Since the Golden Age, mainstream comics have matured in subject matter in such a manner that the degree of violence or sexual suggestion is becoming unavoidable and the division between the “kids” rack and the rest of the books has never been more clear. At the same time, and with some notable exceptions, modern kid comics don’t have much in them to satisfy adults with subtext and sophistication in the same way that a Pixar film would. That’s the obvious comparison with a book like “Finding Gossamyr”, but does it deliver on its promise?
Written by Dave Rodriguez
Illustrated by Sarah EllertonWhen a brilliant young boy named Denny solves the most perplexing puzzle in the history of mankind, he and his caretaker sister, Jenna, are transported to the fantastic land of Gossamyr, where math is the language of magic and the boy’s unique condition gives him incredible power.
The basic premise of the book lies with a young boy named Denny, whose uncontrollable brilliance unlocks a bridge between his world and an alien world. Denny is testing his way into a program that harbors brilliant young minds and uses them for some yet-unknown purpose. His sister has been charged with his care, and sees this program as the best situation for everyone. The proctor of the program (and certainly some sort of authority in it) Doctor Hamilton is beside himself as Denny solves one of the most difficult theorems known to man, thereby setting the stage for the story’s largest mystery: To what end are these “students” being used in this program? What is Hamilton hoping to achieve?
Meanwhile, there are a few pages depicting an alien race who have been enslaved on a world known as “Gossamyr.” With the help of “The Preservers”, the slave race has been sealed off from their masters that somehow combines a mystical force with the very sort of mathematics that Denny has been so proficient in. The way that these alien races and Denny’s world may intersect through the math is intriguing, yet it was also a little unclear what the motivations of these different alien races were, so this part was a mixed bag in the first issue.
Perhaps where writer Dave Rodriguez deserves the most credit is in the unique way that he respects the intelligence of the reader and fleshes things out more than he has to. The characterization is given an identifiable sophistication, much in the same way that the characters in a Pixar film are more than just tropes. Denny’s sister is shown to have dreams of her own that take a backseat to her responsibility in taking care of him. In a phone conversation with her mother, she remarks that their mother can barely take care of herself. Though Hamilton is forceful in getting Denny to attempt the theorem, he is not shown to be a hand-wringing evildoer and Denny himself is perhaps the most surprising example of layered character work. He doesn’t like to be touched, he doesn’t show much emotion, he doesn’t express himself like most kids, and he adheres to a very specific schedule. It is never identified in this issue, but Denny most certainly has some sort of autism, which was something that genuinely shocked and delighted me as a fan of diversity of all types in comics, especially given how deftly it was handled.
The art too looks as though it is fit for a Pixar storyboard. There are vibrant colors, simple but varying and eye-catching designs, and expressions that wonderfully play-act the emotions on the page. At times, the panels look as though they are frozen screenshots from a computer animated feature. In a more realistic looking book, this might come off as stiff and detrimental, but “Finding Gossamyr” revels in its cartoony designs. I’m not sure exactly what mix of techniques were used to create this look, which I think is a compliment. It suggests a cohesive style that one can get immersed in, rather than one in which the method calls attention to itself. At the end of the day, its got a style that kids will feel familiar with and a craft that adults can appreciate on many levels.
If “Finding Gossamyr” has one major hurdle to get over, it is attracting an audience of kids who may find a “math-based fantasy story” a tough pill to swallow and adults that just plain might not give a small-market book like this a fair shake. Based on a market that doesn’t produce a lot of books like this, the high quality of the book alone may not be enough for it to find success. But as a work of fantastical fiction, Rodriguez and Ellerton sell it just about as well as they could in their first issue.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy. If you’re at all interested in supporting an all-ages comic, then buy.
