Sunday, December 31, 2023

REVIEW: The Horizon (manhwa, vol. 1) by JH

The Horizon is a war (possibly post-apocalyptic) comic. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

The Horizon takes place during the aftermath of some kind of massacre (the Webtoon page says it was an apocalyptic event). A young boy is the sole survivor of some kind of event that kills his mother and pretty much everyone else in the city. With nothing else to do, he walks and eventually finds an abandoned school bus to sleep in. A girl his age also finds the bus, and the two of them become sudden traveling companions as more violence breaks out around them. Eventually they come across a third person, a grown man who seems to only be capable of screaming like a crow. Although the girl is fine with him following along, the boy can't help but be frightened and wary of the man.

There's this Korean movie called 26 Years that opens with a stunning and horrifying animated sequence depicting the Gwangju Uprising. Reading this reminded me a lot of that.

This was darker and more unpleasant than I was prepared for. The artwork was extremely effective - mostly black and white, scratchy, with occasional splashes of red to highlight things like the sky or a wound. The strange man that the boy and girl encountered had blank black, unnerving eyes. Although his behavior could be light and childlike, I, like the boy, was worried about what would happen if he stuck around. He was somehow both pitiful and terrifying.

This is the kind of series I'd need a boatload of spoilers for before I could continue it, so I'm likely stopping here. The volume doesn't end on an encouraging note for the boy and the girl, and I'm probably better off not seeing just how much darker things get for them.

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