The Last Arrival #1-3, Reviewed

How about a psychedelic space odyssey where nothing is quite what it seems, reality and truth blend hazily and the answers might be found inside the comic? All aboard for The Last Arrival then from Daniel A. Prim, Gergely J. Szabó and Szabrina Maharita. 

At Comic Book News UK we do really love our Indie comics and the only thing better than an Indie comic is an indie publisher putting out comics. The indie scene continues growing in strength and we’re always trying to keep up with the ever-evolving and blossoming scene.

There's been relentlessly brilliant comics from Avery Hill, majestic beginnings from Quindre Press. Broken Face, Weirdo comics and Sentinel just to name a few and a whole host of individuals to boot. So it’s with a smile I am led to discover and offer attention to Tripolar with a catalogue of four very different comics (including a coming soon, definitely very adult offering that has a very intriguing and bonkers synopsis) and I want to direct your attention to one particularly interesting, preteen and up, ongoing series from the core team of head honcho Daniel A.Prim and mainstay artists Gergely J.Szabó and Szabrina Maharita - The Last Arrival.

So, let’s start with the art. First, I’ll start with the colours as Szabrina Maharita adds a vibrant psychedelic palette to this series that is mesmerizing in many instances. The iridescent hue used in a hologram and projected imagery, like the history box of issue one, and the similar effect used in issue twos communication scene adds a super impressive level to the art. It’s not just otherworldly, it shines intergalactic. The blinding neon choices for the refugee lead characters are always inspired, emphasising to great effect the essence of the sci-fi characters and their related material. In this delivery, the pedestrian colours of Earth and humanity are made to look more alien than the aliens themselves by contrast.

There’s also exceptional use of darkness in the dramatic set pieces and more intense moments. It’s just all very well-weighted. The vibrancy sells the sci-fi and the clever use of darkness sells the drama. This pendulum swing in colours captures the tone of the story in general, one of contrast of fact and fiction, truth and reality and the nature of aliens.

Pencils and inking then come from Gergely J. Szabó his art captures the sci-fi stylings sublimely. The character designs are excellent examples of fully realised alien elements with a very keen eye for detail to give emotion and life to these characters. The style choices in clothing and tech bolster these vibes. Gergely's approach to the big set pieces are certainly impressive and the psychedelic moments, whether from mind-bending reality or sci-fi shenanigans, are steller. My favourite panels would be either the "talking brain" sequence or Rirke’s flashbacks - one for psychedelic beauty, one for just proper dramatic visual storytelling. Lettering comes courtesy of Toben Racicot who does a bang-up job of handling those duties making clever use of comic book stylings for the comic inside the comic and for delivering clean and tidy work throughout.

On to the story then. Daniel A. Prim is the storyteller for this one and the first thing to know is just how long in the making this one has been as shared in the introduction to issue one. The original idea came to Dan at fourteen, and over a decade later the first issue saw the light of day. Through many rewrites, while also handling disappearing, misunderstanding and criminal artists, Dan developed a story that is in a big part a personal one of feeling like an alien on this strange island we call the UK. It has been a turbulent process by all accounts but this realised vision has been worth the struggle.

The bones of this story then centre around five aliens leaving their home planet to find a more habitable prospect. They end up on a post-apocalyptic event Earth where a mystery develops that makes surviving the first days a more harrowing task than establishing any type of future on this desolate rock. The team is made up of U’on the captain and inventor who is pragmatic to the mission, Rirke an artist and former priestess with a sad past, Olak a child a historian and a worrier for those left behind, Aome a child of hope who carries more skills than she knows and Acrok an engineer with a substance problem. The characters and these traits are all established in the first issue available on the Tripolar website for free (or a name your own price) so I don’t feel it's too spoilerish and anyway, there is a lot, like a lot more story spinning out.

The line between fantasy and reality is bent to great effect in events that set off as soon as the team discovers the remnants of the human race. Daniel uses the interesting tool of found comics to begin breadcrumbing the bigger twisted mystery and as things develop across the next two issues it becomes increasingly difficult to follow exactly what the aliens are experiencing. This deliberate jumping makes first reads a jarring and at times perplexing read, but I believe that's the point. Dan wants and gives lots of "wait,... what" moments meaning re-reads are certainly a necessity. There is a heck of a lot of threads to pull at with this one but by the end of issue three it looks like we’re close to being set for definitive answers, at last for what’s happening at the moment with two likely scenarios, but with this story, there are no certainties.

As for the bigger mystery, there's plenty more to unpack and I get the impression things may still be unresolved. There’s a sense of imminent conclusion after one particularly epic face-off but the nature of the story leaves doubts for even that to be the case. This one could either be straightforward with connections and hints especially when taken at face value but has shown how untrustworthy face value can be, and maybe is just full of red herrings. I'm all for that here as the ride is just so enjoyable and that colourful art makes it all worth it.

For fans of sci-fi mystery sagas, post-apocalyptic riddles, mysterious basement laboratories, mind-bending reality toying storytelling, comics inside comics, psychedelic coloured art and possibly unsettling entities behind locked doors, maybe. Then you’ll want The Last Arrival. To read the first issue for free and descend into the rabbit hole the place to start is https://www.tripolar.co.uk/ as everything you might want is there and you’ll find more besides, so try it out.

Review 4/5