First books are hard. You’re figuring out everything on your own, your only help usually being other unpublished writers and/or readers untrained in the editorial arts. First graphic novels are even harder, because not only do you have to figure out the story elements, you also have to master the craft of visual, sequential storytelling.
So a first graphic novel by a solo writer/artist is a herculean labor, and for that reason it’s an extraordinary joy to discover one that is as well-executed and personally moving as Over the Wall by Peter Wartman.
What first caught my eye was the unique worldbuilding—especially his mash-up of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican and south-east Asian styles of architecture that feels both supernatural and solidly grounded in reality. But what drew me into the rest of the book was his solid, simple manner of storytelling: a girl is looking for her lost brother, so lost that he’s even lost his name, and she’s willing to face the demons of an abandoned city to bring him home.
Wartman has gone on to pen a sequel, Stonebreaker, and to draw several issues in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series of comics. He’s a great illustrator, and I wish him many further successes!