TKO Shorts 2021
Written by Michael Moreci
Illustrated by Jesús Hervás
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Alice and her team of aquatic explorers are eager to study what lies beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Stationed at the Midnight Zone, 2000 meters below the surface; their supplies start to run out. In a dangerous expedition to survive, they must push through but soon realise that the ocean is more vast, dark, and mysterious than they could have ever imagined.
This is precisely what I love and hate about a short story. I am completely, utterly and thoroughly impressed with the fact that such a complete story can be told so well in a short page count. I hate that I loved this to the point where I want to see more, I want to see the beast or whatnot that roams the bottom of the ocean. This gives me a modern take on The Abyss film or Steve Alten’s Meg though we never do find out what it is that stalks its prey. It really doesn’t matter though because Michael does the one thing that gives the reader a unique experience and that's engages their minds own creativity and imagination. There is nothing that can scare someone more than what their own brains can conjure up.
I love the way that 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 is awesome thanks to how we see the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. This fleshes them out beautifully so that can find folks we see in them making them infinitely more relatable to. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we’re taken to new depths.
How we see this being structured and how we see the layers within the story emerge and grow really give the reader the opportunity to sink their teeth into the characterisation. Also we have to wonder the scope of what they are trying to do and again the engagement factor goes right off the charts with each new revelation that we see. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved beautifully.
The interiors here are utterly gorgeous. The linework is absolutely stunning and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level of quality in the detail work is absolutely astonishing to see. Whether the backgrounds are on dry land or inside a lab on the bottom of the ocean to the waters in which they walk how they are utilised and how we see the composition within the panels bringing us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is magnificent to see. The colour work is mindbogglingly brilliant to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beyond gorgeous. The creativity and imagination that is on display here is mind numbing in beauty.
I really do wish we’d get to see more of this because the idea alone is brilliantly done and it just screams out for something larger and longer. Granted I’ve talked about engagement factors and this is so high in them in so many different places it would still be a right cracker to get the bigger picture fleshed out or perhaps another short that shows who follows them and meets a similar fate would be a great idea as well. These shorts have me more excited than some of the graphic novels do and i’m not terribly sure if this is good or bad but at a zine or ashcan size it is so darn easy to fall in love with these mini-epics.