Lure

Milburn (Twelve Gems) returns with a stirring narrative about loneliness and art that also tackles climate change and class tension. Striving designer Jo gets selected to be part of an artists’ program on Lure, an ocean planet known as a “luxury vacation hub,” and is tasked with creating a “holo show” (holography having transformed from a “high-tech toy to a serious art form”) for the Lure Economic Summit. After traveling there, getting most of the project done, and falling in love, Jo discovers a file that contains information about a secret that might affect everyone back on Earth. The elites are up to something—and Jo and her cohort in the program, Rachel (who plays guitar in a noise band), have a chance to try to stop it. The science fiction frame provides a lens to focus on how artists can fight inequality and change their world. The style ranges from an indie diary comic to surrealistic worldbuilding, with pages packed with luridly colorful images of Lure’s underwater world, including the trippy legend of the deity that created Lure and myriad aquatic alien life. This finely drawn tale offers a critical but still hopeful look at a not-too-distant future. (Nov.)