Factory

French animator and cartoonist Elgo, pen name of Yacine Elghorri (Bestial, Gunman), renders imaginative and grotesque character designs in this first volume of his cybernetic body horror–themed sci-fi comic. The gruesome death of a “precog” (a premonitory infant floating in a mechanical womb) heralds the fearful arrival of a “man pig” and threatens the rule of despot Baron Gucco over a nightmare future-scape drained of all natural resources. Through the desert, thick with carnivorous fauna, treks a group of pilgrims: among them, a man-pig at the center of a strange metamorphosis. A corrupt inspector arrives to judge the Baron’s nauseating human-fueled power factory and desert warrior Quaid riles the downtrodden humans toward revolution—all careening toward a violent climax. Elgo’s worldbuilding is sumptuously disgusting if not especially groundbreaking; story elements are borrowed from Dune, Mad Max, and Planet of the Apes. But the story is thrilling, including a startling final-act twist (though the conclusion follows too abruptly; hopefully further series installments will delve deeper). Genre readers who enjoy the gross-out factor and detailed cartooning will find this a creepy adventure flush with corpulent aliens and grotesque landscapes. (Aug.)