Drome

A fantastical world is run through the wringer by a capricious deity in this gorgeous and bloody graphic adventure. Lonergan (Arca) spends little time setting the scene, depicting a dark, horned, whip-carrying God-like figure who drops a crystal onto a desert planet, which then erupts in chaotic life. Seeing monstrous creatures (like a gigantic crab) and primal humans tear each other apart, the deity introduces “control” in the form of a mighty, blue-skinned woman warrior. Later, she finds love with a red-skinned muscular faun-like creature who shares her reluctant talent for violence. But the romantic idyll of “Blue” and “Red” is short-lived, as a power-hungry man displaced by her sudden intervention seeks revenge. There are echoes of both biblical narratives and premodern oral storytelling in Lonergan’s violence-spattered story, which moves ahead in fits and starts, with irregular and arbitrary interference from the forlorn and randomly punitive deity. The art is spectacular throughout; Lonergan mixes precise grid patterns and densely choreographed action scenes with ineffably lovely images, such as a massive bull-like creature colored like the star-studded night sky. This will captivate readers of ancient mythology and Jack Kirby alike. (Aug.)