Reilly Hadden is one of the most
prolific and talented CCS grads, and in his case, his sheer work
ethic and willingness to follow his ideas to some strange places have
made him a better cartoonist. His regular anthology series Astral
Birth Canal is up to twelve issues, and he has several different
side projects he's working on as well. His comics are smart, funny,
fearless, strange, horrifying, bleak and humane. He's moved way past
his influences at this point to create his own strange aesthetic,
intermingling fantasy violence and moment-to-moment personal details.
Krikkit On The Creek is the
second of his minis to feature this gentle cat character. It's a
small mini that has no real plot: it simply follows Krikkit as he
explores his environment in a mindful, happy manner. Every moment he
spends walking around the creek and its accompanying waterfall,
fields, stone bridge and cave is a happy one. He's delighted to eat
from a blueberry bush and observe lobsters, ostriches and a new.
Hadden offers spot color using colored pencil for Krikkit, making him
a light orange that contrasts nicely with the simple black and white
renderings. Like anyone doing a comic for young children, Hadden
makes the comic a series of lists of things: things seen, things
eaten, things interacted with. It's a delightful little object.
His series Kath starts with a
standard Hadden technique: beginning a story in media res and then
slowly filling in the backstory as the action propels the narrative
forward. The comic starts with the titular character eating a
sandwich by a fire, before she's interrupted by an imp. Their
interactions lead to a monster sent by the gods coming to destroy
her, a conflict that plays out with him defeating him just long
enough to get away. Kath is a marvel of character design: her stringy
hair, scarred face and battle-hardened body only become more
interesting to look at when she dons her huge, horned helmet. In the
third issue, we learn her quest, see her take a tough moral stand and
make a daring, clever escape. There's an admirable
straightforwardness to this comic that Reilly sometimes eschews in
his work, and he accomplishes the neat trick of laying down narrative
pipe while keeping the action going at the same time. Every reveal
leads to the next big action, as the story comes into greater focus
even as Hadden keeps increasing the stakes. The quest of looking for
her child and bonding with her son's memory by eating the sandwich
they invented together adds a level of humane sweetness to the
proceedings.
Finch Island #4 is the
continuation of yet another series, involving an anthropomorphic bird
paddling to an island founded by an ancestor. We also see him from
another point in time, his story commented on by a pair of frogs who
happen to be traders. This comic is a model of restraint and tensions
literally roiling beneath the surface, as Hadden masterfully reveals
in the water as Finch is leisurely bringing his boat ashore. There
are monsters, underwater societies and other bits of oddness rendered
in a light hand, giving the impression that the reader can only
barely make out what's there. Considering the rest of the issue is
Finch exploring the island with a dog that he rescued, and one comes
away with a weird tension that something's about to happen, but it's
not clear what that might be. There's an almost poetic feeling to
some of the sequences in the book, particularly the still ones where
Finch is just stargazing.
Finally, there's the interlocking
Astral Birth Canal #10-12. This series is still Hadden's best
work, and it's his own mad science laboratory for exploring
long-form, improvisational storytelling. Hadden loves pushing new
ideas and images on his readers and letting them figure things out on
their own. He's wrapping up this title in favor of a new one to be
called Astral Forest, and it's a split that makes sense in the same
way his nearest comparison in comics, Chuck Forsman, did when he
ended his Snake Oil series. Both of these series explored fantasy
tropes in unusual contexts with weird, often absurd humor in the face
of horror. For all his flourishes, Hadden never strays too far from
creating a traditional narrative here, only mediated by his own
sensibilities and desire to keep things from getting too calcified
and safe.
The bulk of the narrative here concerns
Edward, son of Bork, who is a space god often sent on missions to
eliminate certain horrible people and monsters. Bork is dead and
Edward's just been killed, but they are watching lives playing out in
an effort for Edward to learn more about his mother Valentina. She's
a pro wrestler whose career takes off when she falls in love with
Bork. With key songs in the background amplifying the action, Hadden
takes the reader out of the story to remind them that other people
are watching this, including Edward's horrified reaction to seeing
his parents have sex. #11 has Bork's reveal that he's a god after he
helps her win the wrestling championship, and she offers to come with
him. Hadden interjects tons of humor in Bork's awkwardness, the way
the wrestlers are drawn, and the horribly embarrassing moments
involving sex that alarm his son. #12 has an escaped prisoner that
Bork captured on his ship wreaking havoc, ending up with a shocking
cliffhanger ending that reveals not all is as it seems. He then added
tremendous depth to this storyline, with the sweet and bizarre
relationship between Bjork and Valentina on display and told with
complete sincerity and a surprisingly heavy erotic charge.
The back-up stories as strong, as
Hadden continues to find a host of interesting artists to work with
for back-up features. Cooper Whittlesey's dense story is told through
a nine-panel-grid, each page upping the ante of danger for its main
character. Steve Bissette draws a forest monster, while Anna
McGlynn's choose-your-own-adventure comic for her main character is
clever, as it comes up with a cosmogony for a primitive society using
yes/no questions. It's enjoyable to explore major events disrupting
such societies in this way, as these disruptions often lead to
significant long-term changes. Audry Basch's peek at a couple of dog
superheroes, Hadden & Susan Dibble's delightful fairy tale about
lovers, and Iona Fox's over-the-top story showing Val and Bork having
sex are less impactful but still add a lot of depth to this
world-building process. We're learning about how and way many of
the characters do what they do and why.
I suspect Hadden's new series will be
another leap forward for him, allowing him to tell some new stories
while still dabbling in this world he's created. It's a world where
anything can happen, the powerful are merciless, and hope is still
present albeit way in the background. His cartooning is confident,
his understanding of narrative is sharp, and his approach
continuously explores the idea of gender and gender roles in
fascinating ways.
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