What’s the Furthest Place From Here? vol. 1

Writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Tyler Boss broke into the comics industry several years ago with their creator-owned title “4 Kids Walk Into a Bank.”  It was a confident, funny, and stylish miniseries about a group of kids who plan a bank robbery, natch.  I really liked it, even if the ending did go a bit off the rails, and have been waiting for their follow-up ever since.  They’ve finally delivered it with “What’s the Place Furthest From Here?” and it manages to deliver a lot of what I liked about their breakout title while also avoiding a key pitfall that has plagued other series that have delivered super-sized issues in their opening arcs.

This is a series that takes place in the future, but it’s one of those bad futures where civilization as we know it is over.  What makes up the world that we see in this title are gangs of kids who have banded together to survive.  There’s the pig-mask-wearing members of Big Business who live in a bank.  The Boys in Blue, who go around acting like they’re police.  The Carnies who run their own carnival.  There are more, and weirder ones aside from the ones that I’ve mentioned, and above them all are the mysterious Strangers who provide supplies and new members to each group.

There are only a couple enforced rules among each group:  No trespassing and no harboring adults.  That’s right, once you’re old enough you’re exiled from your group and forced to head out into the wastelands.  It’s this particular rule that the record-loving Academy group has found themselves in violation of at the start of this story when one of their old members, Slug, shows up wounded at the front door of their base.

This immediately leads to a confrontation between the Academy and Big Business as the latter has found out that the former is harboring an adult.  While the main forces of both sides are busy throwing down with each other, one of the Academy’s younger members, Sid, has a chance to talk to Slug and finds out something incredible:  The City, the place where you can get anything you want is real, and Slug has been there.

The thing is that this doesn’t immediately lead the members of the Academy on a quest for this mythical place.  No, they wind up following after Sid when she disappears following the post-fight party.  They’re not about to leave one of their own at the mercy of what this world has to offer, but they’re going to have to face off against those same perils if they want to have any chance of bringing her back.

The best thing about “What’s the Place Furthest From Here?” is that its kids actually sound like kids.  Maybe not the kids of today, but they’ve got that profane, inquisitive, quasi-philosophical slant to their dialogue that I found instantly recognizable.  They’re also dumb in familiar ways as well, seen best early on when the Academy and Big Business go back and forth about who actually broke the rules, complete with awkward pauses and huddles.  Most importantly, they don’t come off as small adults, which is something that I found particularly refreshing after suffering through a lot of those on the last few seasons of “The Walking Dead.”

It’s also interesting to see how these kids interact with their world.  While it isn’t specified how long it’s been since civilization has collapsed, the implication is that it has been a very long time.  So long that it appears the kids only have an idea about the groups they’re meant to be imitating and appear to be winging it based on what they’ve heard and seen.  It’s also interesting to note that they’ve got no idea about what money or certain cultural valuables are, based on what we see when they get into a vault.  Or even what pregnancy is, because Sid is very clearly with child.

This leads to a lot of weird encounters with the other groups, particularly the one that lives in a retirement home.  They’ve got a general idea of the kind of people that lived there, what they did, and it’s both darkly comic and, in a couple instances, just plain dark to see play out.  Scenes like this give you the feeling that the world the children inhabit is one big puzzle box full of mysteries to be solved.  That might be frustrating, or even a dealbreaker, for some as it assumes you’re going to be engaged with this world and its characters long enough to wait for answers regarding it to be delivered.  These answers may not be worth waiting for, but I’m engaged enough to be willing to wait for them.

While that’s due to all the factors I’ve mentioned above, it also helps that we get to spend a lot of time with the kids to become more attached to them.  “What’s the Place Furthest From Here?” featured oversized issues for most of its first arc and offering more story pages for any comic regardless of the arc in question would seem to be a winning proposition.  The problem is that the two series that I’ve read who have tried that approach were either bad (“Sacred Creatures”) or a mixed bag (“Ultramega”) and neither have returned (yet) for their second arcs.

I think this series succeeds where those other ones failed is that I actually like what it’s offering more of here.  I enjoyed seeing the characters talk to each other, bicker, and bond and Rosenberg’s dialogue in this regard is generally pretty sharp.  Boss’ art is also very solid with its minimalist style.  He’s not one for excessive detail, but that’s fine as he communicates that this is a world that has moved on quite well.  The artist’s design sense for the different groups the kids are a part of is also stylish and he’s good about making each member of the title’s very large cast recognizably distinct.  Boss’ work may not be flashy, but his storytelling is very much on point and helps to draw you further into this world.

In fact, I’m already a little disappointed to think that vol. 2 is just going to collect regular-sized issues of this series.  I’d love it if each volume was as thick (248 pages) as this one is, but it’s probably for the best that Rosenberg and Boss pace themselves for the long run.  This was a very strong start for “What’s the Place Furthest From Here?” and I’d love to see it run as long as its creators intend it to.