Manifest Destiny, Volume 8 Paperback – 31 January 2023

Manifest destiny is quite literally my favorite graphic novel series of all time.The writing by Chris dingess is impeccable, the way the you can feel the length of the entire journey, and feel the same emotion as the characters, and put yourself into this world, it's fantastic.By far my favorite things in the series are the creatures. Every single one feels so real and absolutely terrifying, even the ones with such little time on page. Matthew Roberts is one of my favorite artists of all time, the way he draws the scenery, the plants, the animals, more than once I was just amazed. I can stare at this book for hours.The coloring elevates the already stunning line work, owen gieni has this beautiful sweeping color pallet that makes this world all the more insane and beautiful.Pat brosseau does a fantastic job on lettering, the journal entries look stunning.Thank you, Chris dingess, Matthew Roberts, Owen gieni, and pat brosseau.I eagerly await what books your future holds.

Eight and final volume of paperbacks collecting issues of the comic series 'Manifest Destiny.' Which mixes the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition with monsters.This contains issues forty three to forty eight of the series. Which was the end of the run and the end of the story. Therefore it's not a jumping on point. New readers start with book one.Strong language and violence make it a comic just for the grown ups. Unlike some volumes that use chapter pages to distinguish the individual issues, this just runs them together into one long narrative.The expedition reaches the end of it's journey. And has to deal with what's there. Choices have to be made...It's been a while since book seven, so it did take a little bit to get back into this. But all these delays do mean we have had the same creative team all the way, which has given this a consistent feeling. And I can think of some series I started which have never finished. And probably never will. So it's pleasing that this did.Don't want to say anything much about the plot of this, as spoilers would be required. Because it's amazing reading it with no idea what is going to happen. Although one little thing does go as expected. But that's all. There were times in earlier volumes when I thought the secondary characters weren't sticking in my mind, but everyone does get their moment here. Which helps. Then the way things play out is gripping reading. You are desperate to see how it does. Everything is firmly character driven also.This is not a story where everyone is a perfect and honourable hero. The characters in here are of their time. So readers might not like some things that go on. But that's history. It's believable as a result. It also does end in just the right way, dealing with what happens to people after. And the final few pages are very clever, allowing it to end with a very memorable image.There is an afterword with comments from all the creative team. This is well worth reading.This gets five stars. Because as an ending it's very good indeed and very memorable. It's been a long journey. I wasn't sure at times if it would finish. But now it's complete, I can say I enjoyed it very much.