Double bill today
The eleventh comic: #626 Space Dog
Space Dog looks quite distinctive: bold, flat colours, angular and sharp. The strong aesthetic creates its own world that fits the story. It starts off quite standard, in a sense, for these stories - unhappy dog on the farm tries city life, escapes there, has adventure, and the very final bit even has it return there to find the simpler life.
The middle bit is what sets it apart. The trip to space even feels standard, but the dog gaining intelligence (all of this communicated through symbols and images) through alien interference is... odd, and it makes for an interesting twist towards a more immpactful story that has merit on more than its looks.
A delightful story.
The twelth comic: #902 The Arrival
Another wordless story, there is more of a reason here. The story of an immigrant (mostly for economic reasons, it seems, although there is a hint of more going on in the background that might subvert that), everything is strange, and the graphic novel is built around that. He can't communicate, so he uses drawings and pictographs instead. Because of the higher level of technology, the architecture is strange (a mixture of futuristic looks and steampunk elements thath reminded me of the game Machinarium. The pets look weird and you feel as much a stranger in this world as our unnamed main character is.
Life is hard, though not impossible, and he soon finds a job and succeeds - relatively speaking - enough for a happy end and a chance of integration.
It feels like the recent refugee crisis made this more applicable and still made it something I could connect with far more. Again an interesting story.