Artist: Martin Morazzo
Publisher: Image Comics
Currently on: Issue 5
We've all heard of the new Sargasso Sea being created in the Pacific Ocean with floating garbage, right? Well, in Great Pacific, Harris and Morazzo give the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" a bit more heft, making it as big as Texas and solid enough to walk on. Part eco-fable, part thriller, the story sees boy millionaire Chas Worthington fake his own death and claim the Patch for his own with the hope of nation-building and finding a solution to an environmental disaster. What I certainly didn't expect was some myriad elements as Polynesian natives worshiping a cephalopod creature living beneath the makeshift island, a Russian nuke, and modern-day pirates. All that, plus governmental and corporate interests wanting to drag his ass back home and maybe steal whatever he's got cooked up for the Patch. Chas has got his hands full. And could a romance be in the works as well?
Co-creator Martin Morazzo has a style that's vaguely Manga which I find pretty appropriate for a story that takes place halfway between the U.S. and Japan. He's put a lot of effort into this book, because New Texas (as Chas calls his sovereign nation), is an incredible place to draw, full of detailed particles of plastic, and with a topography of vertiginous crests and shallow puddles. It must be a toil to draw the environment each month, but obviously a loving one. Somehow, this offbeat book is always near the top of my pile the week it comes out. I don't know where it's going, and that's a rare and precious thing (which will not seem so rare during Indie Week, because I think that's one feature all my recommendations share).
Comments