Radiant characters electrify this sublime horror outing.
A woman who has lived for millennia feeding on life-energy battles an enemy she believed was long dead in Sniegoski and Acheson’s graphic novel.
Amara Delacourt lives a quiet life in a Miami retirement community. Though she looks to be about 70, Amara has actually been around for thousands of years. She’s the last of the Nehmer, a race of immortal beings whose sustenance is human life force. Although they’ve lived and fed among humans inconspicuously and peacefully, a relentless religious order called the Venatori has hunted them to near-extinction. After this “fanatical offshoot of the Catholic Church hellbent on wiping out all those they perceive as unholy” exterminated Amara’s kind, Amara retaliated by killing all of the Venatori—or so she thought. Two chemically enhanced henchmen arrive in Miami on a mission to take out the final Nehmer. But someone else is after Amara, too—Magnes Pharmaceuticals wants to procure the secret of her longevity. As she dodges the company’s attempts to grab her, she must also face off against a bloodthirsty Venatori soldier and a lab-created human Bloodhound engineered to track the Nehmer. Sniegoski and Acheson’s supernaturally powerful hero is not the usual comic-book fare: When she feeds, she resembles a fanged, long-fingernailed vampire, but she typically looks like a grandma and easily consumes life energy without killing or even hurting people. Engaging backstories spotlight Amara and the Venatori throughout the last millennium and in various countries, from France and Italy to the Old West. There’s a notable progression across this volume’s six collected issues; foes inch closer to Amara, who gradually realizes who’s targeting her and putting someone she’s grown close to in potential danger. Welcome narrative touches include an ultrachic cyber-cat and the unorthodox way another character has lived a shockingly long time. The story ends with not one but two unforgettable cliffhangers. Burzo and Lecce’s impressive artwork combines beautifully muted colors and heavy shadows with brutal violence and ferocious expressions. The collection also showcases illustrator Sta. Maria’s six vibrant covers for the individual issues.
Radiant characters electrify this sublime horror outing.Pub Date: March 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781545816134
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life.
Wondrous visitors encounter a desperate pocket of humanity.
Lori, a white orphaned teen who’s finally been adopted after bouncing around various foster homes, awakens to discover that nearly everyone has disappeared. The rapture? Maybe. She runs into her classmate Annette, who has brown skin and curly black hair, and they partner up to scavenge for food. The pair tries to evade several threats, such as the large Wolves and a gang called The Dogs. Supernatural Giants arrive, seemingly from space, speaking an impenetrable language of “musical chiming and weird bass-rhythms.” Lori and Annette then meet Beatrice, an older white woman who shares important observations about the Giants and Wolves. The tone of the story then subtly shifts from post-apocalyptic desperation to one that’s somewhat playful. After a certain point, a visual element that appears early on takes on clear significance and meaning in the context of the story at large, offering a subversively humorous twist for readers to consider and a creative element that deviates from other alien invasion narratives. Hans’ artwork and paneling fill each scene with wonders. An interaction with a giant sees the red, violet, and pink figure standing against a bright, otherworldly white-and-blue backdrop with dark contours. Elsewhere, Lori and Annette pause at night as they behold ominous shadows, their foggy breath forming clouds, and they hear a “KRRNCH” sound. The quick-moving plot wraps everything up neatly.
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life. (character designs) (Graphic science fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781534387072
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Image Comics
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
Immensely enjoyable.
The debut graphic novel from Mohamed presents a modern Egypt full of magical realism where wishes have been industrialized and heavily regulated.
The story opens with a televised public service announcement from the General Committee of Wish Supervision and Licensing about the dangers of “third-class wishes”—wishes that come in soda cans and tend to backfire on wishers who aren’t specific enough (like a wish to lose weight resulting in limbs falling from the wisher’s body). Thus begins a brilliant play among magic, the mundane, and bureaucracy that centers around a newsstand kiosk where a devout Muslim is trying to unload the three “first-class wishes” (contained in elegant glass bottles and properly licensed by the government) that have come into his possession, since he believes his religion forbids him to use them. As he gradually unloads the first-class wishes on a poor, regretful widow (who then runs afoul of authorities determined to manipulate her out of her valuable commodity) and a university student who seeks a possibly magical solution to their mental health crisis (but struggles with whether a wish to always be happy might have unintended consequences), interstitials give infographic histories of wishes, showing how the Western wish-industrial complex has exploited the countries where wishes are mined (largely in the Middle East). The book is exceptionally imaginative while also being wonderfully grounded in touching human relationships, existential quandaries, and familiar geopolitical and socio-economic dynamics. Mohamed’s art balances perfectly between cartoon and realism, powerfully conveying emotions, and her strong, clean lines gorgeously depict everything from an anguished face to an ornate bottle. Charts and graphs nicely break up the reading experience while also concisely building this larger world of everyday wishes. Mohamed has a great sense of humor, which comes out in footnotes and casual asides throughout.
Immensely enjoyable.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-524-74841-8
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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