Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Art by: André Lima Araújo
Synopsis:
Phenomena is the story of a young boy named Boldon and his warrior friend Spike—survivors of a phenomena that took over Earth years ago. Not an apocalypse . . . something far more interesting. We follow Boldon and Spike as they are forced to team up with another lost orphan of the world, Matilde. The trio of heroes go on a globetrotting adventure that takes them to a magical, mysterious place called the Golden City of Eyes.
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I forgot how I initially heard about this book - I think it may have been a suggested reading by another comic creator in their Substack - but I do know that I also picked it up because of Bendis’ name. I was surprised to see him attached to an indie book, and even more surprised to find the Manga inspired black & white style and story inside.
Right away you can see the influences and can tell the targeted audience. It is no secret that a lot of young readers are swaying away from western comics and reading Manga. And I get it - they’re easy and quick to read. They’re light and compact, and their packaging and presentation is way easier to follow and more inviting ( maybe not so much the right to left reading) than western comics and graphic novels.
Once I cracked this book, with its unique characters and imaginative world, I understood why this was made. And its not a bad book, but maybe its because I’m not as familiar with Bendis’ earlier work, that this did not really read like Bendis. I guess because the most recent stuff I’ve read by him is more mature in nature, like POWERS, and COVER, that this book - directed towards a YA audience - felt like reading a book for kids.
// The Story
Our main protagonist is a head-strong boy named Boldon who is traveling to a new city, and visiting a market. He is soon joined by a warrior character named Spike, who has his blade stolen by a thief named Matilde. Spike knows where Matilde would trade his blade so they travel towards the Golden City of Eyes to track her down, which is a huge walking city on legs. They come across various enemy groups along the way on this quest, eventually catching up with Matilde in town taken over by a gang. She asks for their help and in return she will return the blade. This all leads to the Golden City which has fallen - the city’s engine disabled. Turns out the blade is a key to the engine and once all the enemies defeated, they turn the city back on. The book ends on a to-be-continued as the trio is now on a new adventure to help Matilde find her family.
// Between the pages
As I mentioned above, I’ve read quite a bit from Brian Michael Bendis, including COVER and POWERS, covered in earlier weeks, and plenty of his Marvel stuff.
But André Lima Araújo, I think, is the real star of this book - and I think a lot of the storytelling behind this book starts with Araújo. There’s a lot of Moebius (The Incal) and Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) influences found here. Previously I had seen his work in A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance, from Rick Remender - which was a very interesting series, almost exclusively told through illustration - very little dialogue.
//Thought bubbles
The story is super fast paced, never stopping to really flesh out the characters. One area that Manga has to its advantage is, is the allotted runway to tell a long drawn out story. Matilde has a jetpack strapped to her back, and that’s an apt description for the pace of this book.
The world building is very imaginative, with creative creatures like flying whales and tentacled monsters. There’s underground worms in the flat lands, that travellers ride, like in Dune.
The character Spike gets a lot of page time duelling in combat - the fighting is very animated with speed lines, up in the air with big wind-up punches and slams. Like Dragon Ball Z fights - or Bleach, with the Hollows, but minus the soul sword.
The writing at times was a little hard to interpret. It read as if it was an alien language translated into broken English, or as if the character’s English was not their first language. Which I guess makes sense as it’s not obviously Earth, but Bendis can write fantastic conversational dialogue, and the humour and wit are present, but with more made up fantasy / sci-fi words. Kind of like Firefly, where language had evolved into almost a hybrid of merged languages. Maybe that’s the case here and its an intentional creative choice. But I had to re-read panels at time just to make sure I wasn’t reading out of order. Felt a little disjointed.
As I was mentioning above regarding the art - it is the real star of the book. Araújo has a architecture background and some of the crumbling city views in this book are amazing. In a way, its kind of a shame that the book is black and white as I think colour would go a long way in enhancing the art even more - with the right colourist attached.
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I picked this book this week because Book Two - Matilde’s Quest, just recently release in April, and I pre-ordered it shortly after grabbing Book One. I’m excited to see where the story goes… but hopefully it doesn’t take another 2 years to complete the trilogy.
Speaking of Manga, I am currently reading AKIRA, but this book makes me want to renew my Shonen subscription, and keep reading Bleach. Or maybe I’ll just put the Manga one while I’m drawing. Speaking of drawing - no fan art this week.
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Next read:
Week 26: The Hard Switch - Owen D. Pomery
Week 27: Chu - Vol. 1 - John Layman & Dan Boultwood
Week 28: Spider-Man: Noir - David Hine
Week 29: Far Sector - N. K. Jemisin & Jamal Campbell
Week 30: The Watchmen - Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Previously read:
Week 24: Newburn Vol. 1
Week 23: Suicide Squad: Get Joker / Wolverine: Rot
Week 22: Jupiter’s Legacy Vol 1-5
Week 21: Head Wounds: Sparrow
Week 20: The Incal