Run Wolf Run
Comic, Jona Li, 42 pgs, ko-fi.com/jona/shop, $25
It’s a classic tale. On prom night, you metamorphosize into a wolf creature and attack another student. Locked in a detention centre, your valedictorian comes and bails you out. You metamorphosize once again and bite off a bit of a guard. Pretty soon you’re on a road trip on the back of a motorcycle, your foolish dalliance into a diner tipping off the waitress, who heard the APB for someone of your description. I went to Catholic school too. I know what it’s like.
Throughout Run Wolf Run, Jona Li’s fine lined artwork is appealing and varied, getting a wide range of emotions out of faces. Likewise, their sense of motion and action, especially during the transformation sequences, has a nice flair to it. You’re always aware where everyone is, and what’s going on. Conversely, and this is likely due to this being a “part 1,” the writing left me wanting a little bit more to chew on. These “young adult narratives with a supernatural slant” situations are the hot item right now, and Run Wolf Run, so far, doesn’t do a lot to break away from convention. This isn’t to say that the piece is relying on tropes, just that, given the current cultural landscape, the dynamics at play here are elsewhere.
Oftentimes a piece of media will do everything right, hit every mark it should, be both technically proficient and visually appealing, all while not really doing anything for you. Run Wolf Run is a well done comic-and printed in nice risograph package to boot- but it’s something to which I don’t really feel is worth howling over.
