Zegas

by Michel Fiffe

Neorealism and the visually impossible collide to make the perfect heart beat in Michel Fiffe's Zegas ! Zegas  details the surreal urban adventures of the recently orphaned Zegas siblings. The ambitious Emily and her moody brother, Boston, are young adults who confront their new relationship dynamic in the face of a family tragedy that never gets talked about. The world of  Zegas  is set in a hyper-stylized landscape, but the down-to-earth characters and their conflicts are what anchor the story. At its core,  Zegas  is a collection of interactions that map out Emily and Boston’s most primal survival, sex, and mortality. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Surreal, Slice Of Life

96 pages, Paperback

Published December 12, 2017

About the author

Michel Fiffe is the creator of the action series COPRA, published by Bergen Street Press, and the intimately surreal Zegas, collected by Fantagraphics. He's worked with Marvel, Valiant, and BOOM! and continues to serialize COPRA when he's not writing massive essays on comics of note. Fiffe has produced Bloodstrike: Brutalists (Image Comics) and G.I. Joe: Sierra Muerte (IDW) in their entirety and has recently launched a new title, Negativeland.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zegas, drawn and written by Michel Fiffe, is a about a brother and sister, Emily and Boston Zegas, in their twenties, living in a kind of surreal, futuristic city. Emily, sorta ambitious, wants to be a fashion designer and her moody bro Boston wants to overcome social anxiety in his pursuit of some woman. Something that happened to them is unsaid. There’s drinking, drugs, and real, felt struggles with relationships and identity, so that all seems familiar, relatable, and the characters are all recognizably human, with strong and warmly sketchy drawing, generally. But then it also has these bright neon colors in places, with weird alien creatures popping up in dreamy landscapes. I call it alt comix, but I don’t know anything quite like it. I like it.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is what Michel Fiffe worked on pre-COPRA. It displays the same inventive art in a slice of life setting. The book follows a pair of siblings struggling to live their lives after some kind of tragedy with their parents. It's an interesting enough alt-comix.

[David Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indie slice of life graphic novel about a twentysomething brother and sister, but with a distinctly surreal bent. Told in a few vignettes that don't really end or begin. There's some plot, but not a lot. Still, I liked it.

[Lucas Sloppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drew me the fuck IN.

A feast for the eyes.

Excited to see more by Fiffe.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art (particularly the use of color) is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in comics and looks amazing on the full-page spreads that make up the book. The slice of life stories (though set in a surreal dystopian world) don’t quite match up but the characters are realistic and lovable despite their flaws. Looking forward to more from Fiffe.

[Bob Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I'm in love.

[Jesús · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was definitely not expecting that the same cartoonist responsible for the mad brilliance of Copra would be able to do a more down-to-earth story about the interpersonal dramas of a brother and sister (the eponymous Zegas).

Michel Fiffe translates his avant-garde superhero action style to the emotional lives of two siblings struggling with shared family trauma, romantic relationships, and the precariousness of creative work. At a glance, Zegas looks very similar in appearance to Fiffe’s Copra books, but upon reading them closely, it becomes clear just how different the two projects are. Where Copra is all about carefully coordinated action set-pieces and global espionage, Zegas is about the understated inner lives of two young-adult siblings attempting to make their way in a pseudo-futuristic world.

The brother, Boston, is a grouchy, introverted writer who seems perpetually stilted and self-destructive in both his creative life and his romantic life. His sister, Emily, is more gregarious and pragmatic, but she too is perpetually frustrated by her inability to gain creative autonomy as an aspiring fashion designer. This all set in a post-apocalyptic landscape and drawn in Fiffe’s now-familiar chaotic visual style and intense color palette.

Fiffe is fast becoming among my favorite working cartoonists, and Zegas is a sign of just how much more awesomeness he is capable of.

[Nate Portnoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’m not too sure what that was, but it was fun enough to pass the time

seemingly fragmented moments are build into a narrative that’s less about plot and more about the, often messy and unpredictable, beats of life (in space, i think?)

the art style is this jagged leviathan that captures the disjointed rhythms of urban sprawl, with the mundane elements and the bizarre ones blended into this smoothie of a comic

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've yet to read Fiffe's superhero title COPRA, but this is an odd blend of realistic character stories about a pair of siblings as they try to find fulfillment in love or artistry, set in a surreal, alien landscape. The bizarre aspects of the narrative won't be to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed the book overall.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some slice-of-life style stories around a pair of siblings living in a surrealist, futuristic setting. Fiffe's artwork is the real show here, with lots of inventive uses of mixed media techniques and layouts. The stories themselves are a bit forgettable, but it's still a good time overall.

[Ademption · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. I want more.

[BVC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peccato per la sceneggiatura, altrimenti meriterebbe ben di più.

[Justin Decloux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish there was more!

[Averil *rat emoji* · Rating 4 out of 5]

How is there still new art styles that I’ve never come across, the imagination of people is endless, but the situations are familiar. Feels pretty true to live about having a brother

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the art in this. Fiffe has a way of making panels feel kinetic both in action scenes and quieter moments like walking in an apartment. It doesn’t surprise me that his seemingly bigger work is more superhero / action based compared to this more slice-of-life series. The coloring is great too - often lurid colors, sometimes used sparingly so their use packs even more of a punch once saturated. It fits the futuristic (dystopian?) scene well, which sometimes includes surreal unexplained details. The sibling dynamic is represented well with some fun dynamics with other characters highlighted.

The biggest limitation is that these comics feel like sketches / concepts for a longer series that unfortunately never came to be - as another reviewer said, I was left wanting more in a good way. The art style / layouts definitely make me want to check out his other work, and I still enjoyed this glimpse into the Zegas world, however brief.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

AV Club

[Joel Kibbe]

Zegas is a post apocalyptic sitcom and it hit the spot.

[Reuvenc]

There's a hardscrabble rough'n'tumble quality to Fiffe's art combined with a precise framing and alternatively outlandish and constrained use of colour that all amounts to something unlike anything other than itself. If that makes sense? I really like it, esp. small sequences like when two sketchy characters climb a detailed fire-escape to a building's roof or when a character tries to perceive the fingers on someone else's hand through a drunken haze. Good comics.