The apocalypse has an electric flavor – review of the comic “Elecboy”

It took Jaouen Salaün almost eighteen years to create Elecboy . Not because it required so much work. The idea simply needed to mature and the artist to gain confidence in his drawing and storytelling skills. The good news is that this time has not been wasted.

 

Elecboy’s plot is set one hundred years from now. So what happened to humanity during this time? Apocalypse. Although the causes and course of events were not explained in the first volume, powerful machines resembling angels that hunt survivors were certainly involved. Meanwhile, the remnants of humanity live in small communities where they struggle with the hardships of everyday life, in this case – searching for water sources.

Karma

Jaouen Salaün reversed the situation we know from history. The barracks are inhabited by the descendants of the immigrant population, while the ruling caste consists only of Native Americans. This idea could have a taste of historical justice, although the high society is portrayed in a negative way as rapists and cruel, which makes this thread a bit problematic.

And in such circumstances we meet Joshua, a rebellious teenager belonging to a lower caste. He remains under the spell of Margot, the chief’s granddaughter, which does not meet with the favor of her brother – Sylvia, who is also a total psycho. Equally important is the story of Joshua’s father, who once tried to live differently, until his ideals came into contact with harsh reality. He rather exists now, tormented by the demons of the past. Supernatural threads are woven into all this – sinister machines sow terror, but humanity does not seem to be completely passive towards them, because warriors with supernatural abilities lead the counteroffensive in the wasteland. Moreover, Joshua also begins to wield powers.

Wreck it again, Sam

Salaün didn’t offer anything particularly revealing in the first volume, but his post-apocalyptic world still has a lot of potential. It was definitely more interesting for me to read scenes with fantastic motifs than love vicissitudes and clashes between Joshua and Sylvie or other crumbs of life.

At the same time, I’m not entirely convinced of the narrative devices used in Elecboy . A lot of space is devoted to one character, whose plot ends quite unexpectedly in the first volume. The point is that I didn’t notice any conclusion here, I felt only disappointment about the fate that the screenwriter had prepared for him. Why has so much time been devoted to this hero?

Big boy

This comic is great. Not so much with the content (I’ve already proved that it’s not completely), but with the size. It is a real giant – in my collection it is one of the tallest publications, which is surprising, because it does not match it in thickness. The first volume is the standard 128 pages.

In this case, the size matters, because it allows you to take a better look at the drawings, or rather – the paintings. Many artists who decide to paint a comic book have problems with the appropriate dynamics of the scenes and rendering the details of the characters’ facial expressions. Both of these elements were not present in Elecboy , for which respect, especially since Salaün decided to present the characters in a photorealistic way. However, what shines are the mysterious opponents – in standard form resembling angels, to turn into a mechanical blob in combat mode, able to form any shape. This is nothing unique, because it appeared, for example, as a swarm of cuttlefish in The Matrix. Revolutions , but it doesn’t matter – because in the artist’s version all action scenes are excellent.

Elecman?

Elecboy has practically no original elements, but it juggles the motifs typical of post-apocalyptic fantasy very efficiently. This lack of freshness is compensated by beautiful graphics. There is relatively little in the first volume of the title Elecboy , which is why I am extremely curious what Salaün plans to serve in the continuation, which I will certainly reach for.