I wish I could give this a higher rating. It has some fantastic things going for it: the unique colour palette that differentiates perspectives, really cool art, and attention to detail. The panelling is idiosyncratic and interesting to look at.

However, the information design is really not well done. Pivotal aspects of the story are simply never codified. It tries to do world building by showing and not telling, but because the paneling is confusing and there is little to no text, to say the least, it becomes very muddled. It’s not just challenging to read, the pieces of the actual story are not actually present to assemble, even for a seasoned reader of comics and someone taking their time consuming it.

Far more of the story is divulged in the synopsis than in the actual pages, perhaps relying on it. But it’s not actually in the book at all. Not on the back or the interior. The editor did a really poor job with the developmental editing. There are no page numbers and I’m pretty sure the listed page count is wrong. It can’t be only 120 pages, to be honest, because it’s quite a lot thicker than a normal trade paperback.

Regardless, I managed to get the overall plot beats, so I’m not giving it a failing grade. Especially because I love the visual presentation. But it does feel like an amateurish auteur effort, rather than something with this many people attached to it. If it’s a starting point for the creator though, I’ll certainly check out what they do next. With better information design in the paneling and codifying the assumption of things they clearly thought were being communicated but weren’t, this could have been a much better comic than what it ended up being.