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Shangri-La
A few hundred years in the future, humans have abandoned an uninhabitable Earth to live in a space station governed by the Tianzhu Corporation. Their needs and creature comforts are provided without questions, and everyone seems to be satisfied with this "perfect society". But there are those who would trade that peaceful comfort for freedom...
As science reaches the verge of creating life from nothing, a blanket of shadowy secrets begin to unravel, revealing a conspiracy of carefully crafted manipulation that could usher in a new stage of evolution or signal the end of everything we know.
There is a dangerous difference between playing gods and becoming gods...
As science reaches the verge of creating life from nothing, a blanket of shadowy secrets begin to unravel, revealing a conspiracy of carefully crafted manipulation that could usher in a new stage of evolution or signal the end of everything we know.
There is a dangerous difference between playing gods and becoming gods...
222 pages, Hardcover
First published September 2, 2016
55 people are currently reading
978 people want to read
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November 16, 2017
4,5 / 5
Mathieu Bablet coge las riendas de estos maestros de la ciencia ficción clásica para crear una obra que los rescata sin ser original ni rompedor, pero con un guion que acierta de pleno. La Tierra ya no es un lugar habitable. Los humanos viven en una colonia en órbita creada por la empresa Tianzhu. Sometidos a la hegemonía de una multinacional que ha logrado imponer un modelo consumista entre sus ciudadanos nos encontramos con una sociedad que ha sacrificado su libertad individual por el bienestar social. Claro, que nada es tan bueno como parece a simple vista. Los humanos no aceptan a los animoides (animales humanizados), los científicos quieren ser dioses creando vida a partir de la nada, y un grupo rebelde romperá el supuesto estado de paz para abrir los ojos de sus habitantes.
Una obra robusta, narrativamente fantástica, reflexiva y un poco densa sobre la futura actualidad que fue seleccionada en la última edición del prestigioso festival de Angoulême como mejor álbum. Mathieu habla sobre las oligarquías, el monopolio, la sociedad de consumo extremista en que vivimos, el debate de la libertad contra la seguridad, la ética animal, la esclavitud, el racismo, la legitimidad de las revueltas sociales y los límites del poder. Pone en jaque nuestras preocupaciones actuales sobre el medio ambiente y nuestra propia supervivencia. Todo un aviso de hacia dónde nos podemos dirigir si no cambiamos nuestras costumbres. Una bofetada a nuestros cerebros consumistas.
Si ha este componente crítico le añades el arte creado por Mathieu Bablet, te queda una obra casi redonda. Y digo casi por que aunque los paisajes que crea son alucinantes, falla en el detallismo de los personajes. Tiene diseños muy trabajados con inspiración manga respecto a los mechas, que solo erran en los personajes humanos, a veces difíciles de distinguir. Las caras y las expresiones son prácticamente iguales. Redondea el dibujo arquitectónico e impresionante un color magistral, que crea paisajes de ensueño. Si os gusta la ciencia ficción reflexiva y crítica con nuestro mundo y naturaleza, no os perdáis este Shangri-La.
Reseña en el blog: http://boywithletters.blogspot.com.es...
Mathieu Bablet coge las riendas de estos maestros de la ciencia ficción clásica para crear una obra que los rescata sin ser original ni rompedor, pero con un guion que acierta de pleno. La Tierra ya no es un lugar habitable. Los humanos viven en una colonia en órbita creada por la empresa Tianzhu. Sometidos a la hegemonía de una multinacional que ha logrado imponer un modelo consumista entre sus ciudadanos nos encontramos con una sociedad que ha sacrificado su libertad individual por el bienestar social. Claro, que nada es tan bueno como parece a simple vista. Los humanos no aceptan a los animoides (animales humanizados), los científicos quieren ser dioses creando vida a partir de la nada, y un grupo rebelde romperá el supuesto estado de paz para abrir los ojos de sus habitantes.
Una obra robusta, narrativamente fantástica, reflexiva y un poco densa sobre la futura actualidad que fue seleccionada en la última edición del prestigioso festival de Angoulême como mejor álbum. Mathieu habla sobre las oligarquías, el monopolio, la sociedad de consumo extremista en que vivimos, el debate de la libertad contra la seguridad, la ética animal, la esclavitud, el racismo, la legitimidad de las revueltas sociales y los límites del poder. Pone en jaque nuestras preocupaciones actuales sobre el medio ambiente y nuestra propia supervivencia. Todo un aviso de hacia dónde nos podemos dirigir si no cambiamos nuestras costumbres. Una bofetada a nuestros cerebros consumistas.
Si ha este componente crítico le añades el arte creado por Mathieu Bablet, te queda una obra casi redonda. Y digo casi por que aunque los paisajes que crea son alucinantes, falla en el detallismo de los personajes. Tiene diseños muy trabajados con inspiración manga respecto a los mechas, que solo erran en los personajes humanos, a veces difíciles de distinguir. Las caras y las expresiones son prácticamente iguales. Redondea el dibujo arquitectónico e impresionante un color magistral, que crea paisajes de ensueño. Si os gusta la ciencia ficción reflexiva y crítica con nuestro mundo y naturaleza, no os perdáis este Shangri-La.
Reseña en el blog: http://boywithletters.blogspot.com.es...
June 16, 2018
Tres estrellas y media.
En el género de ciencia ficción hay distintas escuelas o tradiciones culturales, y estas a menudo van ligadas a su procedencia. En el caso que nos ocupa la tradición europea continental es evidente y dentro de esta, la tradición francófona del cómic.
En esta historia hay temas que evidencian lo anterior: anti-utopía (utopía con trampa o distopía si se prefiere, es cuestión de matiz), mega-corporaciones y sociedad de consumo, el problema del poder y la tecnología puesta a su servicio, el racismo... Temas muy arraigados en la tradición europea y a su vez temas muy cercanos a nuestro presente ¿Quizás demasiado?
Me explico: si bien una de las muchas definiciones de la ciencia ficción es: alejarse en el espacio y el tiempo para ofrecernos una crítica del presente (vía hipérbole, por exemplo), en este caso la crítica se hace demasiado evidente para mi gusto.
El guion incluye una trama principal "múltiple" en la que se mezclan varios temas de manera a momentos algo confusa. El cómic, eso sí, a pesar de los temas manidos que he mencionado, tiene muchos momentos memorables; escenas o páginas que impactan, de gran fuerza expresiva, gracias por supuesto al dibujo de Mathieu Bablet, como a continuación comento.
En el aspecto positivo, en todo lo referente al worldbuiding, en mi opinión el dibujo es simplemente magistral. La angustia y la soledad, mezclados con la grandeza de la vision del espacio; o bien en los interiores artificiales, de como transmite el frío y la claustrofobia de una estación espacial en la que aparentemente se goza de todas las comodidades que la sociedad de consumo puede proporcionar. En la parte que debo valorar negativamente, el dibujo de los personajes. Su expresividad, esas caras que uno no sabe bien como identificar: no sé si soy el único que me oriento más por los nombres que por las caras de los personajes ¡en un cómic! Entiendo que en una relectura ayudaría a aclarar un poco este aspecto, pero no debería ser así. No digo que no sea recomendable una relectura de este cómic, pero destinada al disfrute de la historia y sobre todo del dibujo.
En resumen, mi valoracion en conjunto es que se trata de un cómic de ciencia ficción muy ambicioso y que a pesar de los peros que he ido comentando, creo que el autor aprueba con nota.
En el género de ciencia ficción hay distintas escuelas o tradiciones culturales, y estas a menudo van ligadas a su procedencia. En el caso que nos ocupa la tradición europea continental es evidente y dentro de esta, la tradición francófona del cómic.
En esta historia hay temas que evidencian lo anterior: anti-utopía (utopía con trampa o distopía si se prefiere, es cuestión de matiz), mega-corporaciones y sociedad de consumo, el problema del poder y la tecnología puesta a su servicio, el racismo... Temas muy arraigados en la tradición europea y a su vez temas muy cercanos a nuestro presente ¿Quizás demasiado?
Me explico: si bien una de las muchas definiciones de la ciencia ficción es: alejarse en el espacio y el tiempo para ofrecernos una crítica del presente (vía hipérbole, por exemplo), en este caso la crítica se hace demasiado evidente para mi gusto.
El guion incluye una trama principal "múltiple" en la que se mezclan varios temas de manera a momentos algo confusa. El cómic, eso sí, a pesar de los temas manidos que he mencionado, tiene muchos momentos memorables; escenas o páginas que impactan, de gran fuerza expresiva, gracias por supuesto al dibujo de Mathieu Bablet, como a continuación comento.
En el aspecto positivo, en todo lo referente al worldbuiding, en mi opinión el dibujo es simplemente magistral. La angustia y la soledad, mezclados con la grandeza de la vision del espacio; o bien en los interiores artificiales, de como transmite el frío y la claustrofobia de una estación espacial en la que aparentemente se goza de todas las comodidades que la sociedad de consumo puede proporcionar. En la parte que debo valorar negativamente, el dibujo de los personajes. Su expresividad, esas caras que uno no sabe bien como identificar: no sé si soy el único que me oriento más por los nombres que por las caras de los personajes ¡en un cómic! Entiendo que en una relectura ayudaría a aclarar un poco este aspecto, pero no debería ser así. No digo que no sea recomendable una relectura de este cómic, pero destinada al disfrute de la historia y sobre todo del dibujo.
En resumen, mi valoracion en conjunto es que se trata de un cómic de ciencia ficción muy ambicioso y que a pesar de los peros que he ido comentando, creo que el autor aprueba con nota.
November 28, 2016
Déçu. Je n'avais rien lu de Mathieu Bablet, en avais lu beaucoup de bien et m'attendais à mieux. Le tout manque beaucoup de maturité. Il y a quelques jolies visions mais l'ensemble est manichéen au possible, la violence trop souvent gratuite et la physique grotesque. Non, il n'est pas nécessaire de fusion matière/anti-matière pour reinventer la vie, et la gravité n'apparait pas soudainement après avoir cyclé un sas. Mais bon je chipote.
February 16, 2024
Humans are trash. A mob of barely sentient beasts, herded around by some assholes lucky enough to climb on top of the pile for a little while, placated by new phones and flashy lights and dangling keys. When angered, they will lose that measure of sentience and go berserk and break everything around them - including each other - in a mindless orgy of destruction and murder and rape. Then either the ones actually responsible for it get away with it scott-free, or some new guy steps in and takes charge, and the cycle repeats forever and nothing ever gets better.
Even after we kill our planet from under us and humanity is on the brink of extinction the cycle still keeps on going without a hiccup. And in the end everybody dies. Weep for mankind.
What, an actual solution? Something that we can do to break the cycle and fix things for ourselves for good? Evolve as a species? That would have been worth reading, but of course there are no such things with this comic. Just a whole bunch of misery porn, same old, rubbed in our faces and pretending it's saying something we didn't all already know.
What a miserable experience.
Even after we kill our planet from under us and humanity is on the brink of extinction the cycle still keeps on going without a hiccup. And in the end everybody dies. Weep for mankind.
What, an actual solution? Something that we can do to break the cycle and fix things for ourselves for good? Evolve as a species? That would have been worth reading, but of course there are no such things with this comic. Just a whole bunch of misery porn, same old, rubbed in our faces and pretending it's saying something we didn't all already know.
What a miserable experience.
September 13, 2016
Quel génie, ce roman graphique !
je ne vais pas le raconter, parce que c'est assez long. Mais l'histoire est vraiment chouette, le talent d'évocation de l'auteur d'une puissance rare, et les références au monde actuel sont aussi intelligentes que glaçantes.
J'ai franchement bien fait de l'acheter sans même l'ouvrir, j'en suis très content.
je ne vais pas le raconter, parce que c'est assez long. Mais l'histoire est vraiment chouette, le talent d'évocation de l'auteur d'une puissance rare, et les références au monde actuel sont aussi intelligentes que glaçantes.
J'ai franchement bien fait de l'acheter sans même l'ouvrir, j'en suis très content.
October 1, 2020
2.5/5
Va falloir apprendre la finesse Mathieu.
Toute la première partie particulièrement les messages sur la sur-consommation ça me faisait juste lever les yeux au ciel. On est sur un discours niveau jeune de 16 ans qui vient de voir fight club.
Bref heureusement la deuxième partie était un peu mieux amenée et surtout plus intéressante côté scénario.
Les dessins sont à la fois très beau (les couleurs, les scènes grandioses etc) et clairement moches (pas d'autre mot) quand il s'agit des personnages. Tout le monde se ressemble, ça rend la lecture très confuse.
Et vraiment je déteste la Sf qui ne fait pas d'effort comme ça, c'est des centaines d'années après nous mais ils vont encore regarder wikipedia et on leur vend le dernier téléphone 5s et s'ils ont des tracker c'est juste dans leur téléphone lol. Il faut updater toute la technologie les gars quand on crée le futur. Et oui, c'est du taff le worldbuilding.
Note à part : j'avais comme un vague sentiment anti asiatique dans cette bd. Pas directement du tout mais au final la société du futur qui est critiquée ici ressemble étonnamment à un mélange de Chine et de Japon multiplié par 1000. Mais c'est plus un sentiment général, je n'ai pas d'arguments assez solide pr vraiment défendre cette théorie.
Va falloir apprendre la finesse Mathieu.
Toute la première partie particulièrement les messages sur la sur-consommation ça me faisait juste lever les yeux au ciel. On est sur un discours niveau jeune de 16 ans qui vient de voir fight club.
Bref heureusement la deuxième partie était un peu mieux amenée et surtout plus intéressante côté scénario.
Les dessins sont à la fois très beau (les couleurs, les scènes grandioses etc) et clairement moches (pas d'autre mot) quand il s'agit des personnages. Tout le monde se ressemble, ça rend la lecture très confuse.
Et vraiment je déteste la Sf qui ne fait pas d'effort comme ça, c'est des centaines d'années après nous mais ils vont encore regarder wikipedia et on leur vend le dernier téléphone 5s et s'ils ont des tracker c'est juste dans leur téléphone lol. Il faut updater toute la technologie les gars quand on crée le futur. Et oui, c'est du taff le worldbuilding.
Note à part : j'avais comme un vague sentiment anti asiatique dans cette bd. Pas directement du tout mais au final la société du futur qui est critiquée ici ressemble étonnamment à un mélange de Chine et de Japon multiplié par 1000. Mais c'est plus un sentiment général, je n'ai pas d'arguments assez solide pr vraiment défendre cette théorie.
July 20, 2022
No acostumbro a conectar con obras de ciencia ficción en formato cómic, pero esta es la excepción que confirma la regla. Buena ambientación y ideas muy interesantes llevadas de forma original. Algo confuso al final.
January 21, 2025
Prenez 1984 d’Orwell, Frontier de Singelin et la Zone du dehors de Damasio, secouez et vous aurez Shangri-la. J’ai beaucoup aimé. Les dessins de Bablet sont toujours vivifiants et le scénario donne un éclairage perturbant mais utile sur notre société.
October 1, 2022
Mathieu Bablet can draw a real good looking comicbook.
This is a speculative sci-fi epic that brings to mind stuff like 2001 A Space Odyssey and Akira.
The book is bookended by two sequences that predate and postdate the main story by many years. Page 23 there's a caption that states "One million years later". These sequence are perhaps my favourite part of the book!
The main story takes place on an enormous space station where all of humanity currently resides. There's some conspiracies and political intrigue. Our main characters are trying to get to the bottom of things.
This is a speculative sci-fi epic that brings to mind stuff like 2001 A Space Odyssey and Akira.
The book is bookended by two sequences that predate and postdate the main story by many years. Page 23 there's a caption that states "One million years later". These sequence are perhaps my favourite part of the book!
The main story takes place on an enormous space station where all of humanity currently resides. There's some conspiracies and political intrigue. Our main characters are trying to get to the bottom of things.
July 11, 2019
3.5 Les planches sont très travaillées, les couleurs superbes, le style particulier mais moi j'ai aimé et le pitch de départ, top.
Par contre j'ai trouvé que l'ensemble manquait de subtilité, j'aime qu'on me fasse réfléchir, pas qu'on me mâche tout en me disant ce que doit penser a chaque planche et c'est ce qui m'a gêné dans cette BD.
Par contre j'ai trouvé que l'ensemble manquait de subtilité, j'aime qu'on me fasse réfléchir, pas qu'on me mâche tout en me disant ce que doit penser a chaque planche et c'est ce qui m'a gêné dans cette BD.
February 20, 2022
“Shangri-La” is a manga-inspired science fiction adventure and social commentary book. It’s beautifully drawn with a very cinematic eye. If Bryan Hitch was French and wanted to draw manga, this would be the result.
The planet earth is no longer habitable. Humanity has moved into a space station in orbit around the earth, run by a company (Tianzhu Enterprises) that is the de facto government. That company also sells cell phones that control everything in the space station, including the lives of the sheep who rely on them. (There’s a terribly not very subtle analogue here, you might have noticed.)
There’s trouble under the surface, though. We meet Scott, who is a contractor for Tianzhu. He flies off to various places (usually with the crew of the Delacroix spaceship) to investigate a curious series of destructive incidents that the company won’t tell him any details about. He remains loyal to Tianzhu, though, even as his curiosity causes him to poke deeper.
He’s a good worker bee, he accepts his orders, and he wants what’s best for the society stuck together on this station. But there’s something about their secrecy that isn’t rubbing him right.
His friends on the Delacroix are less enchanted with the situation. They think there’s something going on that’s not good, and they are much more suspicious of Tianzhu than Scott. That includes his brother, Virgil.
At the same time, an underground rebellion is starting to take place, led by the mysterious Mr. Sunshine. This is the group that wants their freedom from Tianzhu, and has a remarkably patient plan to do it.
This is not to be confused with the rebellious group that wants to create life on another planet because — well, they want to play God.
There are a number of large questions in the mix here, as you might imagine. The biggest one has to do with asking if humanity can survive as peacefully as they do now without that controlling influence of Tianzhu? Is true freedom something that will destroy the colony?
There are some deep philosophical discussions interspersed in this book between the action and exploratory parts.
And if the Tianzhu company can see and hear everything going on in the station, why aren’t they squashing these rebellions before they gain momentum? They’ve already eliminated war, protests, and religion. Why do rebellions fester?
Besides the not-at-all-subtle iPhone references, the book also touches on issues of animal rights, environmentalism, corporate capitalism and communism, general human rights, and much more.
In other words, it’s classic science fiction, taking current world politics and throwing them into the future and putting a new coat of clothes on them. It’s not always subtle and not entirely new, but it’s well put together and a fun ride from start to finish.
It’s not a lop-sided attack on one political side or the other, as such divisions occur in different parts of the world. This is just the kind of high minded philosophical questions given shape and form by a futuristic setting that science fiction has long traded on.
It’s a large story with a small enough core cast of characters, some of whom look too much alike from a distance, but are otherwise easy enough to follow.
It feels very much like a novel in many ways. It’s a complex story with a few points of view, and overlapping characters and motivations that focus the reader to explore the world everything is set in. It’s also a complete story — beginning, middle, and end.
It starts at the end, though.
I’ve heard the complaints before that too many backgrounds on a page could make a comic look cluttered or too busy. If you’re one of those people, you’ll likely loathe this book.
On the other hand, if you’re like me and love to see characters with their surroundings at all times, this book is glorious. It looks like Bablet made an incredible number of 3D models to help make these backgrounds. I imagine that would be the only way he could keep from going insane drawing all the stuff that’s there.
On the other hand, I can find nothing to back up that assumption. There’s one page of original art from this book at ComicArtFans, and it’s all pencilled right there on the page. Did Bablet really draw all this without a 3D model to guide him? That would be insane.
However it’s done, this book is impressive. Those omnipresent backgrounds set every scene up beautifully. This is a book about the experience of immersing yourself into the world. It’s not enough to have characters just walking around. You want to feel what they feel while living in a big metal box.
“Shangri-La” is about a colony of people confined to an insane space station that looks like something Francois Schuiten might design after a few too many drinks with a lifetime’s supply of mechanical pencils.
Once you get past that initial awe factor, though, you’ll accept those backgrounds for everything they add to the book.
Those backgrounds are not just drawn well, but they’re also coloured with purpose. Much of life inside the station is a sickly green colour, indicating a world that you might not want to live in. But there’s also plenty of texture and detail to show us that this station is lived-in. Things accumulate a certain level of muck and grime over the years..
With the overpopulation of the station, space is also at a premium. The designs for everything from the laundry room to the individual quarters are well thought out. The living quarters, for example, are tiny and vertical, leaving little room for anyone to accumulate too many things.
It’s just a natural part of living to these people. It would be hellish for us in the long term, but it looks like an interesting place to visit for a week. After that, I bet it would get to be too confining. But, then, can any space craft be made to feel truly open?
There are many design decisions Bablet had to make for this book. I bet everything in here happens for a reason, even when we’re not explicitly told.
You’ll also see that Bablet frequently uses one point perspective to show you the long corridors, with lots of detail. He can give you the pipes along the ceiling that no doubt help carry power or water throughout the station. They line up with the tracks for the vehicles and the lights that show the way.
It’s a book you can easily get lost in.
Bablet has a very cinematic style. That’s obvious right from the opening scene, with a man alone on a planet, hiding from the sun. The wide angle shots not only show us the scope of the planet and just how barren it is, but also shows us how small this singular man is amongst it all.
Inside the space station, Bablet chooses the angles that show the story to the reader best. There are, again, lots of wide angles to establish the heck out of all the areas of the space station. Even in simple two shots, the angles are specific and considered.
The story often takes a breath between scenes with some beautifully rendered wide-angle/panoramic environment shots. Bablet wants his reader to feel at home on the station and to get the enormity of it all. This station is all of humanity, after all. Take it all in.
It might take some work, but that awe and wonder — even in a slightly dirty and not always happy place — helps position the book and the story in it. This is definitely one of those books where the environment and setting are co-stars.
All of the dialogue is translated, but the signs in the station are baked into the art. They’re drawn in the perfect perspective and colouring to blend in. This isn’t like your typical assembly line comic, where the letterer goes in to add a layer to the art with their best skewed lettering to fit the perspective of the sign.
It’s impossible to reletter the signs without making the art look bad. So this book takes the option of not changing those signs.
You can get away without knowing what those signs say, but it is a fun part of the art. Namely, the ads and the signage from the Tianzhu company start to look like the kinds of things you’d find from any state looking to control its people — lots of repetition, orders in the form of strong verb choices, etc. “Live, Work, Buy” is a common motif.
Signs inside the station of "Shangri-La" point to the consumer culture of humanity in the future. They're slaves to their phones. The signs include such motivational instructions as “Buy, Use, Buy Again” and “Work, Sleep, Work.” I wonder if they borrowed those signs from Amazon’s warehouses…
It’s so simple and straightforward that it’s almost humorous. Bablet is clearly riffing off the kinds of things we’ve seen in the past in totalitarian regimes. When filtered through the economics of a technology company, it takes on a new life. It almost feels satirical. One would hope it is, but then you often wonder just how much people today let their phones control their lives and it becomes less funny….
The really big billboards feature naked women — of course — selling Tianzhu phones. It’s standard copywriting stuff that’s plastered across that sign. I do like the lead headline: “Good and Not Expensive.” Sometimes, it’s like they’re not even trying anymore… They don’t need to, though, they’re a monopoly that the entire population drools over.
One of the ways the company controls people is with its product release schedule. If there’s a problem politically or an impending (and illegal, naturally) demonstration coming up, they can just have a sale on their phones or release the next version a little early and everyone will be distracted by that. Problem solved! (Or, at least, pushed back a little bit.)
I would highly recommend this graphic novel, but keep in mind that this is a novel and not a serialised short story. It’s a very entertaining read with a good mystery at the core and characters with strong motivations acting out on them. The ending is a bit — mysterious — but it took away none of the excitement and awe the rest of the book gave me.
The planet earth is no longer habitable. Humanity has moved into a space station in orbit around the earth, run by a company (Tianzhu Enterprises) that is the de facto government. That company also sells cell phones that control everything in the space station, including the lives of the sheep who rely on them. (There’s a terribly not very subtle analogue here, you might have noticed.)
There’s trouble under the surface, though. We meet Scott, who is a contractor for Tianzhu. He flies off to various places (usually with the crew of the Delacroix spaceship) to investigate a curious series of destructive incidents that the company won’t tell him any details about. He remains loyal to Tianzhu, though, even as his curiosity causes him to poke deeper.
He’s a good worker bee, he accepts his orders, and he wants what’s best for the society stuck together on this station. But there’s something about their secrecy that isn’t rubbing him right.
His friends on the Delacroix are less enchanted with the situation. They think there’s something going on that’s not good, and they are much more suspicious of Tianzhu than Scott. That includes his brother, Virgil.
At the same time, an underground rebellion is starting to take place, led by the mysterious Mr. Sunshine. This is the group that wants their freedom from Tianzhu, and has a remarkably patient plan to do it.
This is not to be confused with the rebellious group that wants to create life on another planet because — well, they want to play God.
There are a number of large questions in the mix here, as you might imagine. The biggest one has to do with asking if humanity can survive as peacefully as they do now without that controlling influence of Tianzhu? Is true freedom something that will destroy the colony?
There are some deep philosophical discussions interspersed in this book between the action and exploratory parts.
And if the Tianzhu company can see and hear everything going on in the station, why aren’t they squashing these rebellions before they gain momentum? They’ve already eliminated war, protests, and religion. Why do rebellions fester?
Besides the not-at-all-subtle iPhone references, the book also touches on issues of animal rights, environmentalism, corporate capitalism and communism, general human rights, and much more.
In other words, it’s classic science fiction, taking current world politics and throwing them into the future and putting a new coat of clothes on them. It’s not always subtle and not entirely new, but it’s well put together and a fun ride from start to finish.
It’s not a lop-sided attack on one political side or the other, as such divisions occur in different parts of the world. This is just the kind of high minded philosophical questions given shape and form by a futuristic setting that science fiction has long traded on.
It’s a large story with a small enough core cast of characters, some of whom look too much alike from a distance, but are otherwise easy enough to follow.
It feels very much like a novel in many ways. It’s a complex story with a few points of view, and overlapping characters and motivations that focus the reader to explore the world everything is set in. It’s also a complete story — beginning, middle, and end.
It starts at the end, though.
I’ve heard the complaints before that too many backgrounds on a page could make a comic look cluttered or too busy. If you’re one of those people, you’ll likely loathe this book.
On the other hand, if you’re like me and love to see characters with their surroundings at all times, this book is glorious. It looks like Bablet made an incredible number of 3D models to help make these backgrounds. I imagine that would be the only way he could keep from going insane drawing all the stuff that’s there.
On the other hand, I can find nothing to back up that assumption. There’s one page of original art from this book at ComicArtFans, and it’s all pencilled right there on the page. Did Bablet really draw all this without a 3D model to guide him? That would be insane.
However it’s done, this book is impressive. Those omnipresent backgrounds set every scene up beautifully. This is a book about the experience of immersing yourself into the world. It’s not enough to have characters just walking around. You want to feel what they feel while living in a big metal box.
“Shangri-La” is about a colony of people confined to an insane space station that looks like something Francois Schuiten might design after a few too many drinks with a lifetime’s supply of mechanical pencils.
Once you get past that initial awe factor, though, you’ll accept those backgrounds for everything they add to the book.
Those backgrounds are not just drawn well, but they’re also coloured with purpose. Much of life inside the station is a sickly green colour, indicating a world that you might not want to live in. But there’s also plenty of texture and detail to show us that this station is lived-in. Things accumulate a certain level of muck and grime over the years..
With the overpopulation of the station, space is also at a premium. The designs for everything from the laundry room to the individual quarters are well thought out. The living quarters, for example, are tiny and vertical, leaving little room for anyone to accumulate too many things.
It’s just a natural part of living to these people. It would be hellish for us in the long term, but it looks like an interesting place to visit for a week. After that, I bet it would get to be too confining. But, then, can any space craft be made to feel truly open?
There are many design decisions Bablet had to make for this book. I bet everything in here happens for a reason, even when we’re not explicitly told.
You’ll also see that Bablet frequently uses one point perspective to show you the long corridors, with lots of detail. He can give you the pipes along the ceiling that no doubt help carry power or water throughout the station. They line up with the tracks for the vehicles and the lights that show the way.
It’s a book you can easily get lost in.
Bablet has a very cinematic style. That’s obvious right from the opening scene, with a man alone on a planet, hiding from the sun. The wide angle shots not only show us the scope of the planet and just how barren it is, but also shows us how small this singular man is amongst it all.
Inside the space station, Bablet chooses the angles that show the story to the reader best. There are, again, lots of wide angles to establish the heck out of all the areas of the space station. Even in simple two shots, the angles are specific and considered.
The story often takes a breath between scenes with some beautifully rendered wide-angle/panoramic environment shots. Bablet wants his reader to feel at home on the station and to get the enormity of it all. This station is all of humanity, after all. Take it all in.
It might take some work, but that awe and wonder — even in a slightly dirty and not always happy place — helps position the book and the story in it. This is definitely one of those books where the environment and setting are co-stars.
All of the dialogue is translated, but the signs in the station are baked into the art. They’re drawn in the perfect perspective and colouring to blend in. This isn’t like your typical assembly line comic, where the letterer goes in to add a layer to the art with their best skewed lettering to fit the perspective of the sign.
It’s impossible to reletter the signs without making the art look bad. So this book takes the option of not changing those signs.
You can get away without knowing what those signs say, but it is a fun part of the art. Namely, the ads and the signage from the Tianzhu company start to look like the kinds of things you’d find from any state looking to control its people — lots of repetition, orders in the form of strong verb choices, etc. “Live, Work, Buy” is a common motif.
Signs inside the station of "Shangri-La" point to the consumer culture of humanity in the future. They're slaves to their phones. The signs include such motivational instructions as “Buy, Use, Buy Again” and “Work, Sleep, Work.” I wonder if they borrowed those signs from Amazon’s warehouses…
It’s so simple and straightforward that it’s almost humorous. Bablet is clearly riffing off the kinds of things we’ve seen in the past in totalitarian regimes. When filtered through the economics of a technology company, it takes on a new life. It almost feels satirical. One would hope it is, but then you often wonder just how much people today let their phones control their lives and it becomes less funny….
The really big billboards feature naked women — of course — selling Tianzhu phones. It’s standard copywriting stuff that’s plastered across that sign. I do like the lead headline: “Good and Not Expensive.” Sometimes, it’s like they’re not even trying anymore… They don’t need to, though, they’re a monopoly that the entire population drools over.
One of the ways the company controls people is with its product release schedule. If there’s a problem politically or an impending (and illegal, naturally) demonstration coming up, they can just have a sale on their phones or release the next version a little early and everyone will be distracted by that. Problem solved! (Or, at least, pushed back a little bit.)
I would highly recommend this graphic novel, but keep in mind that this is a novel and not a serialised short story. It’s a very entertaining read with a good mystery at the core and characters with strong motivations acting out on them. The ending is a bit — mysterious — but it took away none of the excitement and awe the rest of the book gave me.
January 11, 2020
“Shangri-La” di Mathieu Bablet è la classica space opera (l’umanità vive su una stazione aerospaziale orbitante controllata da una multinazionale senza scrupoli) che però ambisce a parlare di temi più complessi: dalle tensioni sociali destinate ad esplodere violentemente al desiderio dell’uomo di sostituirsi a Dio.
Una fantascienza quindi che vuole parlare di temi sociologici e antropologici, scivolando però proprio quando la critica a una società sempre più consumistica e sempre meno umana, si sostituisce al racconto fantascientifico vero e proprio.
Forse è proprio in questi molteplici livelli di lettura che Bablet (ottimo sia nei disegni iperrealistici delle astronavi e delle architetture, che nei volti caricaturali dei protagonisti) si smarrisce e non riesce a decollare come le sue astronavi e, soprattutto, le sue ambizioni letterarie.
Una fantascienza quindi che vuole parlare di temi sociologici e antropologici, scivolando però proprio quando la critica a una società sempre più consumistica e sempre meno umana, si sostituisce al racconto fantascientifico vero e proprio.
Forse è proprio in questi molteplici livelli di lettura che Bablet (ottimo sia nei disegni iperrealistici delle astronavi e delle architetture, che nei volti caricaturali dei protagonisti) si smarrisce e non riesce a decollare come le sue astronavi e, soprattutto, le sue ambizioni letterarie.
February 4, 2022
8- I like discovering new science fiction-graphic novels. Turns out there is a treasure trove of great comics outside of the superhero stuff published by DC or Marvel, and a lot of it is very interesting. Often the images in this story are not as clean or idealized as those in the superhero comics and they have a visual language that approaches its subjectmanner from a less mainstreamed, less cliche'd manner, thus creating new, inspiring ways of looking at the imagined future world. Likewise the stories in these more indie comics can come to their subjects sideways, not restrained by conventions or the marketability of mass appeal, and characters can be unlikeable or have little redeeming qualities. Works like this are produced all over the world, also in France. This is not a standard european comic (those have 45-65 pages maximum), but a full length (225 pages) graphic novel, written and drawn by a single creator over what must have been an insane length of time. I had to get used to the to my eyes scratchy style with thin lines and a bit of a blocky feel, not only in the architecture but also in the characters, with very little soft lines. But if the characters are sometimes hard to keep apart, the backgrounds are stunning, with the interiors and exteriors of a space station and living spaces lovingly realised, and every gallery or window drawn in. This contrast with the emptiness of space or vista's on planets to create the effect of feeling shut in. The coloring is almost monotone, depending on the perspective using only one main color, (often blue, or brown, or yellow), with only some other colors thrown in. It adds to the atmosphere, but it turned out some parts were pretty dark and not easy to decipher.
As to the story, that is sadly not the most original SF-story out there, but it has some great idea's in there. As the earth has become inhabitable, the survivors live in a single space station, ruled by a single corporation. There are intelligent animals (animoids) that humans are suspicious of, and there are scientists wanting to create life out of nothing (why they needed antimatter to bring that about was something I didn't understand). The story wants to be serious, but it has a satirical bent that maybe takes away a bit of its bite (with the company pacifying the population by an earlier release date for their mobile phone). It did me think of Wall-E a bit, but then a version where a bloody revolution broke out. The main character and his brother were well realised and some revelations at the end were pretty interesting (and fit with the anti-corporate message here).
It's not the masterwork I hoped it would be, due mainly to the cliché nature of part of the story, but I appreciated the satire, admired a great deal of the art and had a great time reading it and will read it again too.
As to the story, that is sadly not the most original SF-story out there, but it has some great idea's in there. As the earth has become inhabitable, the survivors live in a single space station, ruled by a single corporation. There are intelligent animals (animoids) that humans are suspicious of, and there are scientists wanting to create life out of nothing (why they needed antimatter to bring that about was something I didn't understand). The story wants to be serious, but it has a satirical bent that maybe takes away a bit of its bite (with the company pacifying the population by an earlier release date for their mobile phone). It did me think of Wall-E a bit, but then a version where a bloody revolution broke out. The main character and his brother were well realised and some revelations at the end were pretty interesting (and fit with the anti-corporate message here).
It's not the masterwork I hoped it would be, due mainly to the cliché nature of part of the story, but I appreciated the satire, admired a great deal of the art and had a great time reading it and will read it again too.
October 8, 2019
Shangri-La é uma história em quadrinhos de 2016, escrita e desenhada pelo Mathieu Bablet, uma jovem promessa do mercado francês de quadrinhos. A história se passa num futuro em que o planeta Terra se tornou inabitável e os sobreviventes da raça humana vivem numa estação espacial. O que mais chama atenção nessa obra é sua arte incrivelmente bela, com cenários grandiosos e cores que criam um clima especial para cada cena. O drama principal gira em torno dos experimentos realizados pela Tianzhu, empresa que domina a estação e manipula sua população a trabalhar e consumir ininterruptamente. Apesar de tratar de temas bem contemporâneos com a roupagem da Ficção Futurista (como consumismo, manipulação midiática, exploração e minorias, entre outros), a forma como esses temas são abordados podem incomodar pela falta de sutileza. O exagero é presente em muitos momentos, enquanto é contraposto por cenas em que é preciso um pouco mais de atenção para serem inteiramente compreendidas. Apesar de ser uma obra com um formato próprio de publicações europeias e, por isso, de dimensões maiores do que o leitor brasileiro possa estar acostumado, essa amplitude pode proporcionar um frescor visual em uma obra como essa, que aproveita muito bem o espaço que ocupa. Por ser um livro de mais de 200 páginas, porém, o leitor pode ter dificuldades pela história não ser dividida em capítulos, fazendo com que seja preciso escolher minuciosamente as páginas em que serão feitos eventuais intervalos. Apesar disso, a leitura é de fluxo rápido e pode ser concluída sem muitas interrupções.
April 21, 2018
Incroyable point de vue juste sur la société, et tout particulièrement l'actuelle.
Un véritable coup de coeur.
Un véritable coup de coeur.
October 19, 2022
Art was mostly good, although I’m not a fan of the ‘style’ especially the faces. Story was very ambitious, yet achieved almost nothing as I found it I mostly confusing to follow. I enjoyed the concept much more than the execution.
December 26, 2025
A very interesting speculative sci-fi comic – they're not that common – decidedly dark and pessimistic. In terms of atmosphere I immediately thought of the film Soylent Green, but you also get a vibe of Outland, 2001 or Gravity.
Through the stories of a handful of characters living on an overcrowded, dystopian space station on the outskirts of Titan – Earth has been uninhabitable for centuries – Bablet evokes consumerism, speciesism, racism, the manipulation of the masses, the dangers of radicalism taken to extremes and other niceties in equal measure. Nothing we don't already know, but the fact that 10 years later the situation has exponentially worsened is rather depressing. The reflections are interesting – especially as I agree with the author's point of view – but are sometimes delivered a little too heavily.
Overall, the futuristic vision is quite credible, based on current technology. However, while the city's pseudo-urban architecture is impressive, the mobile technology is... that of 2015, which is a bit underwhelming. I'm well aware that this isn't Bablet's focus, but still.
Bablet delivers another sobering book. The characters aren't very well developed and the messages could be refined, but the ideas are there and no less pertinent. Furthermore, the narration is excellent, the settings are extremely well-crafted and the colours superb.
So if you like thought-provoking sci-fi, go for it.
Through the stories of a handful of characters living on an overcrowded, dystopian space station on the outskirts of Titan – Earth has been uninhabitable for centuries – Bablet evokes consumerism, speciesism, racism, the manipulation of the masses, the dangers of radicalism taken to extremes and other niceties in equal measure. Nothing we don't already know, but the fact that 10 years later the situation has exponentially worsened is rather depressing. The reflections are interesting – especially as I agree with the author's point of view – but are sometimes delivered a little too heavily.
Overall, the futuristic vision is quite credible, based on current technology. However, while the city's pseudo-urban architecture is impressive, the mobile technology is... that of 2015, which is a bit underwhelming. I'm well aware that this isn't Bablet's focus, but still.
Bablet delivers another sobering book. The characters aren't very well developed and the messages could be refined, but the ideas are there and no less pertinent. Furthermore, the narration is excellent, the settings are extremely well-crafted and the colours superb.
So if you like thought-provoking sci-fi, go for it.
December 18, 2022
Země je neobyvatelná, lidstvo přežívá na vesmírné stanici pod nadvládou korporace Tianzhu. Dystopická společnost stojí na konzumu, kde demonstrace spolehlivě uklidní slevy nebo ohlášení nového mobilu.
Hlavní postavou je Scott, kterej dělá pro korporaci podivnou práci, ale drží hubu a v systému je spokojen. Jenže brzo se zaplete s revolucionáři a musí si vybrat, na čí straně stojí. Je lepší funkční nedemokratický režim nebo idealistická víra v lepší zítřky? Do toho se tu řeší bratrský vztah nebo vývoj umělého člověka, ale gró celého komiksu je (za mě) v téhle společenské rovině.
Šangri-Lu napsal a nakreslil Francouz Mathieu Bablet a… páni. Ta výtvarná stránka je neskutečná. Centrale patří velký dík, že tu nechala velký formát. Bablet exceluje hlavně v naprosto detailních pozadích a lodních interiérech a i v přeplněné stanici mistrovsky zobrauje pocity vzájemného odcizení nebo samoty. Na 224 stránkách se nikam nespěchá, a tak autor často zpomaluje jen proto, aby pohledem “do prázdna” navodil správnou náladu či atmosféru. A já mu tohle naprosto žeru.
Tempo vyprávění je pomalé, smršť akce úplně nečekejte (když ale přijde, stojí za to). Mínusem pro někoho může být lehce matoucí a mysteriózní konec.
Všechny postavy tu mají svoje motivace i cíle a líbí se mi, že rozjímání nad společností není černobílé. I když se autor nimrá v docela provařeném formátu dystopie, dělá to strašně dobře a ve své společnosti má celou řadu skvělých nápadů i postřehů. Hrozně se mi líbí třeba důvod, proč na stanici existují humanoidní psi, ale nechci spoilerovat.
V prvních kapitolách jsem narazil na pár zbytečných překlepů (zdvojené slabiky), ale naštěstí brzo zmizely. Překlad je jinak fajn a velký formát jsem už chválil.
Takže Šangri-La. Přemýšlivá, nádherně kreslená, atmosférická a místy cynická. Za mě adept do komiksové TOPky letošního roku.
Hlavní postavou je Scott, kterej dělá pro korporaci podivnou práci, ale drží hubu a v systému je spokojen. Jenže brzo se zaplete s revolucionáři a musí si vybrat, na čí straně stojí. Je lepší funkční nedemokratický režim nebo idealistická víra v lepší zítřky? Do toho se tu řeší bratrský vztah nebo vývoj umělého člověka, ale gró celého komiksu je (za mě) v téhle společenské rovině.
Šangri-Lu napsal a nakreslil Francouz Mathieu Bablet a… páni. Ta výtvarná stránka je neskutečná. Centrale patří velký dík, že tu nechala velký formát. Bablet exceluje hlavně v naprosto detailních pozadích a lodních interiérech a i v přeplněné stanici mistrovsky zobrauje pocity vzájemného odcizení nebo samoty. Na 224 stránkách se nikam nespěchá, a tak autor často zpomaluje jen proto, aby pohledem “do prázdna” navodil správnou náladu či atmosféru. A já mu tohle naprosto žeru.
Tempo vyprávění je pomalé, smršť akce úplně nečekejte (když ale přijde, stojí za to). Mínusem pro někoho může být lehce matoucí a mysteriózní konec.
Všechny postavy tu mají svoje motivace i cíle a líbí se mi, že rozjímání nad společností není černobílé. I když se autor nimrá v docela provařeném formátu dystopie, dělá to strašně dobře a ve své společnosti má celou řadu skvělých nápadů i postřehů. Hrozně se mi líbí třeba důvod, proč na stanici existují humanoidní psi, ale nechci spoilerovat.
V prvních kapitolách jsem narazil na pár zbytečných překlepů (zdvojené slabiky), ale naštěstí brzo zmizely. Překlad je jinak fajn a velký formát jsem už chválil.
Takže Šangri-La. Přemýšlivá, nádherně kreslená, atmosférická a místy cynická. Za mě adept do komiksové TOPky letošního roku.
July 30, 2025
Les dessins des décors étaient super beaux!
Les personnages par contre...ils avaient tous la même face et c'est juste leur coupe de cheveux qui changeait alors j'étais trop mêlée.
L'histoire amenait rien de nouveau ou de surprenant et la physique avait pas de sens.
Les personnages par contre...ils avaient tous la même face et c'est juste leur coupe de cheveux qui changeait alors j'étais trop mêlée.
L'histoire amenait rien de nouveau ou de surprenant et la physique avait pas de sens.
May 22, 2018
Forte del mio proposito di comprare almeno quest'anno meno libri di quanti riuscirò a leggerne, venerdì scorso sono entrato in libreria e ne sono uscito con quattro volumi, tra cui questo Shangri-La.
L'avevo adocchiato qualche mese fa e, come sempre faccio con i fumetti, per prima cosa avevo guardato il tratto, la composizione delle tavole, i tagli delle vignette; sembra bello, mi ero detto, mi ricorda Caza, oddio non proprio, siamo lontanucci, però insomma, qualcosa di Caza rivisitato in stile manga c'è...
Poi mi ero ricordato del mio proposito e l'avevo lasciato sugli scaffali.
Venerdì l'ho ripreso, nuovamente sfogliato e comprato.
Ora io non sono un tipo da propositi, quindi per una volta che ne ho uno forse dovrei tenergli fede.
Questo per dire che dopo poche pagine ero già delusissimo. La sceneggiatura, i dialoghi e, prima ancora, l'idea che sta dietro al racconto sono penosi; è come se Bablet, a tredici anni, avesse passato una mezzoretta sul web a spiluccare notizie su megacorporazioni trans-nazionali, turbo-capitalismo, marketing e consumismo tecnologico, cose su cui il materiale, narrativo e non, abbonda ormai da decenni, l'avesse condensato in tre battute con minime aggiunte di spirito superomistico, uomo che vuol farsi dio eccetera, e ne avesse ricavato questa storia.
Per non parlare della ridicolaggine e superficialità del pur modesto background scientifico: agenti che trasmettono rapporti confidenziali da postazioni pubbliche tipo bancomat, antimateria da stabilizzare, non meglio precisati dispositivi 'inibitori'.
Insomma, Bablet a disegnare se la cava bene, ma per una space-opera di duecentoventi tavole avrebbe avuto bisogno di uno scrittore.
E ora niente più nuovi libri per un po'!
L'avevo adocchiato qualche mese fa e, come sempre faccio con i fumetti, per prima cosa avevo guardato il tratto, la composizione delle tavole, i tagli delle vignette; sembra bello, mi ero detto, mi ricorda Caza, oddio non proprio, siamo lontanucci, però insomma, qualcosa di Caza rivisitato in stile manga c'è...
Poi mi ero ricordato del mio proposito e l'avevo lasciato sugli scaffali.
Venerdì l'ho ripreso, nuovamente sfogliato e comprato.
Ora io non sono un tipo da propositi, quindi per una volta che ne ho uno forse dovrei tenergli fede.
Questo per dire che dopo poche pagine ero già delusissimo. La sceneggiatura, i dialoghi e, prima ancora, l'idea che sta dietro al racconto sono penosi; è come se Bablet, a tredici anni, avesse passato una mezzoretta sul web a spiluccare notizie su megacorporazioni trans-nazionali, turbo-capitalismo, marketing e consumismo tecnologico, cose su cui il materiale, narrativo e non, abbonda ormai da decenni, l'avesse condensato in tre battute con minime aggiunte di spirito superomistico, uomo che vuol farsi dio eccetera, e ne avesse ricavato questa storia.
Per non parlare della ridicolaggine e superficialità del pur modesto background scientifico: agenti che trasmettono rapporti confidenziali da postazioni pubbliche tipo bancomat, antimateria da stabilizzare, non meglio precisati dispositivi 'inibitori'.
Insomma, Bablet a disegnare se la cava bene, ma per una space-opera di duecentoventi tavole avrebbe avuto bisogno di uno scrittore.
E ora niente più nuovi libri per un po'!
June 7, 2021
The good:
Beautiful cityscape, you get lost wandering in there. Captures the sense of the city in space. Gorgeous full panel space illustrations, colors are impeccable, interesting, if typical, premise.
The bad:
Classical economic dystopia with a revolutionary twist; does not bring much novelty to the genre, at times lost between a seemingly "realist" dystopia and satire, a few nonsensical plot points or details.
The ugly:
Violence for the sake of violence near the end, all characters are drawn similarly and this creates confusion, confusing ending.
The verdict: has some moments, worth your while for the illustration or if you are a sci-fi aficionado, quick painless read.
Beautiful cityscape, you get lost wandering in there. Captures the sense of the city in space. Gorgeous full panel space illustrations, colors are impeccable, interesting, if typical, premise.
The bad:
Classical economic dystopia with a revolutionary twist; does not bring much novelty to the genre, at times lost between a seemingly "realist" dystopia and satire, a few nonsensical plot points or details.
The ugly:
Violence for the sake of violence near the end, all characters are drawn similarly and this creates confusion, confusing ending.
The verdict: has some moments, worth your while for the illustration or if you are a sci-fi aficionado, quick painless read.
February 4, 2019
9. Un cómic gráficamente espectacular, la gestión del color es apabullante y la historia compleja con regusto amargo, con ideas realmente actuales y que dan para pensar más de lo que parece a primera vista. El único pero que le podía poner es que a algunas de estas ideas se les podía haber sacado más partido, pero claro, para gustos colores.
October 19, 2021
Je peux pas enlever le fait que c'est superbe, le style de Bablet est toujours incroyable, si plein de détails, si frappant. Mais sinon le discours et la critique de notre société reste vraiment simpliste.
Je reste 100% d'accord avec la chronique d'Alice
Je reste 100% d'accord avec la chronique d'Alice
April 18, 2022
Des persos qui se ressemblent tous dans le trait graphique, un message simpliste au possible et en bonus une petite scène de viol gratuite vers la fin... Deux étoiles pour les dessins stylés quand il s'agit de faire des scènes gore
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June 23, 2024Je n’ai pas autant aimé que Carbone & Silicium, mais cet auteur est vraiment un de mes préférés, j’adore tout autant ces dessins que les histoires et les univers qu’il fonde !
J’hésite entre 3.75 et 4/5 étoiles
J’hésite entre 3.75 et 4/5 étoiles
July 20, 2022
This would have been incomparably better by simply removing all the speech bubbles.
October 13, 2025
Une bonne dystopie.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2023
Me he tomado mi tiempo para escribir esta review, pero porque en verdad no sé que pensar. O sea me he encontrado un libro que aborda una temática que yo también quiero abordar en mis propias historias, pero de manera muy diferente. O sea, este señor es increíblemente pesimista, y si sigues un poco ese patrón es claro dónde va a acabar la historia, pero merece la pena leerlo solo por enfrentarnos a eso. Es un poco como ver todo el caos y el horror y destrucción que llevamos viendo en el mundo este año, pero reduciendo a la humanidad a una estación espacial internacional. Muy recomendable. Muy terrorífico. De estas historias en las que no te encariñas con nadie porque todos acaban defraudándote en algún momento.
Al principio (bueno, quitando literalmente el inicio), te mete las metáforas así, a ostias, tipo “mira aquí este señor dice que se siente libre y se está colocando unos grilletes? Ves, es mentira y no se da cuenta, eso es lo que quiero decir”, pero creo que al final es una muy buena jugada, porque Bablet quiere que eso te quede clarísimo para que así sepas bien cómo es el mundo y quiénes son los protas. Que hay cosas que aún así son casi evidentes y que no hacía falta tomar al lector por tan tonto, pero al final no te quedas con esos detalles, te quedas más con cómo va todo cuesta abajo. También es un libro que peca un poco de cargante a la hora de dejar claro su discurso, te mete el monólogo filosófico lo quieras o no. Esto es algo que ya me fastidió cuando leí La Virgen Roja o Giganta (pero en este al menos no ha sido TAN evidente), y creo que, en general con todos los comiqueros se junta une autore que tiene muchas cosas que decir y un formato de historia que como no seas un manga de la jump se queda corto de narices. Al final o se te queda la crítica en el tintero o fuerzas la máquina.
(También os digo, el cómic tiene 230 páginas. Corto corto no es.)
Pero en general la trama está muy bien, el mundo lo entiendes muy bien (nada nuevo respecto a distopías hiperconsumistas), y los plot twist están muy bien repartidos y, sobretodo, son jodidamente impresionantes.
El dibujo (ya lo sabía yo) es PRECIOSÍSIMO, en general el libro es una obra de arte, y el autor pues, a ver, es campeón de las olimpiadas de dibujo técnico o algo, no me jodas, deja un poco de espacio a los demás, no hace faltas que acapares así, señor Bablet. O sea no he visto a nadie tan enamorado de la escuadra y el cartabón nunca, yo hago una sola de sus viñetas y me da un jari. En fin, algo que tengo que decir en contra es que una de las razones por las que no te encariñas de los personajes es porque a nivel de expresiones apenas ves mucho, y todos acaban pareciendo siempre personajes… muy fríos. Pero oye, al final conseguía ese aire de película de distópica de ciencia ficción de los ochenta. Me encanta el juego que tiene entre azules y naranjas, y vacío y muchedumbre, en general el ambiente queda muy alucinante. Una muy buena lectura, de verdad, absolutamente recomendable.
Y nada solo quiero decir que me siento mal de haber dicho cosas malas de gente que cuenta historias cien mil veces mejor que yo así que me callo kjfnjjkfrfd
Al principio (bueno, quitando literalmente el inicio), te mete las metáforas así, a ostias, tipo “mira aquí este señor dice que se siente libre y se está colocando unos grilletes? Ves, es mentira y no se da cuenta, eso es lo que quiero decir”, pero creo que al final es una muy buena jugada, porque Bablet quiere que eso te quede clarísimo para que así sepas bien cómo es el mundo y quiénes son los protas. Que hay cosas que aún así son casi evidentes y que no hacía falta tomar al lector por tan tonto, pero al final no te quedas con esos detalles, te quedas más con cómo va todo cuesta abajo. También es un libro que peca un poco de cargante a la hora de dejar claro su discurso, te mete el monólogo filosófico lo quieras o no. Esto es algo que ya me fastidió cuando leí La Virgen Roja o Giganta (pero en este al menos no ha sido TAN evidente), y creo que, en general con todos los comiqueros se junta une autore que tiene muchas cosas que decir y un formato de historia que como no seas un manga de la jump se queda corto de narices. Al final o se te queda la crítica en el tintero o fuerzas la máquina.
(También os digo, el cómic tiene 230 páginas. Corto corto no es.)
Pero en general la trama está muy bien, el mundo lo entiendes muy bien (nada nuevo respecto a distopías hiperconsumistas), y los plot twist están muy bien repartidos y, sobretodo, son jodidamente impresionantes.
El dibujo (ya lo sabía yo) es PRECIOSÍSIMO, en general el libro es una obra de arte, y el autor pues, a ver, es campeón de las olimpiadas de dibujo técnico o algo, no me jodas, deja un poco de espacio a los demás, no hace faltas que acapares así, señor Bablet. O sea no he visto a nadie tan enamorado de la escuadra y el cartabón nunca, yo hago una sola de sus viñetas y me da un jari. En fin, algo que tengo que decir en contra es que una de las razones por las que no te encariñas de los personajes es porque a nivel de expresiones apenas ves mucho, y todos acaban pareciendo siempre personajes… muy fríos. Pero oye, al final conseguía ese aire de película de distópica de ciencia ficción de los ochenta. Me encanta el juego que tiene entre azules y naranjas, y vacío y muchedumbre, en general el ambiente queda muy alucinante. Una muy buena lectura, de verdad, absolutamente recomendable.
Y nada solo quiero decir que me siento mal de haber dicho cosas malas de gente que cuenta historias cien mil veces mejor que yo así que me callo kjfnjjkfrfd
August 12, 2021
WOW.
J'ai traversé les pages en passant par toutes les émotions, de la colère, à la tristesse, à la résignation. J'aime énormément les dessins très détaillés et anguleux de Mathieu Bablet, et le message dans cette œuvre est puissant. On aborde énormément de sujets de société dans cette dystopie, des sujets douloureusement justes ; on touche au cœur. La force du scénario est palpable dès les premières planches, mais je ne m'attendais pas à un dénouement aussi violent, explosif, définitif. C'est beau, ça coupe le souffle, ça prend aux tripes. J'étais partagée entre l'horreur de la situation qui donne la nausée et emplit de désespoir, et l'espoir naïf et stupide que la fin pourrait être satisfaisante pour ces personnages auxquels on s'attache.
J'ai traversé les pages en passant par toutes les émotions, de la colère, à la tristesse, à la résignation. J'aime énormément les dessins très détaillés et anguleux de Mathieu Bablet, et le message dans cette œuvre est puissant. On aborde énormément de sujets de société dans cette dystopie, des sujets douloureusement justes ; on touche au cœur. La force du scénario est palpable dès les premières planches, mais je ne m'attendais pas à un dénouement aussi violent, explosif, définitif. C'est beau, ça coupe le souffle, ça prend aux tripes. J'étais partagée entre l'horreur de la situation qui donne la nausée et emplit de désespoir, et l'espoir naïf et stupide que la fin pourrait être satisfaisante pour ces personnages auxquels on s'attache.
January 6, 2021
Une claque graphique. Un premier pas dans le style Bablet.
Une fiction futuriste, dystopique et cyberpunk traitant de sujets saisissants car bien encrés dans nos sociétés actuelles. Un miroir qui renvoie une image qu’on ne veut pas assumer.
Je ne suis pas un gros lecteur de « graphique » mais je peux dire qu’ici, j’ai ressenti ma lecture et qu’elle m’a interpelée. Le jeu des couleurs venant accentuer les mots et les idées.
Une fiction futuriste, dystopique et cyberpunk traitant de sujets saisissants car bien encrés dans nos sociétés actuelles. Un miroir qui renvoie une image qu’on ne veut pas assumer.
Je ne suis pas un gros lecteur de « graphique » mais je peux dire qu’ici, j’ai ressenti ma lecture et qu’elle m’a interpelée. Le jeu des couleurs venant accentuer les mots et les idées.
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