Review: Strayed #1

By: Shawn Warner

My wife and I have been volunteering in several local homeless animal rescues for the past decade. We foster mainly the hardest cases of abused, elderly and terminally ill dogs and more often cats. So, anytime my two passions come together I can’t help being enthusiastically positive. It has happened several times, there was the amazing three issue mini series We3 by my personal favorite creative team of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, the poignant Animosity by Marguerite Bennett and Rafael de Lattorre and most recently the hard-hitting Lab Raider by Matt Miner and Creees Lee. All these titles spotlight the unique relationships we as humans share with our animal companions, some are thematically darker, but all of them are share a similar perspective. Strayed #1 written by Carlos Giffoni with art by Juan Doe strikes a similar chord as these odes to animal rights albeit with a decidedly heavy science fiction slant.

The premise of Strayed is as imaginative as its visuals, set an unspecified time in the distant future in an era when the military-industrial complex has all but taken over humanity. The insidious military overlords have an agenda that is tantamount to galactic genocide as they actively search out sentient life on planets then can invade and exploit, stripping the planets of all its natural resources before leaving the conquered worlds broken and incapable of supporting the indigenous populace. Enter a promising young military scientist named Kiara Rodriguez. Kiara is an idealist, perhaps even a bit naive, she develops the groundbreaking technology in the area of brainwave translation, to her this will open the door to communication with alien species once beyond our scope of understanding. The first being she reaches out to and successfully contacts is her cat, Lou. It seems Lou has a secret of his own, he can astral project, leave his body and travel to distant planets thereby making first contact with the indigenous sentient lifeforms. Once the big military muckety mucks get wind of this ability of Lou’s and the connection shared by the feline psychic traveler and his human companion, Kiara the race is on to weaponize this wonderful discovery.

I could heap gushing platitudes upon this amazing debut issue and they would be deserved, but I owe it to my readers to at least attempt to share this experience with them, albeit vicariously. First I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t begin with the cover by Juan Doe, who also does every page of interior art as well, striking does not begin to do this visual composition justice. The focal point is obviously Lou and to be more precise, his eyes. They are two huge soulful pools of obsidian gazing out at you, almost in a challenge not to feel his intensity. His head is surrounded by a hexagonal halo lending an air of Catholic sanctity and otherworldly holiness to Lou’s feline visage. You don’t so much view the colors as you feel the intense heat and energy as they explode from the page in a radiant cascade of concentrated vibrance.

Carlos Giffoni’s narrative premise is as imaginative as I’ve seen in recent comic books and I read almost everything on the racks. The heartfelt emotion that went into the creation of this story is apparent from page one. There is a sense of urgency born of a deep love and concern for the humane treatment of animals. Lou is a fully actualized character, without the narrative loses not only a key player, but its very heart, or at least half of it. The relationship between Kiara and Lou is the heart, soul and lifeblood of the narrative. It is a force of good beyond any force in the universe, the unconditional love of a person for their animal companion. Lou is not a “pet” as I believe the term diminishes the roles animals play in our lives, he is a companion, a trusted and loving friend. So when the big bads come for him Kiara immediately becomes suspicious of their sinister motives. The conflict is biblical at its core, good vs evil, darkness vs light, love over hate, although it is a paradigm explored it is never going to run out of narrative power. Giffoni creates such evil villains, yes they border on mustache-twirling, black-hatted vaudevillian villains, but that is exactly what is called for in this case. There is a Bond aesthetic at work here, from the giant nameless faces appearing on a wall of monitor screens to the tech laden lair or the military madmen, it all works, visually and thematically.

The animal rights element to the narrative could easily have come across ham-fisted or soapboxy, however neither is applicable here. Giffoni’s impassioned writing and authentic approach to dialog presents the case for ethical humane treatment of animals with equal parts logic and compassion. There are no over-the-top scenes of experimentation, because the scenes that are here are more effective through the nuanced subtleties employed to depict them. The restraint over shock equation pays off in a very big way, especially given that Juan Doe’s artwork is nothing short of inspired genius. That being said I don’t want to give the impression that this creative team in anyway waters down the subject or that they somehow lack the courage of their convictions, quite the contrary. In fact, Strayed is not only one of the most unique books to hit the racks in some time, it is certainly one of the bravest. I admire anyone with the courage to stand up and lend their voice to the voiceless innocents and that is precisely what this work of compassionate art does.

Visually, Strayed is arresting in its visual beauty, Doe’s work calls to mind the work of other visual geniuses of the medium Tradd Moore in the exaggerated, long limbed figures while his bombastic approach to color reminds me of the work of Ben Templesmith. There is a similar energy in both Doe and Templesmith’s use of color that adds a sense of extreme exigency to their work. Doe’s distinctive take on anatomy and character design work hand in glove with the idiosyncratic elements of Giffoni’s narrative. One more visual element deserves mentioning here, one I feel is often over looked, but Matt Krotzer’s eye grabbing lettering and visual sound effects stand out in all the right ways giving the overall look of the issue an extraordinarily stunning appearance.

Strayed is a big win for Dark Horse Comics; the publisher has had a string of really great titles recently which is a welcomed plus in light of losing some of their biggest licensed properties. Strayed joins Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer titles, Gerard Way’s Umbrella Academy and Neil Gaiman’s American Gods all at Dark Horse and all creating some great stories. If this first issue is any indication, and I believe it is, Giffoni, Doe and Krotzer have a bona fide hit on their hands, but more importantly they will reach a well deserved wider audience. Strayed is unlike anything currently being published, it is imaginative, packs one heck of an emotional wallop and has some of the most mind melting visuals I’ve seen in quite sometime. As I wrote at the beginning of this review, I love when my two passions combine, comic books and animal rights, well this is it my friends! It doesn’t get anymore on the nose than this, if you love a tremendously well crafted comic book or if you love a story ofÂ the unconditional love between a human and their animal companion, either way Strayed is your book! I’m obviously onboard, for me this book captures so many of the things I love about comic books, the utter weirdness of Doom Patrol, the visually stunning images of Silver Surfer and the electric eclectic colors of 30 Days of Night, while maintaining a complete originality. If you are like me and trying to make every dollar you spend in the comic shop count, definitely add Strayed to your stack, then after you read it I’m sure you will be adding it to your pull list. 4.5/5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer-Carlos Giffoni
Artist- Juan Doe
Letterer- Matt Krotzer