I Breathed A Body #3

I Breathed A Body #3

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Zac Thompson

Illustrated by Andy MacDonald

Coloured by Triona Farrell

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

A science-fiction horror series about social media, big tech and influencer culture.

Grisly livestreams descend into utter perversion, proving to the world there are fates worse than death. As Anne architects a social media campaign of looming dread, she begins to doubt her actions and fear her co-workers. Locked in a terror-shrouded fortress of her own design, with nowhere left to run, Anne confronts the fury of a Fungal God long thought dead.

There are times I think that I have absolutely no clue what the hell is going on around here and then the further we go into the story the more that things make sense. I mean I know we see the boys death and that Anna is broken up over it and that for some reason he seemed to have been making a new body for himself but how is that even possible? As it turns out Zac has decided its time for us learn a bit of backstory as he moves the main arc forward. I’m pretty psyched and impressed with what we see and how well orchestrated the events are so that they feel as if they are one continuous thread that remains unbroken.

I love the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development through the sequence of events unfolding as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully so that it moves the story constantly forward. The character development is surprisingly excellent, surprisingly because there are twists and turns in the way we see the characters their actions and how the present themselves that you don’t expect and it can and does change how we see some of these characters. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story along with its twists & turns we’re so enrapt on what’s happening we don’t realise how quickly we get to the last page.

How we see this structured and how the layers within the story keep weaving themselves in, out and through the main arc is simply disturbingly amazing. With the social influencers, which I guess is what you’d call me, not being privy to what is really happening adds this whole other dimension to what we see. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is so well done.

Andy and Triona’s work on the interiors is mindbogglingly brilliant. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level of quality in the detail work we see is bloody brilliant. The vibrancy, verve and zest of the imagery is simply divine as we see this brought to life. The young man with his hairy body and the first American blew me away as they opened up the issue. The creativity and imagination that we see is mind boggling in how seamlessly it looks and feels on the page. That we see backgrounds being so integral to the storytelling does my heart good, they are glorious to see too as they bring this wonderful depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masters eye for storytelling. The colour work is stupendous. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is incredibly well rendered. The choices we see and the applications we see in laying the colour down showcase such an understanding how to use colour to its utmost and make it seem so natural and so normal which is incredibly hard to do.

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The horror, the mysticism and the sheer audacity of what’s being attempted all come at us like a tornado and much like Dorothy we’re inside looking out as it all passes by the window swirling and changing as we watch. This is mesmerising and hypnotic and there’s absolutely no way we’re able to look away.