bit of work (though I believe that wassomeone else's job, who inked AOW again?).

[The Adventurer]

Jon-Davis Hurt seems to get saddled with the weakest strips. Age of the Wolf SHOULD have been great, it had all the right ingredients. Strong heroine lead, unique scenerio (Werewolf Apocalypse!), great artist, great key visuals. It should have been one of the most important new strips to come out of 2000 AD in the last 5 years.

And yet it all falls right on its face with horrendous pacing and ideas that are never fleshed out far enough.

Honestly, its only real redeeming factor is JDH and its core idea. It deserves a do over.

[Dominic O'Rourke]

I like the idea of a do-over. Maybe a summer special of Do-overs.

[Proudhuff]

[Anzati]

I only finished part 2 last week, but had recently read parts 3 and 1 (in that order) and I really enjoyed it...both story and art. it was one of the stories that I looked forwards to the next part the most as I read through those perticular progs

[TordelBack]

And yet it all falls right on its face with horrendous pacing and ideas that are never fleshed out far enough.

There's an issue with ideas not being explicitly developed, that's true, but I thought the pacing was a real strong point.  There aren't many finite strips that play out over 30 or 40 years, with the central character having all three Maiden - Mother - Crone roles in succession, and still managing to structure this round a healthy dose of chase-plus-confrontation based action in each part.

JDH delivers some superb art in this series, and creates some really memorable images, but I did think he was running out of steam/time in the third part, where sometimes the big 'splodey setpieces didn't seem to get the visuals they deserved (no idea whether this was due to a restrictuve script).  And as noted above, the transformation of the werewolves from their initial muscle-and-teeth AWiL incarnations to a more civilised tech-using form undermined the sense of threat rather than ratcheting it up.  That said, watching his art develop to new heights in this series, and his seeing the whole ambitious thing through to the end with no fill-ins at all, was very impressive.

[WhizzBang]

I just finished reading this today and thoroughly enjoyed it. I came here to see what others thought and am surprised at the toe of this thread. I am not a subscriber so it was all new to me, and as the previous post noted, the pacing was strong point so I enjoyed how it played out.

I wonder if some stories sit better when encountered as a whole rather than being read episodically.

[Skullmo]

I don't like anything with wolves in it.

[Fungus]

I hope it falls into place as a whole. Read only the last arc in the prog and didn't enjoy that with a host of technical mistakes in the storytelling. Sad to say.

However, the collection arrived in the post as a prize from Tharg and I will give it a fair crack. The art style is one that appeals to me - smacks of the wonderful Shawn McManus - and the story itself is fundamentally intriguing and worth running with. I'm encouraged by your comment that it reads well as a whole, Whizzbang. Reading collections or re-reading entire runs is not something I really do so here's hoping.