For Mrs. Briggs life in a crowded Edinburgh is a lonely experience. The elderly woman has no friends or family. Her husband has passed away. She doesn’t know her neighbors.
Her life is spent following a daily routine of shopping, making her meals and sleeping. When everyone disappears, it doesn’t seem to make a huge impact on her. As she explores the city, she find two small groups of aliens. The short, pink blobby ones are building something under the direction of the tell, blue-skinned hoofed beings.
Neither of the two types of aliens pay any attention to her and at first it isn’t at all clear if they can see her as they work on their construction project. It isn’t until she finds one of the aliens who has been hurt that there is any interaction at all. She takes it home and bandages, feeds it and gradually befriends it. The creature takes the place of the child she’s always wanted, but could never have.
The story is extremely well plotted. It is deceptive how much work goes into a story that relies so little on words. Lothian, primarily a screenwriter (Shameless, Ashes to Ashes), is very spare with the dialogue throughout the book. And Mr. Briggs only becomes talkative at all when she finds her only friend. There are only a few places where words are used in the book all.
Similarly, Mac’s (Freak Out Squares) art is deceptively spare. At first glance, it seems so simple, but as you notice all the details that go into each panel you get filled in more and more on the lonely worlds of Mrs Briggs.
I also want to give Sha Nazir credit for the subtle color work. Once people disappear from the world the vibrant colors of the first couple pages leech out until Mrs. Briggs finds her friend. These are gradual tonal shift that you may not notice at first, but have a huge psychological impact.
I truly enjoyed this story of loss, loneliness, friendship and reversal. You probably have to talk to your comic book store guy or gal about ordering this. I didn’t see it when I was looking through the order forms. But it is worth the effort to find this rewarding book.
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Writer: Jack Lothian
Artist: Garry Mac
Color: Sha Nazir
Letters: Kirsty Hunter
Publisher: BHP Comics
Due to be released in April fromBHP Comics it is currently available for pre-order HERE
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- Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!
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