Most mornings when I check my emails it’s spam of the fake SEO and Viagra variety, but on occasion someone will send me something interesting. Recently this happened in the form of a link to Tangled Weeds by Lee Milewski, a three part science fiction tale of survival.
Tangled Weeds tells the story of an expedition party who have travelled to the planet “Emma 7” in an attempt to find the Jinsei Pod, desired for its healing attributes. Through the perspective of science officer, Violet Deckard, the group must defend themselves against the horrors that the planet has thrown at them, resulting in plenty of action. Was visiting this planet a mistake? And what horrors lurk throughout this grim planet?
Instead of dialogue, Tangled Weeds is told through narration which acts like a journal. This journal aspect is how we learn more about Violet’s fear, motivations and struggle for survival. It works well at progressing the story but is also used for exposition when needed.
Lee’s style reminiscent of Mike Mignola, especially when it comes to the use of thick line and heavy blacks. Within the context of Tangled Weeds this works rather well as it helps set a dark, alien world that has all kinds of unknown horrors hiding in the shadow. The muted colours also help set the tone and make the world look more alien. Similar to Mignola, the characters have slight geometric features. While this will not be everyone’s cup of tea, I believe it works well in creating something that distinguishes itself from other comics.
Lee has opted for mostly large panels and page spreads to tell his story, with many pages having inset panels during action scenes. This speeds up the pace of the comic, making the action frantic and feel like it has larger stakes. During moments of exploration the panels tend to be larger, which allows the reader to explore this alien world as if you were part of the expedition.
If I had to have a criticism for Tangled Weeds it would be the way onamonapia has been displayed. I feel like a different font or drawing them into the art work would have been more appropriate for this particular series.
Overall, Tangled Weeds is an enjoyable three part series that shows the struggle of survival quite well. If you are a fan of movies like the Aliens series then you will most likely enjoy Tangled Weeds.
Tangled Weeds on Kickstarter
Currently Tangled Weeds is on Kickstarter attempting to raise funds for a printed collection. If you enjoyed this free comic you might want to pledge to receive one of the many incentives including a print version of the series, original art pages, prints and more.
You can view the progress of this campaign below.
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