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Written by Jason Green Friday, 25 August 2006 02:00

The second volume, collecting issues #7-12, wastes no time kicking into action, opening with the lone bridge out of town collapsing into the river below and killing dozens of townspeople in the process. (Image Comics; 152 pgs. FC; $14.99)

(W: Joshua Luna, A: Jonathan Luna)

(Click here to read Jason's review of Girls Vol. 1: Conception)

In comics, the cliffhanger ending is becoming a lost art, many writers seemingly content to chop their overly decompressed stories into 22-page chunks with little regard for leaving readers on the edge of their seat. Not so with the Luna Brothers' magnificent Girls, a book whose nailbiting cliffhangers each month make the 30-day wait between issues seem like an eternity.

Girls is a survival horror book akin to Image's smash-hit The Walking Dead, the zombies replaced in this case by a murderous horde of gorgeous naked women. The women have invaded the rural hamlet of Pennystown, where they mysteriously seek only to kill the village's female populace. The series' first volume ended with our protagonists discovering themselves surrounded by an invisible barrier encircling the entire town, trapped.

The second volume, collecting issues #7-12, wastes no time kicking into action, opening with the lone bridge out of town collapsing into the river below and killing dozens of townspeople in the process. The survivors retreat to the nearby McCallister house to regroup, where tensions run high among those barricaded inside, most notably between the twentysomething protagonist Ethan and his ex-girlfriend Taylor. Meanwhile, a small group of men led by Wes, the overwhelmed town sheriff, head out to find out more about a situation that becomes more terrifying with each turn of the page.

Writer Joshua Luna's pacing is incredible. Handling both the script and layouts, his naturalistic dialogue grounds the series in reality, yet his flawless timing builds tension with remarkable ease. When a right hand page ends with the characters looking on in silent shock, it becomes excruciating to turn the pages, almost as if as a reader you are as much condemning these characters to their fate as the writer is. Jonathan Luna's finished art is slick and highly polished, most notably his coloring, which has the appearance of animation cel-shading. This particular volume gives him a chance to really shine, particularly in the chapters that take place at night and the early morning dawn. His thin-line ink style, however, is more of an acquired taste, and his skill with character faces seems to have dimmed a bit in this volume, likely due to producing both Girls and the recent Spider-Woman: Origin mini-series simultaneously. These minor quibbles, however, are not enough to detract from the book overall.

A finite series that is now approximately at its halfway point, Girls is a thrilling sci-fi mystery series where each chapter leaves the reader desperate for more. This excellent second volume is no exception.