I was genuinely surprised by the ending to the first volume of Snowpiercer.  What seemed like a fairly typical post-apocalyptic tale wound up on a note that I didn’t see coming at all.  So when the second volume of the comic was recently released by Titan Books, I scooped it up so I could find out what happened next.

Unfortunately, the second volume doesn’t continue the same storyline.  Instead, Volume 2 picks up with a different hero on Snowpiercer 2, a completely different train.   Wait, what?  You’re saying there are two never-stopping, socially stratified trains that harbor the last remnants of humanity to keep them from dying in the harsh arctic environment?  What’re the chances?
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If you’re a film fan like me, you’ve probably heard about the brouhaha stirring over director Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi thriller, Snowpiercer, based on the French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige.  If you’re not familiar, the acclaimed South Korean filmmaker’s latest movie was purchased for distribution in the U.S. by the Weinstein Company who, as is often their custom with foreign films, is cutting about 20 minutes (!) of footage and requiring voice-over narration in order to, in their minds, better suit an American audience.  In other words, we’re too dumb to appreciate the film like the rest of the world.  Naturally when there’s this kind of buzz about a film, it makes me curious to check out what all the fuss is about.  So I was very happy to hear that Titan Books is releasing all three parts of Le Transperceneige under the more tie-in friendly title, Snowpiercer, over the course of 2014, with the first volume available as of January 28.

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