Review: The Keluarga Cable Ship Company by Mereida Fajardo

How about a beautiful and atmospheric continuous scroll comic that will tug at your emotions like the dull ache of unrequited love, with a tangible isolation in a minimalist style with a limited colour palette? Well, step aboard The Keluarga Cable Ship Company by Mereida Fajardo.

Mereida Fajardo is a comic and zine maker based in Bristol. Mereida makes beautiful creations with unique formats that really explore and utilise the comic book medium in exquisitely interesting ways. Fine examples include her previous works, such as True Stories, The Painted Nuns of Santa Catalina, Naglalamy, Quivertree, and There's a Party in My Body. The Keluarga Cable Ship Company is a uniquely distinctive, intrinsically digital experience debuting at the LDComics Fair, more on which later, for now, though, let's dive into this one.

So, let's start with the art. Mereida Fajardo has created an idiosyncratically interesting piece of comic book art. After the initially striking title page, which in itself holds a beautiful design, thanks to a formatting failure on the part of my laptop my initial view of this intrinsically digital comic was three ribbons of blue and white intrigue. Once I'd adjusted the view, I was beholden to a thing of even more beauty. Continuous scroll comics are, to be honest, a novel concept to me as a physical devotee, but this one makes a hell of an example for championing this format.

As mentioned, the story is presented in three channels or ribbons of continuous imagery, each providing separate perspectives of space and time of the interlinked narrative. The art itself has enchanting, delicate fine line work and a minimalist style. This, combined with the limited blue and white colour palette, offers beautiful digestible art, but it's how this one makes you feel that holds its magic value.

The combination of all the elements mentioned and the slow scroll introduction creates an exceptional atmosphere of absorbing melancholy and isolation. The visual storytelling is extremely powerful with moments of mirroring imagery that connects each strand while emphasising the emotional impact. It's a beautiful, quiet sadness on offer as a tangible experience, that's absorbing, entertaining and heartfelt. The delivery of this is particularly special in pacing. Mereida is clearly an intelligent artist with a meticulous approach and powerful sense of optimisation of artistic presentation in the comic book medium. Okay, standard set with the art, how's the story itself?

The Keluarga Cable Ship Company floats on a simple premise. That of a software engineer arriving on board a ship to deliver a software update, a ship that repairs the undersea internet cables that connect us all. It is also the ship that his father works on. What plays out is a sad story of aspirational and generational disconnection, a strained family bond between father and son. A father lost at sea to his work, sense of duty, and himself.

This is a short story presented in a long format that builds a lovely sense of tension with its slow-paced delivery that sells the divide and space developed in this estranged relationship. There's a sense of struggle in family expectations and exploration of fallible pride that oozes from the story, especially with the collision of past and present. The powerful, heartbreaking realisation as well to the nature of the father's career adds to this dynamic to poignantly project these feelings as the story then slowly drifts to its impactful final imagery, delivering a final lasting moment of real substance. This is art that, as a package, moves you however you choose to take it in. Not just a novelty, it's stirring sterling stuff.

You can see it's Italic again, so it's ok if you skip this, but I hope this review has persuaded you in any way to treat yourself to this fine comic. You and the creator deserve it. If you're in the giving mood, please consider a donation to our Ko-fi, it sure would help a bunch. Now, back to the good stuff.

For fans of emotional storytelling, powerful stories, estranged father s, broken connections, the unspoken need for a child to make their parent proud and live up to imposed expectations set by family dynamics, the colour blue, feeling blue, the pull of the sea, scrolling digital comics and art that comes with an emotional experience there is definitely only one The Keluarga Cable Ship Company by Mereida Fajardo.

To get your copy, there will be only one place, and that's the amazing LDComics Online Comics Fair, which will be running from 1st to 31st of July. You can find it here. The LDC online comics fair is a celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the originally named Laydeez Do Comics. In 2009 Dr Nicola Streeten and Sarah Lightman founded the Community Interest Company "To champion comics work based on life narrative and the drama of the everyday. Streetan and Lightman shared an interest in comics and graphic novels that were not about superheroes but were focused on the domestic and autobiographical" The now named LDComics has hosted in this and its previous iteration an annual festival from 2018-2020 in conjunction with a prize for graphic novels in progress, set up a mentoring program and residences, delivered an international British Council project and delivered workshops and talks. If that wasn't enough, they hold vital monthly events hosting guests' illustrated presentations that are free to attend. Truly awesome stuff.

Review:5/5 for all the feels.