Eurocomics

So I've read some of TinTin before, but other than that, I've never really paid attention to European comics. But I wish I would have before now. Because now that I've read "The Nikopol Trilogy", I want to read more. For anyone who hasn't read that, I think they should. It's a great graphic novel made up in three parts. In total, it's about 175 pages of science fiction that I'm very glad to have read. Something about it just really grabbed me from the beginning. Maybe it was my fascination with Egyptian Gods. Or science fiction in general. They're two things that always draw me in. So it probably sparked my fascination with it from the start.

My interest in Egyptian Gods and science fiction weren't the only things to draw me in. The style of the comic did the job as well. For instance, the color palette were strong. After studying color for a while, I understood what was going on. The author, Enki Bilal, chose to go with a muted palette. And it fits the futuristic vibe that he gets. I can imagine this is what 2023 is like. Although I don't know how all the aliens would get here about 13 years from now. But who knows! Maybe Bilal was right. And where were the Egyptian gods from 525 BC to 2023? Just hiding in their mechanical pyramid? Waiting until they ran out of fuel? That would set the comic up at least. Not that I'm getting off topic or anything.

Back to things that caught my attention. The way the text was formed. If someone was walking up a hill, their text would be slanted above them. In one scene, their are airplanes flying around and if one's upside down, the text is upside down as well. It goes wherever the speaker goes. Something about that is just great. Just the attention to details and different ways of twisting the standard form of a graphic novel. The characters that Bilal created were great as well. All the Egyptian Gods had a personality. There was a telepathic cat, Gogol. The governor and the people that surrounded him and of course Nikopol, his son and Bioskop the reporter. It gives them all an importance for the graphic novel. Nikopol might be the central character, but he's not the only important one. Everyone else that gets an importance has a connection to him in some way.

Bilal was very creative in not only connecting people, but in his future. I loved the fact that cats can now be telepathic. Or that you can now kill people in hockey games without getting in trouble. That now chess an boxing is mixed together. Bilal took what he knew and twisted it to make it much more interesting and fascinating. What else can I say about Nikopol? I don't really have anything to complain about. It bugged me slightly that the text changed to fit someone's accent so you had to work harder to figure out what was going on. However, other than that, there's nothing that I can say that's bad about this comic. I'm definitely going to have to look for the movie Immortal and watch it. Even if it's not as good as the comic, I still want to see it! Science fiction mixed with Egyptian Gods is something I definitely want to have more of!