As for the second Channel Zero book, it's a prequel so I doubt that's gonna do much for you in terms of resolving what happens to Jenny 2.5. In fact, I think it's called Jenny One. It's cool but nowhere near as good as the first. Public Domain: A Channel Zero Designbook, on the other hand, is totally cool assuming you can afford to drop the cash on a book full of completely non-essential Channel Zero material. I could at the time I bought it, nowadays that's certainly not the case, so I might not be as huge a fan of it if I'd just recently purchased it. Okay, I really need to stop writing now and pretend to do some work.

I think part of it IS his characterization - he creates compelling characters, and maybe we do want to spend more time with them. I also think maybe HE wants to spend more time with them, so if he ends things ambiguously, they can live on in our (and his) imagination. That's a theory. As I said, I haven't read so much of Wood that I can say definitively that he ends things poorly, but what I've read by him so far has been weirdly unsatisfactory in that regard. I'll keep buying his work because he is certainly not boring.

As for Channel Zero...I couldn't disagree more. I thought the ending was just incredibly well written. I understand why someone might not be satisfied with it because it ends on such a goddamn downer (Should I warn anyone of spoilers here? Even the trade is six years old. I guess it's still the polite thing to do, even if no one else reads this.)...

SPOILER ALERT

...ends on such a goddamn downer what with Jenny ultimately realizing that she's now completely ineffective insofar as her ability to bring about any kind of revolution or change is concerned. She wages a spoken word rebellion against the media and the United States government via a series of illegal televised broadcasts and all that ultimately comes of it is that her words have been turned into convient little sound bytes and she, herself, has become an underground media icon. All she can do is hope that the younger kids who claim to be inspired by her have the gumption to actually do something about it (to actually channel their anger and organize and stand up and fight for what they believe in), rather than sit around shouting useless slogans at each other while wearing temporary Jenny 2.5 tattoos and generally posing as revolutionaries.

And it could go either way, Wood leaves us with that one bit of ambiguity. But Jenny herself is through. Sad and depressing? Absolutely. Unsatisfying? Not really. Not for me, anyway. Sorry this went on so long...I tend to ramble on a bit myself and Brian Wood is one of my favorite writers.

I am honestly not sure how you can consider the finale of "Channel Zero" a non-ending. I, for one, found it to be fairly clear: disgrunted with the way her mission was inadvertably twisted by the media and popular culture, Jennie passes on her mission to her successors (Mustafa, Special, Heavy Parker and others). Then again, that's just my opinion.

Tim - you obviously have a bigger selection to choose from as far as Wood goes, but I'm thinking of Channel Zero, which ended poorly after a good set up, and even DMZ, which seems to have issues with that. Local is much better, but even that occasionally has just kind of ended. I'm waiting to see how he finishes Supermarket. Yes, it's a tiny sample size, but he's 3-for-3 so far! I'm keen to read something by him that, in my book, ends well, because his stories are so intriguing. I'm glad he doesn't do this too often, because he's an interesting writer.

like e.g.:

Past lies preview (18p, 3.6MB):
http://www.onipress.com/preview/pastlies_preview.pdf
sparse, thin linework with occassional problems in rendering depth due to lack of shading. Sometimes looks "flat" and things melting together again due to lack of depth clues other than shaded areas which forces these to double as depth and colour indicators. Serviceable but weak storytelling, e.g. the scene in the detectives office switches the viewer's axis several times without reason.
The part set in the past also flows poorly IMO and seems to rely too much on reaction shots. As this improves in the present day scenes (IMO) it's possible that it is intentional, meant to present the past in a series of flashback stills.

The tourist
http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/Tourist/TouristPre.htm
Rough and scetchy, hard to describe, see for yourself. Again I think the storytelling is lacking, but this one seems to time the text pieces better (and keep the shorter) resulting in a better flow overall.

Can't get no (18p, 4MB)
http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/5267_x.pdf
Clear and heavy linework, the best so far IMO. Storytelling is hard to judge since it's mostly reaction shots to a "narrative" in the background. Still, it does some nice things like the "uppside down" tremor and the passing of the bottle and the initial chase is clear enough.

The drowners:
http://www.nbmpub.com/comicslit/kanan/drownprev1.html
Thick lines, hard to tell anything more because it's only two pages. Looks serviceable to me.

Continuity (12MB!!!)
http://www.ait-planetlar.com/resources/Continuity.pdf
See also review here: http://fossen.blogspot.com/2006/06/continuity.html
as mentioned there, I found the transitions atrocious and much of the rest way too mudy. Definitely try before buy.

And that's why we appreciate these type of articles! I think I'll be checking out The Drowners.

Also, thanks for the mention of THE DROWNERS. Nabiel Kanan is awesome. I have some old trades of his that are literally falling apart (his old Caliber stuff). I hope he gets a bigger audience soon so Image will start reprinting his work in quality volumes where the pages aren't glued together with spit and good wishes.