The Shadower. Peter & Maria Hoey. Co-written by C.P. Freund. Top Shelf Productions. 192pp. $19.99.
Comics scholar Scott McCloud has offered up a number of ways that we will read/experience comics in the future. For me, all the future I need happened when ComiXology invented the panel-to-panel reading format known as, Guided View. This reading feature, around for over a decade now, zooms in on elements on a comics page, mainly the text, allowing the reader, by the tap of a finger, to quickly and efficiently progress through a work of comics. I don’t think this is the best way to read comics (print is ideal) but it has its place given certain limitations of reading digital comics on a static page, primarily a PDF. I mention this because, the comic I’m reviewing now is a perfect example of a comic that not only works well with this technology but seems to be meant for it as this quirky reading feature seems to showcase the unique rhythm and pace of the work by Peter & Maria Hoey.
The sibling creative team of Peter & Maria Hoey have perfected their crisply delineated storyboards-come-to-life style of comics for decades with each work seeming to outdo the previous effort. You read one of their comics and, propelled along by Guided View, it is a truly immersive experience as the panels seem to take on an animated life of their own. While reading it in print remains ideal, it’s nice to know that it adapts well to a tech version and that has to do with its finely detailed and edited style and substance.
While Hoey comics readily bring to mind some elaborate storyboard presentation for a classic Hitchcock film, the decidedly cool characters also make me think of spooky marionettes on a stage giving off a vibe of being objects that are being observed rather than actors inviting the viewer in. So, there’s definitely that going on which is endlessly fascinating and enchanting; and that’s because, as much as you feel that distance, you can’t help but be drawn in.
The Hoey siblings have created this sort of magic many times, often favoring a gritty and melancholic landscape, the sort that gumshoe detectives follow. One recent example comes from their ongoing Coin-Op series. See our review here. In Issue 10, a man and a woman, cogs in a vast bureaucracy, must confront the authorities that enslave them if only they can discover how they are controlled while they sleep. And, if you can’t escape your dreams, then heaven help you in attempting to find peace in the afterlife in Hoey’s In Perpetuity. Just dazzling stuff: otherworldly and close to home.
The Shadower is another delicious Hoey offering: a tightly-woven tale about Nadia, a lonely and directionless young woman who lives in a small flat with her mother. They inhabit a world of great intrigue, similar to East Berlin, circa 1960. It is a grim city life after a massive civil war that has left everything in a high-tension tizzy of various districts just barely tolerating each other’s existence. Nadia happens to be a promising drama student. Then, one day, a secret agent enlists her to impersonate a girl named Miriam, a waitress, for a week in order to gather intel on a rival district kingpin. All very convoluted cloak and dagger stuff. The primary thing here is that Nadia suddenly finds herself stepping into a pivotal role, something she’s not sure she’s totally capable of seeing through.
The book begins with a seemingly esoteric, yet powerful rallying cry by Montaigne: “Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself!” It is lifted from the collection of essays on how to live a worthwhile life and is certainly pertinent to our story. Will Nadia be able to give herself completely over to being someone else and still be able to remain true to herself?
We all take on roles in life and we must live with the consequences. Are we living our best lives? Or are we caught in a web of compromises and artifice? Why do we do what we do? Is there a greater purpose or is it all a game? These are the sort of questions that Nadia must grapple with. In the course of this story, Nadia grows into her role only to find her role is sinking much deeper roots into her than she ever anticipated. And it only gets worse as the stakes continue to rise. Quite a fitting scenario for this creative team who are no stranger to offbeat noir fiction. The Hoey golden touch is in full swing. This is a comic that can mesmerize.
