SNAPSHOT
“Debuting next month from Image Comics, Angelic is set in a future that humans have long since been erased from, leaving nothing but ruins and the highly intelligent animals they experimented on in their wake. One such tribe of animals is a group of religious-winged monkeys, one of whom, a young girl named Qora, doesn’t feel like staying as grounded as her tribe would like. It’s a world populated by crazed cyber-dolphins and numerous other dangers.” (synopsis (c) SYFYWIRE)
A number of years ago, I read a compelling book called The World Without Us by Alex Weisman, which explored in great depth and yet in a brilliantly-written accessabile way what Earth would be like if we just suddenly vanished in an instant.
It was a fascinating, thought-provoking read that addressed how cities would quickly revert to nature, that climate patterns would settle back (hopefully) to pre-Industrial Revolution levels and that this paradisical idyll could be threatened by nuclear power plants breaking down and radiating the planet.
What it didn’t mention was intelligent apes and cyber dolphins with a mean streak; thankfully a beguilingly original new comic book series, Angelic from writer Si Spurrier (The Spire, Godshaper) and artist Caspar Wijngaard (LIMBO, Dark Souls) does and it looks like my new favourite comic book ever.
Seriously, its clever, insightful and exquisitely well-drawn with some deeply-thoughtful aspirations as Spurrier told SYFYWIRE:
Everyone’s been a child. Everyone’s seen a world of wonder. And everyone’s had the moment—or moments—that they question everything they’ve been taught. These are pretty universal experiences.
“It would be nice to say that Qora’s repressive home-society, with its rather abhorrent attitudes towards females, is just an exaggerated sci-fi version of that same thing: the youth questioning the establishment. But of course we know the world is sadly full of societies—from both edges of the ideological spectrum—who impose their often unhealthy expectations on their youngest members. It sounds weird to say that the experiences of one little monkey with wings could be both universally relatable and extremely timely, but that’s the hope.”
Intelligent, utterly imaginative and gorgeously drawn – what’s not to like?
I can’t wait to pick up a copy and maybe a cyber dolphin while I’m at it.
Angelic releases into awesomely good comic stores on 20 September.
