Press

Northlanders:

"...another creative victory for writer Wood, who's quickly emerging as one the medium's premier scribes. Like his best work, Northlanders takes you into a well-researched, richly realized world that illuminates politics and culture without getting bogged down in history-book stuff... Northlanders [is] Vikings finally done right!" - Entertainment Weekly

"As Brian Wood continues to flesh out his uncharacteristic journey into the sword and sandals genre, Northlanders becomes more and more compelling... This turn of events proves perfectly poetic and continues to push the book into less familiar and more cerebrally intriguing directions." - IGN

"...epic in every way imaginable..." - Boston Now

"Read the first two books for a curve-ball in your regular reading. Wood has a way of presenting street-level stories in a big picture way and Northlanders is no deviation of this. As his vast worlds get larger and larger, you’ll want to know every single little detail of them." - PopCultureShock

"He comes from the land of the ice and snow in the year A.D. 980 and Sven of Orkney is hell-bent on a mission of vengeance to get back the money his uncle stole from him--and that's just the beginning of this frozen Norse saga that's tougher than Conan and bloodier than 300." - Creem Magazine

"..substantial and vibrant... Northlanders is a major work by a serious writer." - CBR

"From verbal stabs to the swing of the axe... momentum always seems to roll towards the last page. This is fiction constructed at its best." - PopCultureShock

"The Cross + The Hammer" seems geared to become [Brian Wood's] most entertaining arc to date... providing even more proof that the author is one of the best character writers in the industry." - IGN

DMZ:

"DMZ [is] the pre-eminent example of a growing fashion for comics and graphic novels about, or inspired by, the Iraq war." - The Independent

". . . Matty [is] one of the best characters in comics. . . . Wood is a tremendous writer. . . .DMZ is unrelentingly angry and mean, smart and shocking. Riccardo Burchielli's artwork is the perfect complement, using simple layouts and a great eye for facial expressions as well as backgrounds to keep the pace up. This is one hell of a collection."

"The DMZ stories manage to combine the tough, thrilling character of golden age war comics with sharp and complex analysis of the big questions underpinning the modern age of politicized, commercialized warfare. DMZ keeps getting better and better." - BoingBoing (2)

"...striking realism... increasingly relevant..." "[DMZ] show[s] how violence and uncertainty effect not only society as whole, but also individuals on a hauntingly personal level." - IGN

"Wood really knocked this one out of the park. This issue is just one, in a line of many, that helps to give the DMZ an uncannily realistic ambience, which is starting to feel to me as plausible as the actual world that we live in. The author has moved past making allegorical statements strictly linked to the struggle in Iraq, and is now taking influence from everything from the revolution of Cuba in the late 1950s, to the role the media played in shaping public opinion during the war in Vietnam. The mirroring of real word events with a worst-case scenario alternate timeline is what really makes DMZ tick" - IGN

"A well-written combination of Sydney Pollack's "The Absence of Malice" and HBO's "The Wire"... an outstanding discourse on the role the media plays during times of political upheaval. ...if this series continues to produce at such a high level, it could easily go down as one of the best Vertigo titles of all time." - IGN

"...so smart, so thought provoking...the perfect mature comic... books like DMZ are the future of the comic book industry" - IGN

"Brian Wood's DMZ-one of the two best new comics about Iraq-offers a potent portrait of a city torn by civil war. But the city isn't Baghdad; it's New York, sometime in the near future." - SLATE

"The series touches on media bias, the often muddied motivations behind war, the fallibility of extreme political ideologies, and the moral ambiguities of survival all while telling a ripping good yarn, with action and suspense that rivals any summer blockbuster or television thriller." - University Library at Illinios

"One of the more thought-provoking and compelling books out there .... DMZ is filled with so many wonderful details that it begs to be adapted for the big screen." - Under The Radar magazine

"There's a war raging in the Middle East, and by that, I mean the East 40s, in fact, in Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's graphic novel, DMZ all of Manhattan is the battleground for a full-on American Civil War. Sounds crazy? Not really. The familiar setting illustrates the realities of the lives affected by war perfectly, and the spin on the media as self-serving and manipulative is more grounded in truth than most of us want to admit. All in all, a testament to the resilience of the indomitable New York spirit. You know, the one we had before all the yuppies and hipsters moved in." - NY PRESS

"The dramatic images recall the nightly news, and stories of warzone life ring true. A-" -ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"Burchielli's outstanding art really sells the story by intensifying familiar urban grunge into a Third-World-like battle zone. . . . This book is a disturbing, challenging success." -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"DMZ brilliantly draws from the current situation in Iraq, but manages to apply the scenarios and stories to an American setting with such subtlety that the reader never feels like a cut and paste job has been done. Instead of a blatant moral tale whose message reads "they're just like us", Woods first shows the reader "us" in the characters and then allows the echoes of real life to serve as a framework that guides the reader to that conclusion and beyond. It is a jarring and effective exercise." -ASTHMATIC KITTY RECORDS

"Looking for the next FABLES or Y: THE LAST MAN? Look no further than... DMZ." -WIZARD MAGAZINE

"There is no shortage of urban war zones on the planet today. On the news, we see plenty of far away cities with bombed-out buildings and debris-covered cities. But what if these cities weren't so far away? What if one of them was Manhattan? These are the questions asked and answered by DMZ." -NEWARK STAR LEDGER

Local:

In Time Out New York

"a rare and enviable thing... painfully easy to enjoy."- GAIL SIMONE

"the coolest short film never shown on the IFC or Sundance Channel." - SEQUENTIAL TART

DEMO:

"The stories in DEMO are incredibly diverse... about the rottenness and the wonder of being young, the endless redemption available and the endless difficulty of achieving it... There isn't a single story here that I didn't love, that didn't make me think, that didn't thud home in my heart" " - BoingBoing

"If you want real drama -- the kind that exposes the unconscious of young adults -- grab this marvelously original book. The 12-story collection, beautifully illustrated by Cloonan, whips us through dreams and nightmares of the newly adult as they venture toward uncertain "Twilight Zone-ish" tomorrows. Daring, bold and gripping." - San Jose Mercury News

"Gone are the supervillains and secret schools, and instead you have the things real teens care about: friends, first loves and the need to get away from everyday life. It's less bombastic than Wood's run a few years back on Marvel's Generation X but it is scarier and much more human than mainstream comics usually dare to be. Grade: A" - VARIETY

"a series of compelling but achingly brief short stories that each introduce extraordinary characters... it's easy to get frustrated that there isn't more." - The Onion

"Forget the faux angst of the X-Men, or Spider-Man's constant whining about the great responsibility that comes with his great power. The kids in Demo, a black-and-white indie comics hit from writer Brian Wood and artist Becky Cloonan, demonstrate what gaining superpowers would really do to person's psyche, sense of well-being or view of the world." - Winston-Salem Journal

"the fantastic throws the routine into relief" - THE VILLAGE VOICE

"There’s nothing superheroic in DEMO. The youngsters don’t join a supergroup to fight crime or seek to solve the world’s problems. The joy of flying is completely lost on them, mainly because they have bigger issues to face. They cope with the regular trials and tribulations most young people face, like feelings of isolation and angst based on dealing with overbearing parents, but also deeper, more disturbing realities. Sometimes deliberately frightening, DEMO treats its subject matter with pathos but still manages to avoid slipping into overblown hysterics or melodrama... Each story within the book is subtle, deliberately paced, and understated --- so it’s all the more surprising when you realize, just after finishing one of them, how much its impact has hammered home. This is what makes DEMO work so well, giving it a resonating emotionalism that makes it relatable on a human (as opposed to superhuman) scale. There’s hardly a wrong note hit throughout." - Book Reporter

"...striking and substantial..." -THE COMICS JOURNAL

"wonderfully different... what the X-Men would be if they were created today." -CBR

"like watching a good piece of indie film" - LIQUID EXPERIMENTS

"Wood creates really mature comics... because his characters find themselves having to grow up and see the world in entirely new ways." - Teen People

"It's that kind of book of short stories: each one sets you up for the next, and it all hangs together in a meaningful way... like a demo tape." - Graphic Novel Review

"Buffy the Vampire fans will be right at home as the problems of teen angst manifest themselves as super-powered metaphors. " IGN.com

Selected for the New York Public Library's "Books For The Teen Age" 2007

Selected for the American Library Association's Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for teens.

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The New York Four:

"Brian Wood has mastered the art of writing female characters." - BUST Magazine

"As in Local and DMZ, indie superstar Wood shows great skill in writing extremely appealing and occasionally infuriating female leads. All four of the college freshmen at the center of this tale are well realized, but it’s shy, sheltered Riley who is the focus of this girlcentric offering. Riley’s life is packed with drama as she meets up with her estranged older sister and struggles to balance school, family, and a mysterious new boyfriend—whom she has never met but texts to the point of obsession. Kelly’s art, filled with expressive, idiosyncratic faces and figures, matches Wood’s indie street cred with gritty depictions of the Lower East Side. He captures actual New York locations with nearly photographic accuracy, matching Wood’s affection for the city, itself made obvious by the passages of hipster, travel-guide stuff packed into the story. Despite a disturbingly ambiguous ending, this graphic novel will delight readers on the cusp of discovering their own independence." - BOOKLIST

"...never hits a false note" - San Jose Mercury News

"truly resonant... real plots... real characters" - Playback

"With Demo, Local, DMZ, and, now, The New York Four, [Brian Wood]'s proving himself able in writing well-rounded youth characters within very different contexts. And when he and Kelly team up you should take notice." - Mondo Magazine