Image Comics ‘Enormous’ dwarfs other tales with a story that casts a long shadow
Image Comics “Enormous” dwarfs other tales with a story that cast a long shadow. Tim Daniel (previous work can be seen in Morning Glories, 27 and Peter Panzerfaust) and Mehdi Cheggour (artistic duties on previous issues of Heavy Metal) have crafted an incredible story with a brilliant marketing strategy of presenting their tale in a format that mirrors their namesake (full color, oversized). “Enormous” is a sci-fi graphic novel one shot that clocks in at 64 giant pages and made its debut at SDCC last month. For fans of Kaiju, this title is submitted for your perusal and you will not be disappointed. Now, keep in mind, these aren’t the colorful Kaiju of your childhood, no, these are behemoths that invoke a kind of terror that screams “danger”. Set in a post apocalyptic future where humankind has been decimated by ecological disaster and the presence of creatures as large as skyscrapers, humans are no longer the masters of all they survey. As a matter of fact, humans are on the run and finding they are now the bottom of the food chain. Two camps of survivors reveal themselves during the course of the story. The first a rag tag group of humans doing the best they can to eke out an existence in a world unlike anything that they could ever have imagined; the other a group led by a madman who believes that human sacrifice is the best way to appease the beast of the new world. When the two meet, one is forced to fight for survival in a world unlike anything we could ever imagine. Mehdi Cheggour populates each giant panel with cinematic images that captures the sense of feeling dwarfed by powers much larger than the stories main characters. Writer and creator Tim Daniel manages to create tension and jeopardy with writing that shocks and creates situations that come unexpectedly out of left field (one of the best being when main character Ellen goes to rescue her mother from the hospital at the beginning of the book). The one drawback of this impressive work is the fact that despite its enormous size, it cannot present the full story that is hinted at outside of the pages of the book. I have a feeling that this is not a one shot at all, but just the initial trumpet blast of the unfolding of a larger saga set against the apocalypse of mankind. If Mehdi Cheggour happens to sign on to continue presenting his rich life like imagery and Tim Daniel dares to continue to weave a tale of titanic terror; you can be sure I will sign on to visit the skyscraper sized monstrosities that lumber across their landscape. Enormous is available at comic shops now and is worth picking up. Visit the Enormous website for great images and behind the scenes info on one of this summers breakout hits.
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