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Hinterkind #1 Review

By Andy Frisk
October 6, 2013 - 21:49

Ever since "the fall" mankind has had to scrape out a hard existence against the forces of Mother Nature, both natural and hyper-natural. Cities are overgrown with foliage, and strange beasts stalk the areas outside their safe zones. When a colony residing in New York City's Central Park loses contact with a fellow human colony in Albany, NY contact must be reestablished in person. There are dangers lurking in the overgrown city and its outskirts though that defy belief...

From writer Ian Edginton (2000 AD) comes yet another post apocalyptic tale where nature has overthrown it's human masters and reclaimed the concrete jungles of Earth. The setting of Hinterkind resembles that of Revolution, the NBC series, but is populated with sentient fairytale creatures (like talking horses with horns and gun toting, punk rock dressing fairies) and the, sure to be hapless, humans who have banded together to weather "the fall." That's what Edginton refers to the apocalyptic event as: "the fall." He doesn't elaborate upon how the world got this way or why there are talking animals and other weird six armed giants running around. This is the only thing that keeps this seemingly formulaic tale alive. That and the two young characters that Edginton introduces as the series' protagonists. They are sharp, fun, and the mystery of what is going on around them hits home very particularly and very personally for one of the two. The mystery of just what the heck happened to civilization and where these crazy animals are coming from coupled with the two main characters might be enough to carry this series.

Another thing that might help this series along is its blatant eschewing of any type of hippie ethic or moralizing about how bad humans are treating the natural environment. In fact in the first few pages of issue #1 the graphic slaying of a zebra for sustenance occurs. This is no hippie dream scenario. Nature is cruel, deadly, and a force to fight against, not preserve. Artist Francesco Trifogli makes this point very clear with his graphically violent pencil work. Remember the strange talking, horn headed horse? He lasts only a few panels before his head explodes at the receiving end of a pistol shot from the aforementioned punk rock fairy. Yeah, this is weird stuff.

Where Vertigo has been concerned over the decades though, weird stuff usually translates into interesting stuff. Hinterkind is definitely weird and interesting, but will yet another apocalypse by nature story capture enough attention, and therefore readers, to warrant a long life? Only time will tell.ell.

Rating: 8 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12