Humanoids 2020
Written by Harry Bozino
Based on the Original Story by Julia Verlanger
Illustrated by Carlos Magno
Coloured by Stefani Rennee
Translated by Mark Bence
Two Earthlings find themselves at the mercy of a stringent religious sect on a far-off planet when they rescue a young woman who mated with a mysterious creature. PUBLICATION IN 2 VOLUMES - COMPLETED SERIES. In the distant future, Earthlings explore worlds scattered at the far reaches of the cosmos, on which civilizations have often forgotten they are descendants of settlers from Earth. Two young agents on a mission visit a planet that has reverted to a medieval way of life, but when they save a young pregnant woman who has been sentenced to death for mating with a mysterious and mythical angel with wings of light, they find themselves entrenched in political turmoil with a religious party who has ascended to power.
I love Humanoids, they’ve been consistently putting out some high quality books. This is no exception and I was originally attracted to the fact that Carlos Magno was doing the interiors as I am a huge fan of his. If you haven’t seen his work then you really ought to check out Kong and Planet of the Apes, or even Hellraiser Bestiary and you’ll understand why I adore his work. Then I read the story and I was completely blown away by what this is, how it’s being done and the kind of social commentary on the world at large.
The way that this is being told is utterly sensational! The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The way we see things unfold fills in gaps for sure but at the same time leaves a lot of things open ended which to me says there’s plenty of room to go back and have more told and fleshed out. The character development is superb and it is great to see where they start and where they are by the end of the issue. How they act and react to the situations and circumstances does wonders in fleshing them out as people. The pacing is fantastic and the way that it takes us through the pages revealing the world and the idea of the story it is so easy to see how all of this works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
The interiors here are mindbogglingly brilliantly rendered. The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights being utilised to bring out the attention to detail which we see is absolutely gorgeous. The utilisation of backgrounds here is exceptional! They enhance the moments and expand the world we see, they bring this great depth perception a sense of scale and this overall sense of size and scope of the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this masters eye for storytelling. The colour work is simply divine. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows us someone who understands colour and how to best utilise them, including the range within any given colour that we might not normally see.
Good grief is this one of those extremely rare treats that comes out of nowhere and becomes one of those books you can easily become obsessed with. This is so exceptionally well written and how we see this unfold, how the reader is able to connect with and have their mind engaged by the story and how each person individually will find something within it is really powerfully done. I am really impressed with this book and the work done by every single person involved in creating this.