Thirty-three centimeters wide, twenty-two high, 1672 grams, 272 pages. Obviously, the first volume of Echolands is a beautiful baby. Published on June 21 by Panini, this extraordinary comic book can already compete for the title of best comic of the year, as its almost unprecedented formal ambition, in the service of a thrilling adventure, commands respect. Rarely have the story and the layout merged so organically in a comic strip… It’s very simple, the alchemy is perfect.
Echolands, as its name suggests, is first and foremost an abundant universe. The reader plunges into it head first, glued to the coattails of a thief named Hope Redhood. This revamped Little Red Riding Hood tries to sow the constabulary in a joyful urban chaos where cultures, architectures and creatures from all walks of life mingle (comic book fans will have fun tracking down the winks). Very quickly, the genius of the designer J. H. Williams III is obvious: a myriad of graphic styles – all perfectly mastered – coexist within the boxes. Boxes themselves protean, nested, stretched, sometimes connected by fluid or elaborate gutters… The orientation of the characters as well as the arrangement of bubbles and onomatopoeia complete this ingenious device designed to guide the reader’s gaze.
The Italian-style format of Echolands, reinforced by an almost systematic use of double pages, makes it possible to break free from the classic visual codes of comics. “This landscape format lends itself well to the creation of an epic environment, enhancing the sensation of living a vast sprawling adventure”, analyzes J. H. Williams III for Le Figaro. The American cartoonist recognizes that this horizontality implies “considering each aspect of the construction of a scene with more attention than ever. Sometimes it works great, but even when it doesn’t, it’s always worth trying new things.” Remember that this is not the artist’s first attempt at graphic experimentation. He had already stood out for the very audacious cutting of Promethea (scripted by the legendary Alan Moore) and his excellent series Batwoman (co-scripted by W. Haden Blackman, co-author of Echolands).
Dubbed by Neil Gaiman, Echolands hybridizes several pre-existing mythologies like Sandman and manages to draw from them a world that is paradoxically very singular and coherent. The complexity of this universe mixing urban fantasy and science fiction is revealed over the course of the story, but also by other channels, in particular extracts from newspapers containing interviews, advertisements and classified ads. To keep the reader in suspense, interludes in the company of the “Floating Oracle” prophesy the twists to come at the end of each chapter.
Obviously, all this magnificently imaged edifice would collapse without a gripping plot and quality characters, points that J. H. Williams III details in the analysis of boards.
Please note that the following paragraphs reveal a minor plot twist. If you want to keep the surprise intact, move on!
Hope has made the mistake of stealing a very precious gem from the witch-despot Teros Demond, who sends his daughter after her. The latter has a frightening biomechanical body that makes her overpowered and virtually invulnerable. Pursued, our heroine embarks several companions in her misadventure, all forced to flee San Francisco by boat to “Treasure Island”. While there, they hope to get help from a local pirate, “but Romulus has held an old grudge about his past relationship with Hope, and when he hears about the stolen artifact, he thinks to trap the group and exchanging its members for a self-governing authority on the island”, explains J. H. Williams III. Hope and her companions, including an injured one, are led into a so-called “elevator for the infirmary” which turns out to be a mechanical vehicle attached to a track connected to an underwater rail.
Telling as many things as possible in a limited space, without sacrificing the readability of the scene or its potential for wonder, this is the challenge that the designer has set himself with this double page. “The page was to show the vehicle from the inside and outside, as it descends into the ocean. The objective was to make understand the mechanics of the vehicle, to set up the underwater railway (and the part of the island to which it is attached), to present the strange ocean floor of our world of Echolands and also to report the arrival of the daughter of Teros in his plane”, explains J. H. Williams III, who loves, he admits, solving this kind of layout puzzle.
“It was very tricky to get all of that in one composition. The only interesting way to do this was to split the image so as to simultaneously show above and below the surface of the water, the artist believes. This allowed for the falling motion of the vehicle as it descends into the ocean along the rail, showing how trapped fugitives are. Granted, I could have chosen a more traditional way of showing it all, but it wouldn’t have been as entertaining or as fun.”
Hope and her companions are about to fall into a trap. J. H. Williams III has therefore sought to make readers feel “the narrowness of the trap” (on the left page), an emotion that comes into opposition with the enchantment aroused by the expanse of the ocean (on the right page) .
“In the first box, the thinness of the stone and brick corridor is reinforced by the shape of the vignette, the walls seeming to come closer, deciphers the designer. The next few boxes set the stage for the trap and show that the vehicle is some strange old technology. The colors in these boxes seem earthy and a bit warm compared to the other scene at the bottom of the ocean. And even though the boxes themselves have rigid shapes, I wanted their sequencing to guide the reader up, down, before creating an upward arc to the right, then down as the vehicle descends along the rails and immerses itself.”
“The silhouette of these combined boxes forms what looks like a faucet,” continues J. H. Williams III. And when the vehicle touches the surface of the water, the space becomes a drop of water.
“From there, it’s all about the fluidity of the ocean and the strange aquatic life below the surface. And as we move our gaze across the page discovering the ocean floor, we can also see the sky above the surface and notice that the black plane of the daughter of Teros is about to take off. land on the island.
And the cartoonist concludes: “Although its dynamic seems simple, it was one of the most difficult double pages to design to make everything work well. In addition, a lot of time has been spent illustrating and inventing the bottom of the ocean, to make it both natural and strange.” Hold your breath, the adventure has only just begun…
Echolands (volume 1), by J. H. Williams III (screenplay and drawing) and W. Haden Blackman (screenplay), Dave Stewart (colours), translated by Laurent Laget, Panini Comics, 272 pages, 39.95 euros.
