Last week was a big one for graphic novels for me. I picked up four, and two of the three I've finished, I liked a lot. I wrote about The Avengers in the Veracity Trap over on the Flashback Universe blog, but here I wanted to talk about Drome by Jesse Lonergan.
Drome is a creation myth in a world part Kirby's New Gods and part Metal Hurlant. He draws bits from a lot of different sources, I imagine, including the association of the platonic solids with the classic elements, but much of it echoes events in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
A black, horned, male deity creates humans, and they war upon each other and the beasts of the world until a white, mohawked or crested female deity sends a heavily muscled demi-goddess born of water to subdue the humans, then teach them civilization. Later, a bestial, nature demigod born of Earth becomes the lover of the god-queen. The two must deal with the arrival of a rampaging spirit of fire, then a rebellion of jealous humans who unleash a cosmic bull.
Lonergan's style is integral to the telling of his story. The pages are often broken in equal-sized squares which are just as likely to be a grid imposed on the scene or part of the scene as they are to organize the story spatially or temporally. There is relatively little dialogue, leaving the images to tell most of the story.
I read the story digitally, but I'm considering picking up the hardcover because it's gorgeous and a work I think I will revisit. It's definitely made me want to seek up Lonergan's other work.
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