Just finished reading The Fall vol. 1, Image Comics’ reprint of the Swiss apocalyptic adventure series by cartoonist Jared Muralt. Honestly, Muralt’s art is what primarily attracted me to the book—his ligne claire style coupled with these gorgeous digital colors (that balance warms and cools with such confident clarity) are just pure refined sugar for my eyes. Even the graphic design is excellent. Check out the cover:
I mean, how can you resist, right? This, coupled with Image Comics’ larger-than-usual size (it’s like 8.5x11, sort off European size) and a reasonable price point ($16.99 for 152 densely-paneled pages including process-oriented extras) made it an auto-purchase.
I’m familiar with Muralt’s art from his Instagram, as I apparently impulse-followed him years ago without knowing he made comics. His work reminds me of Aedena-era Moebius: very clean and expressive and interested in the solidity of the environment. His recent posts about this Buglands comic present an imaginative world that feels both whimsical and joyful:
The Fall, however, is anything but whimsical and joyful. I actually got quite depressed while reading it. Translated from German and borrowing bitter flavors from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, it chronicles a world falling apart from the perspective of a family struggling to hold itself together. A global pandemic coupled with an economic collapse slowly destroys society over the course of the book, leaving its characters scrambling for food, water and shelter as they navigate an increasingly dangerous world. A callous military enforces starvation-inducing quarantines, plague-ridden bodies are piled up along highways, pets are slaughtered for food and what begins as unease builds surely to an almost overwhelming despair by the book’s midpoint.
I should stress, though, that none of this is conveyed in a melodramatic manner. Muralt’s layouts and shot choices create a kind of clinical distance from all the action. We never linger on gore or zoom in on death. Most of it is implied or seen in the distance. The focus remains squarely on our characters as they grapple with their new reality from their limited viewpoint. It’s a very tasteful and sobering way to tell this story. When we finally get close to the action (like in this early scene where the father journeys to the center of the city with his children to find his wife) it feels like we’re being enveloped in chaos.
Honestly, the whole experience is kind of exhausting. The plot pretty much steamrolls the characters into worse and worse situations, doling out just enough hope to keep you reading, only to snatch it away at the last minute. It doesn’t even resolve by the end of the book, promising future volumes (which I’m not sure I’ll even want to pick up.) If it weren’t for the artwork I probably would’ve given up halfway, not for any lack of craft, but because it’s just so thoroughly depressing. Though it wasn’t quite as dire as this comic, having lived through the chaos of the last two years, this isn’t the kind of narrative experience I want to indulge in right now. It’s too close to real life, and too soon.
What’s interesting though:for all of The Fall’s plot similarities to the current global situation, it was apparently created three years before COVID-19. Yet another instance of comics presaging the future!
All that said: I don’t regret picking up this book. Again, Muralt’s art is worth the price of entry alone. There’s also a nice interview in the back plus sketches and process shots, which I always love in a comic book. Just be aware of potentially triggering subject matter, as I know I’m not alone in feeling tired of the pandemic. It was quite fun reading The Walking Dead back in 2003 but in 2021 this kind of story just doesn’t do it for me anymore.