Prism Stalker: The Weeping Star, from Dark Horse, continues where Prism Stalker left off.
Vep, a young refugee, has been recruited to train on another planet: Eriatarka. She is given an implant that allows her to use ‘pneuma’, a unique energy that exists only on Eriatarka. Note; This is important. Anyway, she joins other recruits for training, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. But there is more afoot than simply combat training: the Chorus Training Academy has more goals than they first make known. It ain’t all peaches and cream.
Eisner and Ignatz-nominated writer and artist Sloane Leong (From Under Mountains, Prism Stalker, A Map to the Sun, Graveneye, etc.) along with Lucas Gattoni on letters, creates a mind-blasting saga that truly defies the imagination. How do we describe the Prism Stalker: Weeping Star story?
The drawings are somewhat crude in execution I suppose, with a look that resembles quill pen lines, thickened sometimes with brush. This isn’t hyperrealistic art, all airbrushed and immaculate. But it’s also not pretentious; this is not precious, this is not prissy and prim. It’s Barbie on the barbeque, it’s a flame thrower tossed into the volcano. The energy in the line and the intensity of the images quickly impress us. The figures scramble around, surrounded by alien shapes and threats.
Sloane’s colouring is a full-on assault on the senses. Blue brushes up against fuschia, yellow and olive green become playmates for a page. It’s wall-to-wall-to-wall colour, 24/7, 365 degrees in the shade.
So yes, the visuals are truly astounding; in terms of story and dialogue, Sloane has a firm and brilliant grasp on where she wants to take us. We are hiking along with the trainees, hoping to right ourselves, to orient our powers, and work together. To make allies that may sustain us through life-and-death battles. It’s heavy reading, it’s no disco.
The shortcomings, if we can even imagine any, is that we need an occasional break from the atomic blast of these unique pages, the deeply thought concepts, the acid-trip hallucinatory experience. In that case, best to put the book down, take a quick walk to restabilize, and then plunge right back onto this psychological rollercoaster ride.
Bonus pages include full-colour concept art by Sloane and guests Dodleyz and Ike Whitehead. Edited by Brett Israel.
Dark Horse, Prism Stalker: The Weeping Star TPB, $24.99 for 160 pages. Rating 16+
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