Writer/Artist: Carla Speed McNeil
Two volumes, collecting FINDER #1-14
Price: $15.95 (volume one), $19.95 US (volume two)
Publisher: Lightspeed Press
ISBN: 0-9673691-0-X (volume one), 0-9673691-1-8 (volume two)

The word best used to describe reading Carla Speed McNeil's FINDER: SIN-EATER for the first time is "overwhelming". It's one of the few truly novelistic comics, in both the story it tells and in the way that it tells it. It's a book that uses the medium of comics to bring to life a world that prose could barely attempt to describe, while simultaneously managing to tell an intimate, character-driven tale.

So what is FINDER, exactly?

It's a (literal) walking tour of a future society, a critique of class structure, a parody of modern life, a penetrating family drama, a tense noir thriller, a Greek tragedy and, on occasion, a comedy.

Plus there's talking cats.

Sprawling? Yes. Chaotic? Yes. Rewarding? Definitely.

"Sin-Eater", FINDER's initial story-arc, is the tale of the many goings-on mentioned above. It was originally chronicled in the first fourteen issues of McNeil's bimonthly book (free samples available at LightSpeedPress.com), and ranks as one of the best science fiction novels in recent years.

(Note the use of the term "science fiction novels", not "science fiction comics". Yeah, it's that good.)

The setting of "Sin-Eater" is Anvard, a domed city in decay that exists at some unknown point in the future. Buildings of all shapes, sizes and styles have been built, demolished and rebuilt into a crazy quilt of urban sprawl. Public television screens randomly invade the privacy of the city's citizens to broadcast their lives to the public. AIs advise people on their daily lives while scheming to convince their owners to upgrade them. Worshippers of the Mayan god Huitzilopochtli sit on street corners with video-headsets, in hopes of capturing violent footage to make into films for public consumption. Cat-people called Nyima wander the city, treated as second-class by many of Anvard's citizens.

Into this world comes Jaeger Ayers, the titular Finder. His people, almost gone now, believe in helping others while remaining apart from them. Jaeger's past is filled with holes, and his present is becoming increasingly complicated.

Emma Grosvenor, an old friend and occasional lover, is in trouble. She's of the Llaverac clan, a decadent clan so female-oriented that even the males have female names and appearances. Unfortunately for her, she fell in love with and married Brigham Grosvenor, a member of the masculine and warlike Medawar clan.

The marriage went badly, and the differences between their two clans proved to be too much both for them and for their children, Rachel, Lynne and Marcie. Brigham, now outcast from his clan, has recently gotten out of prison. He wants to find his family, but after years of physical and psychological abuse, they want nothing to do with him, so Brigham, Jaeger's former commanding officer from his stint in the military, recruits Jaeger to help him.

Jaeger's attempts to help both parties while keeping them apart can't work forever, and may force him to embrace part of his heritage he's always tried to avoid, his role as a "Sin-Eater", who must take on the sins of the guilty ...

While this is the major plotline of "Sin-Eater," it's hardly the entire story. The most important character in the novel isn't Jaeger or the Grosvenors, but Anvard itself. Like Thomas M. Disch's 334 or Gene Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN, FINDER creates a fully-realised world that exists as both a fascinating, detailed future world and as a sly commentary on our society.

Old songs are reconstructed with hilariously inaccurate lyrics. The Llaverac children perform rituals to an old song from the horror classic THE WICKER MAN; later, Emma's performs at a ceremony to the Annie Lennox tune "I Need a Man". Images from every imaginable religion, mythology and culture are strewn throughout the narrative, ranging from Norse to Indian to the entirely new, completely convincing iconography of the Medawar and Llaverac clans.

The characters in FINDER are as complex as the world that surrounds them. Brigham may be half-crazed and dangerous, but there's something touching about his pathetic longing for his family. Emma isn't just a harried single mother, but a woman whose growing detachment from reality may be almost as dangerous to her children as Brigham. And Jaeger himself is a callow, often cruel figure, whose acts of kindness and charity are tempered by his inability to truly connect with those he helps, and to understand the seriousness of the situation around him.

The guiding force behind all of this is writer/artist/publisher Carla Speed McNeil, who, based on her convention appearances, seems to be a relatively normal person, but whose mind is filled with some of the most bizarre and memorable ideas to find their way onto a black-and-white page. She's easily able to make the transition from an elaborate dialogue scene to a haunting silent sequence to a hilarious flashback or monologue, and none of these shifts of scene or tone feel jarring or unnatural; rather, they feel like an organic part of the story, all existing within this unique world.

It's not inconceivable that McNeil automatically knows the names, lives and favourite flavours of ice cream for every last background civilian to appear in a FINDER panel, and the extensive notes in the back of each trade only serve to reinforce this idea. Like David Foster Wallace's INFINITE JEST, McNeil uses the footnotes to explain the backgrounds, subtleties and inspirations for the characters and places. Why does Jaeger call Emma "Mom" at one point? How is it that he dives into a body of water and emerges into a patch of clouds at the bottom? What goes on in the mind of Emma's French-accented AI, Blythe?

The notes provide answers for some, though not all of these questions, and they go a long way toward helping the casual reader find their way through this world. While they don't work all the time (the inclusion of the cover artwork for each chapter in Volume 2 means the notation numbering goes off by a page for each instalment), they remain a fascinating read in themselves, and act as the comics equivalent of a DVD commentary track; it's a shame more creators don't do this.

FINDER is indeed overwhelming, and people who only pick up the first volume of SIN-EATER may be a little confused or frustrated at first. But stick with it - the story pays off in the second half, taking the characters to a climax that's both suspenseful and heart breaking. It's overwhelming, yes, but it's also an intelligent, exciting and often hilarious work that's one of the best science fiction stories in any medium of the last several years. Once you read it, you won't forget it.

FINDER creator Carla Speed McNeil is interviewed on Monday at Ninth Art.

Zack Smith is a writer and journalist.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution by private individuals on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.