Comic Review: Wynd #1

Wynd #1

BOOM! Studios

Writer: James Tynion IV

Art: Michael Dialynas & Aditya Bidikar

It is hard being a teenager as most of the people who have gone through such a phase in life can attest. Like any other coming of age story, Wynd explores this transition into adulthood with a subtle hint of bitterness added to it. James Tynion IV is joined by once more by Michael Dialynas and talented letterer Aditya Bidikar to bring us what appears to be an engaging new hero’s journey fantasy.

Our titular character, Wynd, has always lived in secrecy at the local tavern at Pipetown. He helps around in the kitchen and sneaks off whenever he can to venture out into the town and watch his crush from afar. What’s complicated is Wynd possesses a magical inheritance in his blood, characterized by his pointy ears. The folk of Pipetown treats people with such traits as monsters, unnatural, dubbing them Weirdbloods. That said, the king brought back to town a character only know as Bandaged Man, who imposes somber energies wherever he appears.

Despite not being familiarized with Tynion’s work (I know, I know..) I could instantly tell he has a perfect hand on the pacing of his script. Wynd #1 starts off with a chilling and, honestly, quite sad, cold opening which comes to show that this story will not be a sweet ride all the time. That said, the comic cuts to the protagonist interacting with his friends in the tavern and it is incredibly heartwarming, especially considering the somber tone we’re just given back at the first few pages. His friends are all very nice and gentle which is awesomely reflected in their designs. Wynd has a crush on the groundskeeper son, who he watches jogging every now and then and it was incredibly relatable how Tynion portrayed that bit. That excitement of just being able to glance at someone you can see your whole life revolving around when you’re younger. Really refreshing stuff I must say.

Both line art and colors are composed by Michael Dialynas (who’s worked with the writer before on The Woods) and there are quite a lot that’s done right. Although Dialynas backgrounds are somewhat plain they fit together really well with his character design which, despite also being more on the minimalist side, stand out with the choice of colors and the amazing care for expression lines given by the artist. A few nips here and there and Dialynas manages to give us a sort of feel to the characters touch. This is blatantly obvious when the tavern owner, Miss Molly, is shown in the very next panel after Titus, the cook who is a big, scarred, fella, is presented to us.

Bidikar’s letters are always nice to read, even if unnoticed at first. Not only he keeps the dialogue going on nicely set bubbles but also helps with the flow of the story throwing in some onomatopoeia seamlessly embodied into the element making the sound and always following the reading flow of the page perfectly, which really just does wonders for immersion, at least for me.

I’m not really a big avid medieval fantasy reader but I really enjoyed reading Wynd. The experience set up by the amazingly assembled cast of professionals really comes across. The fact that every issue is double the length of regular ones also helps as this is a comic you should really enjoy if you take a while, sit down and take it all in.