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Frozen Wasteland by Kieran Murphy and J. Augusto Cano
01/07/2008 . Source: RJ Barker 
pub: Arcana Studios. page graphic novel. Price: $12.95 (US). ISBN: 978-0-9763095-8-1. Buy Frozen Wasteland in the USA - or Buy Frozen Wasteland in the UK  check out website: www.arcanacomics.com
America is now an arctic country with all the major cities under a blanket of snow. Civilisation has largely broken down and gangs are starting to take control of the major cities. 'Frozen Wasteland' follows four marines as they travel to various places in the lawless US.
The first story takes place in Los Angeles, the Ultras Zapata gang are near to taking over the city and this cannot be allowed. The four marines are sent to stop the UZ but for one of these marines, Ricky DI Santos, this will mean coming into conflict with his high school sweetheart who now leads the gang.
Funny things graphic novels. I've always preferred the British ones, action-packed and with a nice sense of humour. The American type, lots of standing around discussing plot and feelings, has never rung my bell.
The best thing about graphic novels, for me, is the way the artist can add so much to the writer's story. Kevin O'Neil does this a lot in 'Nemsis The Warlock', there's a tremendous amount going on and real life in the artwork. 'Frozen Wasteland' fails for me on the artwork first. The drawings are utterly lacking in animation and there's no real distinction to the faces. The animation and cleverness of the artist is what turns a
graphic novel from a series of pictures into a flowing, coherent whole. 'Frozen Wasteland' is a series of pictures of identikit hunky men. Fine, if you like that sort of thing.
Of course, a great story and writing can save a graphic novel from death. 'Frozen Wasteland' doesn't have that neither. I had to force myself to read through. The story is tedious and the dialogue is trite. The flashbacks to Ricky DI Santos former love affair made me cringe as they're so riddled with cliché. They're also riddled with typos and grammatical errors that will annoy those with a streak of pedantry.
There's also a huge flaw in this. If the city isn't won back it's going to be bombed. However, the army knows where the leader of the UZ is and the whole mission could be completed with one airstrike. Why bother sending in four marines? This is meant to be 'real', there's no super-powers or super-humans and four marines isn't enough to make a difference to any force. I don't particularly like being overly negative about other people's hard work but I found it very hard to find anything about 'Frozen Wastes' that I liked.
The following three stories follow a similar blueprint, each member of the team meets a figure from their past who has been corrupted by the new weather conditions and the fall of civil behaviour. Like the first story, they also left me cold.
RJ Barker
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