Mawrth Valliis may be a hard name to pronounce, but hold your breath until you peek inside this original GN from Image:
The dialogue is all in alien language, a kind of hieroglyphic code that is impenetrable, inscrutable yet somehow fitting.
Mawrth Valliis is about outer space. A fighter pilot disobeys her orders to outright kill an enemy after they both crash on a planet. However, the chase is on, the two female pilots battling each other on Mars. It’s ‘far out’, and they are left to fend for themselves against any perceivable foes. They’re dressed in skin-tight bikini space suits, thonged out for the run, blasters on stun.
It’s all the brainchild of “EPHK”, a self-described “Doodler/comic artist/self-publisher/honourable correspondent currently based in the Berlin underground.”
The drawings are LARGE, with plenty of pages consisting of one or two panels. The artwork consists of THICK lines and blockprint (flatted) colour, in an unusual and beautiful array of tones and semitones, a musically adventurous way of showing scale and rhythm. The figures are graceful, well proportioned, and drawn with minimal fuss. The lines are accurate if THICK and flowing.
It’s a fast-paced race to survival in space, a quick read among stunningly striking images. Flip through this a few times, though. Circle back and reenter the rarified atmosphere of Mawrth Valliis.
Image, Mawrth Valliis, $14.99 for 128 pages of content. Teen +
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Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher