AFAR OGN
Written by Leila Del Duca
Art by Kit Seaton
Published by Image Comics
Release Date: March 29, 2017
Would you like to dive into worlds of almost indescribably beauty? Take a journey that challenges and even surpasses your imagination? Then you probably should be reading Afar!
There’s a skill when it comes to world building, something that’s hard to master and hard to truly understand sometimes. Del Duca is able to easily slip you into a variety of worlds and, with very little exposition of the worlds, give the reader an understanding of the places she transports you to. Afar has the deep and ominous feelings of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and I would say it’s on par with it in tone, characters, and worlds. I hope she adds another volume to this mesmerizing tale, because I was craving more after I finished the graphic novel.
Seaton brings you across the stars and back in what feels like hand sketched and painted panels, each more beautiful than the next. I read in awe, taking in each character design and each background. The details she works into each piece of “old tech” or in every new world found by Boetema—the intricacy is truly captivating.
Animals and aliens are the most bewitching of all. They feel like mythological creatures. Squid-headed bipeds living on a house on an ever encompassing ocean, miniscule prey mantis-like creatures living in tiny cities amongst grass and flowers, and vibrantly dressed snake-people living in smoggy cities filled with claustrophobic high rises are just a few of the places she takes you with her art.
Seaton’s coloring adds to the bizarre worlds she places the main character in, creating ambiances that match each world. The greens of the reptilian people planet, the dark and chaotic shadows of the sort-of-tiger planet—all of it adds to the atmosphere and allows the reader to delve a bit into the psyche of Boetema during her several journeys as well as makes distinctions between the places that isn’t just the creatures that inhabit them.
Traverse the worlds of Afar. Read as you sink into a desolate desert land. Gaze as you pass the world of yesteryear, the looming ruins and technology of the past that are scattered across the unforgiving lands Beotema and her brother Inotu trek. Travel through space and time with Boetema as she displaces herself, possessing the bodies of people from distant lands light years away. Read Afar.
The Verdict: 10/10
