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ppetropoulakis's review
5.0
The conclusion of the Edena story arc as witness by Stel's point of view. Post modern story and illustrations, full of imagination and as a bonus the hilarious face masks of the Edenians are back.
jgkeely's review
5.0
Moebius is unquestionably a great artist, but his visions as a writer often suffer from an overabundance of Frenchiness, which I feel is best typified by the introductions to his collections where we get psudointellectual wackiness like this account of where he gets his ideas from:
"One finds things on the beach. Things dragged up from the depths, and casually abandoned by the sea, almost as a peace offering to its eternal opposite, the land."
Such overbearing attempts at deep symbology always feel forced to me, and they distract from the story, itself. I tend to think Moebius is at his worst when he is trying to deliver some grand spiritual or social message about The Great Truth, since it's hard to do that without coming off as pretentious and vague, as in the conclusion of L'Incal.
But this story takes a different tack, focusing more on humor than on Big Questions. The humor is subtle and pervasive, and the sci fi story behind it fun and fast-paced, so that I began to imagine what it might have been like if Moebius had illustrated a version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--which, judging from this book, would have been amazing.
The visuals were some of the most consistently beautiful and wondrous that I've ever seen in a comic, including Moebius' other works, which are myriad and masterful. The use of psychedelic color and chiaroscuro was always inventive, clear, and expressive, though some of the highlighting on the characters was a bit sketchier, and stood out from the overall style a bit.
All in all a delightful piece, and proof that Moebius never sat on his laurels, but improved and refined with every book he drew.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
"One finds things on the beach. Things dragged up from the depths, and casually abandoned by the sea, almost as a peace offering to its eternal opposite, the land."
Such overbearing attempts at deep symbology always feel forced to me, and they distract from the story, itself. I tend to think Moebius is at his worst when he is trying to deliver some grand spiritual or social message about The Great Truth, since it's hard to do that without coming off as pretentious and vague, as in the conclusion of L'Incal.
But this story takes a different tack, focusing more on humor than on Big Questions. The humor is subtle and pervasive, and the sci fi story behind it fun and fast-paced, so that I began to imagine what it might have been like if Moebius had illustrated a version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--which, judging from this book, would have been amazing.
The visuals were some of the most consistently beautiful and wondrous that I've ever seen in a comic, including Moebius' other works, which are myriad and masterful. The use of psychedelic color and chiaroscuro was always inventive, clear, and expressive, though some of the highlighting on the characters was a bit sketchier, and stood out from the overall style a bit.
All in all a delightful piece, and proof that Moebius never sat on his laurels, but improved and refined with every book he drew.
My Suggested Reading In Comics
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