Cinebook The 9th Art Publisher 2021
Written by Xavier Dorison
Illustrated by Thomas Allart
Coloured by Jean-Jacques Chagnaud, Céline Bessoneau &
Thomas Allart
In tomorrow’s world, the global economy will rest upon the listing of humans on the stock market. But what sort of price will those whose shares are traded have to pay for their prosperity? The first volume of a painfully plausible trilogy. In a far too near-future, the world’s economy has collapsed. Amidst an unprecedented recession, the only remaining bastion of capitalist prosperity is the new ‘Human Stock Exchange’, where individuals are listed on the market. Felix Fox sells cars over the phone, a poorly paid, thankless, dead-end job. But he is determined to make it big, at any cost. When the opportunity arises to be listed on the HSE, though … will the cost turn out to be too high?
Brilliant, utterly brilliant storytelling right here. There are so many different deeper meanings happening as the story moves forward that are open to the interpretation by the reader so that each one will have their own unique experience. That’s brilliant in and of itself however by adding the morality into the story and the idea that an individual has monetary value treads a slippery slope and yet Xavier manages to incorporate it all so seamlessly which makes me even more impressed.
I love how this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see is bloody brilliant thanks to the dialogue, character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. With the interview and then the personal one-on-one really showcase the power that words can have and it’s so incredibly rendered here. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we’re so riveted to the page and so drawn in and engaged in the story is magnificent.
How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and evolve depending on the encounters or events that we see leaves me truly gobsmacked. How the layers add depth and complexity to the story as they work with and swirl around the main arc shows some seriously beautiful skill and talent from Xavier. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.
The interior here are mindbogglingly gorgeous to see. The linework is exquisitely laid down and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the detail work is astonishingly well rendered. How we see backgrounds utilised throughout the book is phenomenally well done as they enhance the moments and then work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. It really is magnificent to see how the creativity and imagination in what we see is brought to life. The colour work is equally as brilliantly rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised ot create the shading, highlights and shadow work is rendered exquisitely as well.
Cinebook may not be a household name in the United States but i’d like to fix that because honestly the level of quality storytelling that is in their books is in a league of its own. I have yet to find a book from them that isn’t light years ahead of anything else we see on stands right now. I look forward to seeing how this plays out and how we see all the sticky bits come to life and how they are handled by the characters and those that surround them. Brilliantly written and illustrated this is going to take you to places that seem to be in the depths of hell to the heavens above and the question really is can you handle it?