Titan Comics 2017
Written by Alessandro Barbucci & Barbara Canepa
Illustrated by Alessandro Barbucci
Coloured by Barbara Canepa & Cyrille Bertin
Translated by Jessica Burton
The time has finally come for Noa to find out, once and for all, why her life has been plagued with visions and voices. With everything to lose, she sets out to discover who she really is, and if she really has what it takes to be more than just a doll...
Over the years i’ve seen plenty of stories about the journey of self-discovery and I have to say that never have I seen one quite like this. Noa not knowing who she is or was or why she was able to do what she could it all has this ethereal quality to it. Yeah in large part because this is very much what i’d classify as a fantasy story with beings of other worlds who have character traits of beings that remind us of elves and such. It’s also very e3asy to put this there since it also allows for all the partial nudity and expressions of love and sex that are in these pages as well.
Speaking of love and sex it’s rare to incorporate these into a book without them feeling like shock factor or gratuitous and yet here they manage to do just that. It’s like the ideal look at how I would like society to view nudity and sex, it just is a part of life and if you don’t want it to be then you don’t have to but leave everyone else doing their thing alone. There’s that frank honesty about what we see here that is remarkable.
Also the way this story is written has it’s own unique ebb and flow to it. It borders on the realm of an enchanted tale where we feel like a prince and princess need to be united in their everlasting love. That kind of writing is rare to come across and even more rare to see succeed in such and grandiose way. Then to mix in the all the elements of the danger and this world and what obstacles there are to overcome and the story takes on an even bigger grander epic feeling to it. The characterisation, story structure and just the premise all lend itself to this whole feel good kind of thriller that almost defies logic.
I also have to commend this on the fact that this journey is far from over and really in it’s truest sense only just beginning. I mean we get to see Noa discover more about herself than possibly any Skydoll has before her and yet now that that’s complete there’s still this whole brand new adventure that beckons. She’s discovered things about herself that have changed her and her life and opened up a new avenue to explore. The real question becomes how will her friends react to everything that’s going on?
I also very much appreciate that her friends aren’t forgotten or ignored through all this and they do have their own roles to play out. It’s very much a complete story in such a short amount of space that i’m thoroughly impressed. I think even more so because while this isn’t the first Skydoll story out there it’s not that you have to have read them to really enjoy this.