Review: Scinematic Figments #1 & #2
How about some sci-fi with stories darker than a Vantablack sponsored black hole that covers such things as an alternative perspective on cancer, the devil in the details of time travel, otherworldly addiction and contemplation on the highway to forever in art to nourish your eyeballs? Scinematic Figments is a nihilistic wet dream of entertainment from Bruno Catarino and an international team of artists.
Bruno Catarino is a Portugal-born, London-based writer and director whose previous comic books include Prey, Portrait Of A Soul and Bereavement; his short films include the award-winning Uncle Ted and For The Children. Ozo Michael Ezeogu is a Nigerian illustrator and visual storyteller. His work has been featured by the BBC and US Times with collaborations including Juju Games, Vortex Corporation and more, with comic work on Skyeater and Vodu. Spanish-born Ferran Delgado is Ozo's letterer, whose current work can be seen on Metamorpho and Creature Commandos for DC, Operation Sunshine for Dark Horse and Nick Pitarra's Ax-wielder Jon.
Garrie Gastonny is a professional artist with previous work including Supergod, The Vault, Odyssey and covers for Lady Death and Star Trek, to name but a few. His art is coloured here by Rifan an Indonesian illustrator, colourist, graphic designer and project manager at GS20 studio. Their letterer is Doncaster's Rob Jones, king of small press lettering, who has also worked for Image, Heavy Metal, Titan and Penguin Publishing, to name a few.
Samuel Gerardo Varga is a Bolivian comic artist and illustrator with previous work for Geek Girl, La Batalla de Aroma and Biografia Ilustrada de Rafael Pabon. Erwin J Arroza is a freelance comic book artist based in the Philippines with previous works including Grinidon, Water Wars Chronicles, Cobalt and Inferno City's Firehouse as well as a multitude of covers, posters and pinups. Erwin and Samuels's art is lettered by Matia Zanetti, a writer, letterer and comic designer for his indie publishing house Holograma since 2015, with previous work including Villanos, El Atraco Arriesgado, Benigno, Water Wars, Rumination and The Last Tide. Cover artists now with issue one and the comics logo coming courtesy of Lyndon White, an illustrator, writer and comic book artist with work for Image, Blue Fox and Top Cow with acclaimed graphic novels Sparks, The Fallen Star and Candles.
Issue two's main cover, and definitely my favourite on offer, comes from the mixed media artist we first fell in love with on Plainer Jane, it's Belfast-based Donna Anita Black. Finally, there's a variant cover for issue two courtesy of Max Bertolini, artist for Image, Dark Horse Comics and Heavy Metal, to name a few. International super team of artists and creators established, let's have a review.
So, let's start with the art. Starting with Ozu Ezeogu and what a way to open. Ozus's painted style is beautiful to begin with, in particular the application of light and shadow, but when this art turns its lens to space, it hits the pun deservedly out of this world levels of wonderment. To then add form and life to what amounts essentially to empty scenery is just sublime and a special level of sci-fi comic book art. It's comic art at its most cinematic. Ferran Delagado knits this art together expertly and really deserves credit for clever text format usage that really sells the surprise twist in the plot. The visual sell of this one is masterful.
Next up is a more conventional, contemporary style courtesy of Garrie Gastronny and Rifan. It's solid art, with Garrie being particularly skilled at character emotion. The attention to detail in background work shows great care, and Rifan's colour work is spot on throughout. Rob Jones rounds off the art with faultless lettering to finish the package nicely.
Lyndon White deserves praise for his logo and cover, which set up a great air of expectation, the logo in particular holding an 80s sci-fi quality that I think suits extremely well. Issue one dealt with it's on to two.
Donna Anita Black starts things off with a stunning cover that I feel captures the essence of Scinematic Figments and its dreamy transportative qualities. The first interior art comes from Samuel Vargas with another painted style, which has photo realistic elements in contrast to Ozu's realistic cinematic art. Samuel's strengths lie in the textures, background and landscape work, and the design of the aliens serves as another standout.
The final art interiors are brought by Erwin J Arroza who brings the strongest art all round. Instead of stand-out moments, the whole package is exceptional. Samuel deploys heavy line work enhanced by large brushstrokes of colour to create really captivating art. There's a dream-like quality in this art that links back to Donna's cover, which adds to the experience on offer and that suits the story most completely. Finally, Matias Zanetti's lettering on both artists' work is clear and concise. The cinematic quality of all the art presented is what makes this series so remarkable.
Story time then and Bruno Catarino gifts four short tales across the two issues that are as bleak as they are entertaining which is certainly to the power of 10 or the nth degree, very is the answer, astronomically terribly so. Opening story Finite is the strongest as a tone setter, an individual story, an example of clever sci-fi and an example of a good twist, It's the sort of thing to overshadow a future shock collection. I found a dark humour in it that, given the moment, comes from a perspective shift on cancer diagnosis, says so much about these comics.
Second story, My Time Has Come, has that same structure of build up to black humour reveal, but is less grandiose, philosophical, and more pragmatic. Detail is everything in time travel, and there are no shortcuts to career goals, is what we learn.
Issue two starts very differently with a tale of alien invasion, sort of - emphasis on the sort of. Although dressed in sci-fi, this is a different type of story full of sadness, enough hope as to not be a complete downer, but a tone setter all the same.
Final story, Infinite, returns to bigger philosophical musings. The plot has cleverly revealed revelations to transport a monologue on existence, time, the history of humanity and the nature of the universe into an entertaining ride. It's a very dark and bleak collection tonally, but it is fabulously, frightfully entertaining. There's elements of really dark comedy, philosophy, nature and history of humanity, nature of time, space and their connection, life, death and consciousness and a fair bit more, all in four short stories.
For fans of Sci-fi cinematics, dark stories, space, philosophy, the mind-blowing perspective point of a being's affliction of migratory disease, minor alien invasion, sort of, career progression and long journeys, like really, really long journeys in art full of beauty, it's Scinematic figments for you.
To get your copy materialise yourself to the Kickstarter here for the campaign before time escapes you. There you'll also be able to find all the useful links to the top-class creators.
Review: 4.7/5
