One-shot comic Hedra leaves us speechless. There is no dialogue in this comic. It’s not words, instead, it’s ‘Worlds’. A breath of fresh air inhabiting its own creative space in the comics cosmos, from Image Comics.
Creator, writer, artist, and colourist Jesse Lonergan (Planet Paradise, Joe, and Azat, All-Star. etc) pulls out the stops and gets us into his story in a jiffy: the premise is simple: one astronaut leaves a world ruined by nuclear war in search of life. Her journey brings her discoveries and challenges.
This 56-page story combines space travel with graphic design, in this way: we follow the wordless proceeds strictly by ‘comic instinct’, moving from one panel to the next, absorbing what is going on. Tiny panels, small changes. Big physical arcs in drawings travel across the page, telling us which way we are heading: always left to right, down the page. It’s like a ‘how to draw a wordless comic’ textbook in excellence. Graphically dramatic and well-executed, this is an unusual adventure.
Lonergan knows when to expand the timeline and when to compress it. Large gaps in time occur, followed by a quick series of actions. The drawings are crisp but retain their flavour with every bite. The colour is as restrained as is detail, but this adds to the tasteful approach: this is science fiction, comic book best practices, and a heartfelt drama at the same time.
Hedra (one-shot), Image Comics, $5.99 for 56 pages of content.
Newsdesk