Man oh man, sometimes you come upon something, in this case a comic,  and just think “how could I have not known about this before? How could I have even considered myself a fan of the medium?” That’s how I feel about Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder. I honestly hadn’t heard anything about it until Caffeine Powered posted about the release of Finder Library Part 1 (via Dark Horse), the first collection of the comic, which has been independently published since 1996.

Finder Library 1 collects four arcs of the story, Sin-Eater Part 1 & 2, King Of The Cats, and Talisman. You must read it immediately. I got it on Amazon for $13, and it’s over 600 pages, so it’s a complete bargain. Finder takes place in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy world so unique and wholly realized you can’t help but be wrapped up in it. Much like watching Star Wars, or reading Lord Of The Rings, each time I picked up Finder I really felt like I wan entering another place. A funny, whip-smart, beautiful real world. Fuck, Finder is brilliant.

For the most part, it’s centered around Jaeger Ayers, a Finder (think Native American tracker. Sort of.) and his experiences in the domed city of Anvard, and the wastelands surrounding it. Anvard is a massive latticework of buildings, almost entirely filling the magically-propertied dome that encases it. Layer upon layer of city, so massive that most people are only really aware of the section they live it. The population is stratified into clans, who’s individual traits and societies are not only fully thought out by McNeil (from their history to their economics) but also gleefully imaginative and interesting.

Whether it be the Llaveracs, a clan of flaxen haired women (who might not actually all be women) obsessed with youth and art, or the stern mustachioed Medawars, who are in charge of medicine and military and enhance their perception with the application of psychotropic face paint designs,the Nyima, who look like lions and are at war with the tribal Ascians. Jaeger is an outsider who belongs to no clan and restlessly bounces from place to place, life to life. Sin Eater, my favorite arc, involves his interactions with the Grosvenors, a family of half Llaverac, half Medawars.

All of the stories are fascinating, visual and content wise, especially with their world building. But Sin-Eater was also emotionally wrenching, with characters that were so well thought out and realized that they reminded me how utterly fantastic comics can be. In case you can’t already tell, I’m pretty head over heels for this book. The whirlwind story of Jaeger, mentally unstable militiamen patriarch Brigham, schizoid trauma survivor Emma, AI Oracles, and countless other fantastic character’s is pretty much perfect. Buy Finder. Read Finder. Love Finder.

- Whole Milk