We live in amazingly good times for comic book fans. Every month dozens (hundreds?) Of titles are published. Due to this harvest, it was no longer possible to collect everything. And yet the 'bursting bubble' (demand over supply) predicted by some still cannot come true. Moreover, new players are entering the scene.
An example of this is Amber, one of the largest book publishers in Poland. Although this particular case is a return of this subject to the world of comics – and another one, because the publisher takes several years of breaks between the published titles. Although I was not able to see Amber’s earlier achievements in person, the communal news carries that the titles he published were terrible in terms of editing. So has the publishing house, learned from its own mistakes, prepared better this time? And the button!
Revolution is a woman
The main body of the comic book takes place in 2843 on the colonized moon of Avalon. The people living there struggle with the consequences of the fall of the “regime of Malory”: food shortages and poverty everywhere. Croger Babb, whose journalistic fame has long since declined, is investigating the dictator’s past. He manages to find the diaries of Maja Reveron – a figure currently unknown to anyone, and at the same time extremely important for the beginning of the revolution. Flashbacks are the second, equally important, part of the comic. It had all started forty years earlier with an escape from a labor camp in which Maia and her cousin, who would later become a despot, Arthur McBride, were involved.
Although the action takes place in the XXIX century, the authors of the comic, the marriage of Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman, approach the science-fiction aspects very carefully. Although there are spaceships here and there, and the action takes place on a distant moon, otherwise the world presented does not differ much from the one we know today. Especially that there are no technologies that are unusual today that would have an impact on the plot. In fact, the story is a solid spy thriller and it would only take a few minor tweaks to get rid of SF elements entirely. The authors also scarce information on the broader socio-political context for humanity living several hundred years from now. How rarely did I run out of exhibition here.
Quo Vadis, Amber?
Amber’s decision to publish this title is puzzling. The series allegedly was to be closed in thirty-fifty notebooks, as the authors themselves confirmed in interviews. Allegedly, because only fifteen of them appeared in the US, and the last one … in 2016. The Irresponsible Republic has been on an indefinite hiatus since then , and a Google search reveals that the last time Bechko and Hardman spoke about it was in 2018. If the title had a more episodic format (such as Lady Killerfrom Scream Comics, which is consumed by a similar drop-out problem), it would not be such a problem, but the creators decided to continue the story. Therefore, the Polish reader gets a comic book that will not even reach half of the originally planned events. So what was the motivation for choosing this particular position?
I’m so gray
Hardman’s drawings are very good. The realistic line matches the thriller content. The colors of the frames used are quite monotonous, using mainly gray and washed-out colors, which perfectly matches the severity of the presented world. It is a pity that both the events from the main timeline and the flashbacks are treated in the same graphic style, which makes them differ only in colors – apparently one of the dictator’s edicts was to wash reality out of saturated colors. I like the titles where artists experiment more in this field, and you won’t find it here.
The balloon massacre
The legend of the Invisible Republic reached me before I even got my review copy. In Polish comics, it was loud about how poorly this publication is in terms of editing. And it’s all about lettering here. This technical aspect of a comic is usually invisible to me, unless done badly – and Amber made sure the mistakes stuck in the eye. The text can barely fit in the balloons in some places, elsewhere it is too high and leaves a lot of light at the bottom. In one case, the dialogue line appears in one sequence even though the bubble is double. Fortunately, no one decided to use the Comic Sans font here, especially since another Amber title, Elf Quest , is the queen of fonts.
The fact that over the years the publishing house has not changed its approach to lettering is appalling. Especially that today’s comic book market has grown significantly, comic groups have thousands of participants to advise participants and there are also people who specialize in writing words into clouds ( kudos for the masterful work of Dymkołamaczy). It is a pity all the more, because the Republic was issued in a large format and with a hard cover.
Niekochana
It’s a strange title. The first volume of Invisible Reubplica is a very solid introduction to the thriller about the beginnings of a bloody revolution. It is hard, however, to forget the creators of abandoning their “child” years ago, and the terrible lettering from Amber only worsens the effect. I’m not sure if I feel encouraged enough to read the other two volumes.
