Broken Frontier

Global warming has led to catastrophe and now the human race struggles to survive in a hostile, frozen environment.

Back in the 1980’s post-apocalyptic stories were all the rage. Then, however, the apocalypse was usually nuclear in nature. This time around writer David DiGilio has chosen to make the end of society a result of man’s abuse of nature. Despite the change in venue, does North Wind really offer anything different from other post-apocalyptic stories?

In the not-too-distant future global warming causes much of the Earth to cool and then begin to freeze. Mankind makes its way to the slender now temperate zones at the equator and, when wars break out over the scarce resources there, even those areas become uninhabitable. Man is forced to live in a hostile, frigid, wasteland and as time passes some stand and some fall. We meet a small community living around the Santa Monica Pier in California. Young Pak already plots to become a good hunter and to one day replace his mother as leader of their community. His friend Schuyler is not as sure. It is a complicated world now – one where anyone may turn on anyone else at a moment’s notice and Pak, his mother, and their home just might become victims of others’ greed. Unless, of course, a mysterious hunter has anything to say about it.

Despite the somewhat familiarity of the plot, writer DiGilio manages to give North Wind an interesting look and feel. By setting the story in California it allows him to turn the land of sunshine, citrus, and dreams into a bleak and hostile landscape. He also convincingly creates a world where heat – any source of heat or ability to create heat – has become a commodity. There is frank discussion of denuding Los Angeles’ libraries and burning the books, not for their content but merely to keep warm. The idea is inventive, chillingly logical, and staggering to imagine. Likewise, all of the characters here come alive with solid dialogue that mixes the familiar with some new slang terms. It is amusing to see that, in this hostile environment, Mother Nature has now, apparently, become a curse word.

Part of bringing this world to life lies in the work of artist Alex Cal; his designs have an almost painted quality to them and his people look truly realistic. The mysterious hunter, for example, is a masterpiece of the weather-worn face of a man who is no longer young but not old yet either. For many comic book artists this middle age often seems hard to capture. Most artists can draw youth or old age but rarely accurately capture the time in between. Cal also has obviously considered what places like Santa Monica and Los Angeles would look like half-buried under ice and snow and presents a believable portrait.

DiGilio has given a lot of thought to his characters and their world and it shows. While all the usual baggage of post-apocalyptic stories is here, North Wind manages to brush them off and represent them in not really a different manner but with a lot of heart.