Motro

By Farinas, Freitas & Hill
Publisher: Oni Press
ISBN: 9781620104088

Motro is a story with a broad scope, an legendary feel and an ambitious reach, telling the tale of young boy with an astounding strength who is seeking his place in the world. Each chapter looks at a different stage in his life, constructing a heroic chronicle through these small slithers, as a destiny begins to take shape. The world itself is somewhat like ours, but mashes up a fantasy setting with a post-apocalyptic feel for something decidedly off-kilter and strange, where characters range from tiny image speaking tanks to ice dragons, cube-headed thugs to four-legged octopus things. It’s all incredibly inventive, weird and fascinating, and it works thanks to the creative diligence of Farinas, Freitas and Hill.

Illustration-wise, there’s so much going on, with abundant detail, a vast swathe of characters and oddities in the extreme, but Ferinas’s style is clear, clean and rich, with a hint of Geof Darrow about it, allowing for some great scene-setting, and a developmental arc that feels believable and rich.

In itself it’s a broad-brush epic that is completed and fully-realised by the final page, and it could remain that way, but equally there’s a majesty to its scale that begs for further explanation and exploration to allow us to see more of this extraordinary setting.

Motro is one of the gem’s of the year.

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