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Feb. 3rd, 2022
Eighty Days by A. C. Esguerra
Feb. 3rd, 2022 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leahandillyanaContinuing the theme of romance, I wanted to talk about one of the most unique non-Japanese comics I’ve ever read. Eighty Days is the debut graphic novel of a Filipine author, a story that’s difficult to categorize. Perhaps the most fitting description would be one of an alternate history war story, only its setting doesn’t really have a divergence point from our reality. Or maybe it has one so far into the past that seeking it doesn’t matter.
Eighty Days is a story of three people living in a setting somewhat resembling Southern Europe. Jay is an introverted pilot of a small airplane, a job crucial to the economy of the setting, relying on plane transport to an extend much greater than real world did at that stage in history (1930s-40s). Fix is a brilliant and charming boy from the class of undesirables who gets employed as Jay’s partner and radio operator. In the first part of the story, the two gradually get to know each other and slowly fall in love. Their situation is complicated by the fascist polity AVO conquering the nations of the setting one after another, putting Fix and his people in danger. It complicates even more when Sable, the employer of the two boys, joins the AVO because she sees no other option for herself.
In spite of being an one-shot in the bunko format, the story of Eighty Days has a complexity more fitting a multi volume manga series. Three main characters undergo development that makes them almost unrecognizable at the end of the story. It’s also gorgeous in terms of art – every picture is dynamic and fluid, with special attention given to airplanes. You can clearly see how much the author loves aviation. All in all, it’s one of the best comics I’ve ever read and I highly recommend it to any reader. The pages below are taken from the author’s personal website.
( Read more... )
Eighty Days is a story of three people living in a setting somewhat resembling Southern Europe. Jay is an introverted pilot of a small airplane, a job crucial to the economy of the setting, relying on plane transport to an extend much greater than real world did at that stage in history (1930s-40s). Fix is a brilliant and charming boy from the class of undesirables who gets employed as Jay’s partner and radio operator. In the first part of the story, the two gradually get to know each other and slowly fall in love. Their situation is complicated by the fascist polity AVO conquering the nations of the setting one after another, putting Fix and his people in danger. It complicates even more when Sable, the employer of the two boys, joins the AVO because she sees no other option for herself.
In spite of being an one-shot in the bunko format, the story of Eighty Days has a complexity more fitting a multi volume manga series. Three main characters undergo development that makes them almost unrecognizable at the end of the story. It’s also gorgeous in terms of art – every picture is dynamic and fluid, with special attention given to airplanes. You can clearly see how much the author loves aviation. All in all, it’s one of the best comics I’ve ever read and I highly recommend it to any reader. The pages below are taken from the author’s personal website.
( Read more... )
