When I read that Victor Gischler was writing Sally of the Wasteland, I knew I had to check it out. I recalled his name from two awesome and very different miniseries in Kiss Me Satan and Clown Fatale. Sally of the Wasteland follows more in Clown Fatale’s vein of humor, vulgarity, and at times brutality. It’s an interesting and perhaps even refreshing take on the post-apocalyptic genre with memorable characters and peculiar happenings. The story takes place in Louisiana, 82 years after an unexplained catastrophic event called “the fall.” We quickly meet our main character Sally as she takes down a huge mutant catfish with her trusty shotgun named Bertha. The best way I can try to describe Sally is somewhere in between Lara Croft and Cassie Hack. She works at a dive bar called the Bottom Feeder’s Pub with other survivors. Among these survivors includes Tommy, a guy who can’t take the hint that Sally has a huge crush on him.
One day, a mysterious woman collapses in their bar due to injury and lack of food and water. They find out she was part of a tech salvage team in Omaha, Nebraska and she wants to travel to New Orleans. The crew at the saloon laugh at her and call New Orleans the Forbidden City. However, Kat is adamant on traveling there and claims that there is a power source somewhere to maintain a signal and broadcast it thousands of miles. That would obviously be huge and could potentially restore civilization. The journey there won’t be easy though, as mutant cannibals and “Strangers” among other things wait to tear the crew apart. Some of the crew from the pub including Tommy, Sally, and Captain Sam volunteer to go on the voyage with Kat. Things get off to a rocky start as “crawgators” (exactly as you would guess, mutant crawfish alligators) attack the ship, brutally killing a few members.
From there it just gets weirder and ends so far out in left field you won’t see it coming. The whole time I was reading this debut issue I enjoyed it, but I also felt like there wasn’t a ton of substance. I kind of felt like I was waiting for a really notable event to happen, but it never really hit. I’m okay with that as the buildup was intense and I’m totally hooked for the next issue. I just think the pacing was a bit odd. That’s just a bit of a nit-pick if I had to say anything negative about this book, because there’s a lot to like. The dialogue is serious when it needs to be (I mean this is a post-apocalyptic story after all), but is hilarious at the same time. The action is great, the story is interesting and the art is good. I would definitely recommend this comic to anyone who likes a good post-apocalyptic story but isn’t afraid to not take things too seriously.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Victor Gischler Artist: Tazzio Bettin Publisher: Titan Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 7/30/14 Format: Miniseries; Print/Digital