Monstress

LIU | TAKEDA

Last week was beautiful.  Every day was like mother nature attempting to beat her own record just to impress us.  Then, this week, as if desperately trying to regain the attention of a distracted audience, mother nature turned the heat way up.  Only heat wasn't good enough for whatever trickster demon controls the weather of the northeast, water was added...for flair.   She broke the thermostat and, in turn, each of our wills to live.  So I continued my life indoors, citing a sense of self-preservation in the heat as opposed to the truth that I have little inclination to leave my house regardless of weather.  Saturday morning appeared as if it would continue the hellish pattern of the week, so I picked up a volume I had yet to read and sat in the coldest part of the house I could find.

I will be honest in that I did not buy Monstress out of a genuine attraction to either the cover or contents.  This purchase was based purely on guilt and FOMO.  Every single comic book store I went into featured the volume prominently and whenever I was foolish or lonely enough to strike up a conversation with employees, it was the comic they recommended. Fine.  I'm not too proud to say I'm above the influence of others.  Peer pressure is something I cave to on a regular basis.

Because it wasn't my own idea to buy it, I had no idea what to expect, not that my expectations ever meet with reality.  The artist draws with so much care and attention to detail.  Every panel looks like it must of have taken longer than I'm really willing to spend on anything.  It is this ornate mask that can distract you from the contents of the comic, but do not be mistaken, because this volume has some of the darkest characters and story lines I've ever read.  Every character is full of expression, most of them are some version of anger or defiance, but they're clear and they're there.  Even the cats in the story have convincing expressions.  Sanity is a common theme throughout the story and the artist uses her elegant flowing, delicate lines to portray a visceral madness and terror that leaves you in awe.  There's just something I don't like about the coloring.  The coloring on the cover is exactly why I hadn't picked the volume up myself.  There's so much detail and the coloring lets it down.  It lets us all down.  But the darkness and tones of that coloring are major contributors to the depths which you are dragged into this story.

It can take a while to get used to the vocabulary of the book and the characters.  Throughout the first chapter, I found every single character to be obnoxious.  Very little happens.  Then, the author kicks it into high gear.  After I finished the volume, I just sat there for a while trying to remember everything that happened and trying to make sense of it.  It felt as if I had read four or five volumes in a single sitting, not just one.  It truly is like a tapestry, every story line woven into one another to create a vivid picture.  Transitions can be choppy, which is jarring but also gives you exactly what you want which is whatever's next.  The dialogue is full of lines I've seen before but it surprisingly does not detract from the immersion this artist-author team have achieved.  As with any story, you ask yourself 'do I like this main character? Who is she?' and this comic just responds with so much empathy, 'we don't know.  She's trying to figure that out too.'  The story grabs you firmly by the neck and doesn't let go. With every page the grip gets tighter until you feel as if your head will if you don't know what happens next and just as you start to get used to it.  It's gone.

If you want something to distract, something to drag you out of your own world and into the dark reality of another, I suggest you read this book.