Jack Kerouac once wrote, “… the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” As I read the debut issue of Ray Fawkes’ newest series, “Intersect”, these lines kept coming to my mind again and again. It’s as if Fawkes has distilled that sentiment, in all its voracious longing and infinite need for connection, and transformed it into atmosphere and narrative. Here his artwork captures that fabulous burning, and ushers us into this mad, mad new world.
Written & Illustrated by Ray Fawkes
Blood rains from the skies. A hypnotic voice trills over the airwaves as bodies shift and grow in horrifying new directions. Are you ready for the new world? RAY FAWKES, acclaimed creator of One Soul and writer of Constantine and Batman: Eternal, launches a terrifying monthly odyssey of madness and warped flesh in this lush, fully painted debut issue!
“Intersect” #1 is wildly different from anything I’ve read before, it’s beautiful and crazed. It pants, shoulders heaving and mouth agape, with energy and pandaemonium. Fawkes introduces us to a slice of the world where the boundaries of reality are dissolving. Human bodies are fusing with the world around them and one another, creating painful consequences that affect the characters’ identities and physical states. The main character here is a conflicted combination of a man named Jason and the woman he loves, Alison. The two souls, or spirits, or consciousnesses occupy one form. They are eroding into one another, both mentally and physically. The condition of this character is reminiscent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one side of the personality losing consciousness while the other is awake. However, the romantic connection between the characters and the impossible boundaries keeping the star-crossed lovers apart, are more Shakespeare than science fiction.
This character’s companion is called, ‘the Kid’. Unlike Alison and Jason who emerge alternatively, the Kid has become the dominant aspect of his body’s personality. This character is brilliantly designed and conceived. His ‘first face’ is positioned normally, though this aspect of his consciousness is now inert; the face, and seemingly the mind, that the Kid now uses has grown from the back of this body’s head. He is a backward man, his clothes facing the wrong way, his body moving forward in reverse. He is mind boggling to look at, completely defying expectation.
We meet these characters as they are trying to escape this place and its phenomena’s effect. While Ali and the Kid are firmly resolved in their decision to flee the city, Jason is more unsure. He longs for an understanding of what is happening, and fears losing his connection with Ali. Through the course of the story, it becomes clear that Ali died. Sharing occupancy within the same body seems a welcomed reprieve from the grief that Jason must have been experiencing after her death. He’s hesitant to risk losing her again. The motivation driving this character is relatable, even if the reality which he inhabits is completely novel.
Throughout this issue, there is little focus on linear storytelling. The book is more of an experience than a conduit for information. Dizzying and frantic, the story unfolds almost in code. The reality Fawkes is creating is revealed subtly, while his characters’ personalities are forceful and immediately apparent. The audience is invited into their confusion and panic, as we grapple for an understanding of the circumstances facing them in the same way they do. Throughout the issue, the characters are in crisis, on the run and struggling for a way out. Their story stings like cold in your lungs after a winter run.
The artwork in “Intersect” is beautiful and unsettling. Watercolors explode over stark white, creating a sensation of otherworldliness. The images are haunting, not only in regard to their subject matter, but in their execution. The transparency of the figures and their surroundings makes them and their world seem fleeting, like it might melt with the first hint of sunlight. There is a swirling buoyancy to Fawke’s illustration that evokes a feeling a floating. This feeling is heightened by the lack of panel borders in this issue. They are completely absent on many pages, and when present sometimes take on unexpected shapes, bleeding into each other. The art seems to levitate just above the page, giving the entire book a dreamlike, or rather, nightmarish quality.
Continued belowThe fluidity of the medium is contrasted by a tone of brittleness and fragility. The work feels cold and jagged. Fawkes‘ shadowy phantom-like characters seem poised to crack at any moment. Visually, they echo china dolls demanding to be handled carefully, though their environment seems unwilling to do so. The visual component of this book is like the painful chalky crunch of chipping a tooth, uncomfortable and obviously damaged; leaving an almost unrecognizable relic where something familiar once was.
A harrowing psychological drama, “Intersect” tears at the most basic components of the of the human experience. It’s uncomfortable and oddly terrifying. The pacing of the story, with its constant twists and turns, never allows readers to get comfortable. It is an incredibly disorienting experience, robbing us of the truths we cling to in order to define ourselves. Fawkes presents a reality that betrays the most essential elements of identity and understanding. This is a difficult book, but it rewards those who are willing to lose themselves in it. Highly imaginative and beautifully rendered, “Intersect” #1 challenges preconceptions and gets under the skin of the audience.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Haunting and thought-provoking, this is a memorable book worth experiencing.
