The Field #3: Review

Yeah, it’s true: this series opened with a half-naked man running through a field, being chased down by a gun-toting fundamentalist aptly named Christian. And now with issue #3, things have gotten even weirder.

Here’s the official word from Image:

Our protagonist faces down Christian, the ex-bible salesman turned hedonist, to find out what’s really going on. The Smoke Eaters square off against the Tomorrow Men for the right to kill our plucky hero. Blood! Murder! Mayhem! Bikers and cosplayers fighting to the death!

Kudos to writer Ed Brisson for pacing this four-issue limited series just perfectly. Each previous issue has added just enough clarity to keep readers going, but not enough to ruin the utter oddity and mystery of this book. For those of you new to this title The Field follows a hero simply known as “The Source” as he tries to evade a biker gang that seems intent of killing him. And now, after two issues where Christian’s motives for helping our hero have been a bit vague, we get a *major* reveal which propels us neatly into the final act. For those of you who’ve been following this series, all I’ll say is this: the reveal is big. And strange. And fits perfectly. It’s true that big reveals can sometimes feel like lazy writing because everything suddenly makes sense, but not here. Yes, it makes sense, but it’s far from lazy. Rather, Brisson has pushed the envelope of innovation.

Simon Gough’s artwork continues to be commanding, rich and fun. A blend between old-fashioned cartoons and hyper-realism, he’s found a knack for capturing the insane mood of this book — especially the gory parts. While some of his initial illustrations felt stiff, he’s really found his groove with issue #3.

The Field is crazy fun. Go read this thing.