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Jun 05, 2015 Web Exclusive By Zach Hollwedel

The post-apocalyptic world is an incredibly bleak and dreary place in Josh Simmons’ latest graphic novel, Black River. In less than 110 pages, Simmons creates a dismal, hopeless world, in which humanity has lost its principles, its scruples, and any sense of real hope. Amid the desolate landscape, a group of women and one man wander, essentially directionless, trying to survive the cold, as well as the other people they encounter. Everyone in this world is afflicted by an itchy trigger finger. Life means little—or nothing—to most, and the roving band of women are particularly sought after targets. Men dominate the world, and the few surviving women are at constant risk of capture, assault, and worse by the lusty, sex-starved males who take life as readily as they eat or sleep.

Simmons’ take on the end of the world—fittingly illustrated entirely in black and white—is gruesome and brutal. Not for the squeamish-and for mature readers only—it is a tale of our biological response to our looming demise. Even when life is at its most despairing and unconquerable, we persist. We march forward. We fight. The only other option is to lie down and die. The women in Simmons’ book (mostly) refuse to do so. This is a tale of their continued perseverance, even in the face of a grim and miserable future. Yet, “mostly” is the key. Simmons chooses not to shy away from cases in which hopelessness can get the better of us. Not all of his women choose to sally forth. For some, the dreariness is too much; the option that ends it all is the only viable one. Black River might prove too disheartening, its world too irredeemable for some readers, but for fans of such melancholic end of world scenarios as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, it is sure to be a dark and grim treat. (www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/black-river-.html)

Author rating: 6.5/10