Science fiction, dystopia and a little bit of horror – Lo Spazio Bianco

poster Astra from star comics Brings to Italy the first volume of three of a new series picture With completely Italian DNA. The group of authors who created and created the book are in fact composed entirely of talents from our peninsula, and their predecessor is Mirka Andolfo, an author whose name is now synonymous with success. But this time, Andolfo has put aside the graphic, the key element behind his fame, to devote himself solely to creating the story – excluding the series’ various covers – along with David Joywhich they had already cooperated with at that time sacred and profane. The graphic part is instead in the hands of the couple who formed it Andrea Brocardo on the graphics and Barbara Nucenzo to digital colours.

Beyond that It is a challenging science fiction story that mixes different elements, starting with the basic buildings. In fact we are in an alternate reality from our own, where the famous “Millennium Bug” occurred. At the turn of the century, it was feared that assigning dates in operating systems, based on only the last two digits of the year, would throw IT systems into crisis, only to find themselves with the mysterious “00” date, with catastrophic effects on a global scale. Despite the real panic that broke out in the early 2000s, in our reality Millennium bug It was resolved as a practically unfounded fear, if not the result of a real hoax.

in World Beyond that The consequences were rather dire: The complete collapse of information systems with the consequent devastating global crisis on several levels. To exacerbate the situation in the story is then added the appearance of a toxin, a disease that genetically modifies the organisms with which it comes into contact, prompting survivors to build colonies in the old areas of cities to lock themselves in and protect them. themselves from pollution.
The status quo is now solidified more than 80 years later, when Dr. Pamela Bell released SOS after a deep-sea accident while searching for an anomaly in the Atlantic. There are three people who have a strong relationship with Dr. Bell and will have to deal with the request for help: biologist Paul Bailey, Eve, the political leader and the wife of Pamela, the environmental terrorist and the hero’s twin Julen.

Political plots, plots with hints of fantasy, environmental themes, terrifying touches and Lovecraftian suggestions, global contagion, meditations on technology and science fiction that push the boundaries of space into the abyss, as happened for example in films such as the abyss from James Cameron Or cartoons like French safe haven from Christoph Beck And Xavier Dorison or italian Rim City from Alessandro Abreda And Daniel Orlandini.

That’s a lot of the stuff Deep Beyond is built around, and if Building the world is intriguing and the characters actually show an excellent building job in just a few pagesHowever, the score is quite dense, in a limited space like those in the few tables of comic book chapters (about two dozen): the story genre, among other things, also has to be careful not to sacrifice already and tension. If Andolfo and Goy do their best to tackle the challenge they launched themselves, it’s also true that the result is a very fast development. With some clips getting a bit more confusing And some of the tables are full of facts and not very immediate information. The intensity often reflected in densely packed cages – the scale of the volume, slightly smaller than the actual size of a comic book, also amplifies the effect of a certain compression – and the daring sequences where not all of the action dynamics are entirely apparent.

Even events chase each other, Forced to sacrifice even important events in a few incoming cartoons To develop the characters themselves. For example, it happens at the end of the second act, when a situation is organized in which the mistake of one of the heroes has tragic consequences, which generates a sense of guilt that psychologically and in a significant way affects the character himself in the following chapters. However, the scene in question was resolved in only two vignettes in an already full schedule.

The graphics of Brocardo, who brings to the table comic book style in a clean font, They are able to bring out the best in expressions, technology and creatureswhile at times they tend to be somewhat more generous with regard to the length of their characters’ limbs.
To upgrade the graphic component is the work of Nosenzowhose colors can combine research on presenting the atmosphere of science fiction with the emotional state of different situations, with very interesting results.
The composition of the tables is looking for a lot of horizontal development cartoons, it is often said “complete” that at least a start page is added for each chapter.

At the end of the four books that make up the first set, we find ourselves with new characters and a huge backlog of questions, including asking the question to himself. How will the authors be able to unravel it throughout the next two volumes of the seriesAnd it’s just another eight chapters.
Inside, the exquisite Italian wrapper also contains all the various covers made: in addition to Andolfo covers, we find those designed with names such as Stjepan Sejic And Simon Bianchi.

We talked about it:
Deep Beyond Vol. 1
By Mirca Andolfo, David Joy, Andrea Procardo and Barbara Nucenzo
Star Comics, 2022
96 pages, cover, color – €13.90
ISBN: 9788822630100