IDW Publishing brings you a comic about prisoners on the underworld who have treated like slaves in Under-Earth the graphic novel.

Ok, so I did not expect that has something to review, and this comic would take you to an underworld full of dangerous criminals which are similar to Arkham Asylum or The Lab comic on Boom! Studios. And to be honest, this comic is like the version of the Racism movie where Africans are getting deported to America and make them into African Americans later on. The story is created by Chris Gooch, he’s a cartoonist based out of Melbourne, Australia who created his first graphic novel Bottled in 2017 and a short story called Deep Breaths last year. Basically, his comics are all indie, even if he did some then this would turn out to be a series within another series ahead.

The front cover looks promising enough, apparently, Chris illustrated everything in black and white, but the sky just turned red for some reason. And obviously, this cover is like giving you a blind eye test to know where Waldo is in this cover art. The characters in the background are dressed in some prison clothes, and somehow the cityscape of the drawing is in ruins, which would make the whole city abandoned. And what I’m guessing about it is that the whole background is almost similar to Batman the Animated Series though, unlike any other art covers, this would bring a lot of details to the illustration that met its expectations.

The story starts when every prisoner was thrown off from a helicopter after a check-up, and the whole setting is taken place with some piles of trash. Now, this is a story about slavery which would make it so much crueler to the people who were captured and being tortured. It’s the same as The Lab, but this time we get to see the prisoners work to death in a matter of time. Now the story focuses on two kids who just robbed a golden relic in order to find a way to escape that hell hole. The whole setting is like the start of Han Solo a Star Wars Story movie that would soon make them some pack of thieves. The next day, some imperialist sent some of the prisoners to pick up some trash underground, and it looks like it has some rare goods around which would make them find a needle in a haystack, but instead, we get all of this gooey black chemical water that really stinks so bad. I wouldn’t imagine what world are they living in, but it’s more than common sense to notice what hell is like compared to New Yorkers and their daily lives at work or something, however in Covid19, it’s out of the question for now because everyone here is scared and ignored the facts that they’re not wearing masks and feel so safe from that shit. The author has managed to create this world of a hell hole with a lot of slavery going on. It’s a mad mad mad underworld out there and how long this would last the whole slavery?

The story is quite random to tell, but the point to that the whole setting is like a prison, just like school or a juvenile detention center, but this is like hell incarnated. I didn’t expect something like this to read, but at the moment when I come across this book, it’s like having a story with a complicated plot where all the prisoners are living in desperate or bad times. At the end of the book, Chris has thanked almost everyone who helped him make this comic, but he also thanked his family for support. I can’t say much about his art, but this is like the manga version of Akira, except the world that he created is more like Star Wars. I had met some artists and read one of the comics who has that kind of art style which would make it more for beginners and became indie artists after one of them has the influence to make a comic such as this. I met some people who are more willing to draw very drastically. And from my perspective, the whole character design and background and cityscape is almost what everyone has experienced drawing like this because they’re trying to improve their drawings to be better at it. I was like that, but when sometimes I get the time to practice drawing anatomy, perspective, and objects, and collecting comics such as this just to get the idea that I’m not the only one struggling. Seeing this book made by an author around my age would have an art style just like any other artist that I’ve met in my college years. So Under-Earth is great, but somehow it tells us a story of slavery, but also a scary moment of what prison or hell is like.

By Kevin Bermeo

I'm a New Yorker Artist, and I traveled a lot. I enjoy making comics, illustrations, paintings, and digital art. Besides drawing, I'm also a writer, I used to be a Gamer, and I love adventures, food, and dragons.

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