Gravity has its ups and downs, ha ha. But a Radical Shift of Gravity is another matter, and IDW’s release causes us to sit up and pay attention.
Earth’s gravity has suddenly lessened. A lot. Now, it’s like the moon! Noah, a journalist, explores the events around this phenomenon. Our first learnings through Noah, who is looking for a job as a ‘serious’ journalist, is that A: he is tenacious, and B: there is a lot going on when gravity lets go!
Writer Nick Tapalansky (Awakening, Cast No Shadow) puts together an epic journey, crisscrossing the boundaries of time, science fiction, and environmentalism. Noah, his family, his future and past are all intermingled here in a captivating dramatic story. Earth’s gravity has lessened, yes. But when Noah starts to uncover links between commerce and outer space settlement, he gets further and further involved, and less and less optimistic. Is there time to adapt, change, look back at the past, look ahead to brighter days?
Kate Glasheen (Adventure Time, Hybrid Bastards, etc) lends considerable visual weight to this story. Kate’s thin black lines delineate volumes. Combining the caricature-like rendering of the cast with a free-floating, freestyle layout, Glasheen helps us imagine the world where people just come and go, people just float. The colouring lets the daylight through, the lines of the action, the yellows, and greens.
A Radical Shift of Gravity is a long story, but once you commit to it, it surprises you with its depth and savvy. This is not a lightly seasoned romp about outer space; rather it is a deeply moving examination of how time, evolution, and human love (and stubbornness) can interplay and overlap in an emotional context. It’s deep, meaningful, and affecting.
IDW, A Radical Shift of Gravity. $24.99 for 228 pages assume Teen +
@NickTapalansky, @katiecrimespree
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