The Traveller Volume 2 Review: Alt-History Meets Absurdist Genius
It's been five years, but how about a return to the sci-fi alt-history altogether surprising steampunk aesthetic, enjoying a political thriller with a unique, enticing art style? It's the unmistakable The Traveller Volume 2 from Neil Gibson and Tasos Anastasiades.
Neil Gibson is a writer, founder and CEO of TPub Comics. Previous works include The World of Chub Chub, Theatrics (reviewed here), the gruesomely twisted in the best way possible, Twisted Dark. And then there's the recently funded, wildly successful Black Mirror collaboration comic USS Callister.
Tasos Anastasiades is the illustrator and co-creator. Tasos is an Associate Professor in Graphic Design at the European University of Cyprus. In 2004, he created the first comic book series in Cyprus, "Plastic Comics." His other works include "Fascista" and "Current."
Agnese Pozza provides colours. Agnese is a stellar colour artist from Italy who has done incredible work for Madcave, Dark Horse, Dynamite and Heavy Metal.
Lettering is once again provided by proficient professional, the perfectly polished Rob Jones, whose previous work has been for Image, Dark Horse, Penguin, Heavy Metal, Scout Comics, Markosia and Mad Cave, to name just a few.
Exhaustingly talented creators introduced, we ought to have a review. If you're new to the series, try the review for issue one, which you can find here.
So, let's start with the art. Tasos continues with great continuity everything that is great about the art of The Traveller Volume 1. The decent character work with strong emotion depictions works well, but whenever masked or non-human characters are portrayed, they stand out as better examples of the art. In particular, the design of the casual "mounted" guard I found exceptionally excellent.
The tech design throughout is great stuff, continuing the melding of steampunk or old school meets new school, science future meets science past theme. Tasos' art is wonderfully complemented by Agnese Pozza's colours. The lighting effects are awesome, and the warm tone palette throughout does an excellent job of shoring up the art and breathing more life into panels. Idealistically immaculate work on lettering as always from Rob Jones. Suitably stylish art addressed, how's the story going?
Neil Gibson is well established as a writer with a special talent for a cracking twist, particularly when it comes to the macabre. The flagship series, Twisted Dark, is proving that. With The Traveller Volume 1, we learnt always to expect the unexpected, even when facing historical roots. And I am extremely pleased to say The Traveller Volume 2 continues in this tradition.
Carrying on where Volume 1 left off, we pick up the story of Joseph Stalin before switching to another historical figure, one Edgar Hoover. Once again, we are playing fast and loose with historical figures with a very alternative history. Faster and looser than me after four Babyshams and a pound of shortbread biscuits or lemon sherbert, or faster and looser than a prune on adrenaline. This one touches on the power of Socialism, fighting fascism, politics of hate, false flag operations, the "Cold War", evolution, even alcoholism and of course ends on a ridiculous twist of revelation. The sort of twist that will leave readers pulling a face somewhere between shock, titillation and what the fudgery.
Fans of the series will be pleased to get more lore on the titular characters, but as before, the focus is on the influence and, particularly, the same dimension seen in the first volume and how it continues to steer our history, sort of. The brilliance of this one is how it maintains its composure while flirting with absurdities. I mean, Edgar Hoover wielding a lightsaber in an earnest way that feels authentic to the book, rather than parody, speaks volumes to this.
It's balmy alt-history sci-fi to almost Monty Python-esque levels of absurdity, yet played as serious as a History Channel documentary. The big ideas explored on population control and ethics offer great discourse, while the wild sci-fi ride keeps the pages turning. The ideas are strong, intriguing, silly-smart, thought-provoking stuff with a brain-twirling twist of an ending.
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For fans of sci-fi, alt-history, steampunk, socialism, twist reveal endings to induce spit-takes while simultaneously imparting a plethora of emotions that will affect your world view of a certain dignitary that's both chuckle-inducing and frightening, nuclear arms races, The Cold War, lightsabers and art that delivers its message, let yourself be visited by The Traveller Volume 2.
To get your copy, you will have to be patient, as we were lucky enough to be gifted an advanced copy for review. The best thing you can do is sign up for the Twisted Comics newsletter through the official website here. It's a one-stop shop of delectability. You'll also find the relevant social media to keep completely up to date with all the awesomeness they produce.
Review: 4.7/5.
