It’s disappointing to look outside and see what’s manifesting in every corner of America.
But, if there is, um, to keep me in mind, it’s a comic. More specifically, in just a handful of recent interviews with writers, each discussed how reliable they can be in the media literacy of the average reader. And despite solid evidence to the contrary, sufficient creators believe their audiences to tackle these big, hefty stories that demand the most robust engagement.
But Ee Zann and Godfarr trust only two people to trust their audience.
The comic rookie rocked for the proverb fence along with the brand new I, Tyrant. How about that? Oh God, I don’t know if I can tell you meaningfully. In the case of the book, which is described as a clash between 300 and Birdman, the only thing we certainly know is that Iranian playwright Hafez (facing deportation) was seized/recovered by the Arab snake king Zarnak. For what? Why he rewrites the devastating ending of his seventh century and gives the imposing snake lord a truly deserving ending. Throwing the reference to Jack Kirby and “Miller Reboot” my brain is basically one of Minnesota salads.
And it’s clear: I don’t mind if I’m grossly up on the story. Incidentally, I wish it would happen more often. Because after a lifetime of smoking a lot of candy-like cartoons, your average series/mini-series telegraph ideas and overestimates them to the extent that they can map a particular ratio during my sleep. Still, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Stories don’t have to be intellectually challenging at all times. The problem is that it feels like I do. The tyrant somehow gets a little stuck.
Courtesy of the image comic.
The two creators don’t create stories that they feel can escape the place in Amber, rather than the language or familiarity of the manga. So what we get is the thinnest signs that stick out of the mud. Similarly, the essentially meta context of Hafez-Zahnak’s story, and the Creator’s Creation loop running into an already surprisingly crazy circle. Or the angle of immigration, and how it is relevant and how it is very persuasive, how it tells a few shared story threads about owning your own story. Hafez has the ability to have that dynamics that help us track many of Tyrant’s events, even in his relationship with “pro bono therapist.”
They are a very interesting aspect of the layered story than the 100-foot trivial thing, but lending an expanded shape/shape is not enough. They certainly are enough to feel like the beginning of a decently thrilling roadmap, but even so, there is no idea that they will go beyond a tenuous grasp of the right shape of this journey.
And certainly, that’s the storytelling cost of some people’s dreams (and if so, drink it all), but if the overconsumption of comics taught me one thing, it’s meant to be a storytelling mechanism that promotes understanding. Given the existence (or not) of time, sound and movement in this medium, stories can open themselves to a variety of readings by equally diverse readers. I, Tyrant, don’t have it. So far, there is no room or obvious editing to truly guide us in this truly novel story and the way we respect the money of its themes.
Courtesy of the image comic.
Instead, we are left to stick to the aforementioned signs as we head towards this special, complicated story desert. And while I might cling to the texture and parts that seem to feel exciting and hopeful, in the end you will be lost in the wilderness too.
Again, if it’s entirely your bag, you’ll already really enjoy the circular momentum and story loop that make up me, the tyrant. But for my money, I needed a more robust structure early on. Part of trusting readers doesn’t just assume they’re smart enough to catch up. It gives them only enough to make their own roller blades, and here they feel less interested in our engagement and more interested in overwhelming our senses with their pure storytelling skills. They really didn’t even bother to even thrust us in the right direction, with the aim of not doing us once.
These signs I mentioned are allowed to either only half-finish us, or only a great choice of wallpapers for HH Holmes’s murderous residence. There is absolutely true depth and strength here. I don’t mind letting anyone know that we want to have more human senses, not the most engaging act of pushing our readers into the semi-mad or drunkards of contest, but to maximize those benefits.
Courtesy of the image comic.
That’s an experience that has become even more complicated with Godfarr’s art. This is what I’m trying to attract the most attention from this book, and its dirty but deep human style is an accurate counter to a story that is so obsessed with my intelligence. The only problem is that even art can’t really help to contextualize and reinforce your immersion. And what we get is the time or space hops that are too easily fused to perceive fictional things from reality (or we can’t even consider them an option or a red herring), and in itself a folding of carnage and chaos.
But when stories often suffer and bother our “stumbling” to the trouble, the art is so demanding, everything is consumed that it completely bumps into the cake with its layers of blood and dirt. Whether it’s Zarnack’s monster design that exudes the wild bad guy Conan level, Hafez’s emotions burned into his brain with every painful face and distorted body, and a thin aesthetic (I swear), it’s even a visual demonstration in an interview with the vampire.
This art can skillfully expand what we don’t know with our uncertainty and filthy blood and infinite violence. But you don’t want to leave, so you keep your guts, looking for rest areas and information booths, hugging your guts and talking.
Courtesy of the image comic.
Because if nothing is taken away from this review absolutely nothing, I, the tyrant, must experience it first hand. Either way, it’s not easy, but the challenges hope you will become a smarter or more savvy reader. (Or, it will remove enough blood to make you realize otherwise.) I would say it rewards a serious analysis of a rather complicated and difficult to manage story, but it may simply beat us on the face and neck for its own twisted entertainment. (In any case, it feels like an amazing award.)
And those core signs are really important – me, tyrants may be intellectual poses and overly involved literary experiments, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a story of resonance here and now. (An era in itself is very meta, and also has a double interest in the seemingly resilience of social stories.)
Prepare to not know much – or at least work hard to really connect with the story in a more complete sense. Either way, you don’t know until you truly give yourself to me, the tyrant. And regardless of our understanding, our share of this story and its bold ideas, a deep and effective approach, and slow-pitching mystery, we can all do it.
If this is just the beginning of this story, then I should give myself to this book immediately. I beat me more with much unknown and give in to the magic of the story that consumes with fatal intentions and effects.
“I, Tyrant” #1 demands our attention even in the ignorant maelstrom
Me, Tyrant #1
Even if you haven’t always seen the prints in the sand, “I, Tyrant” is a thrilling, unprotected slice of existential horror that is dragged by understanding and death (either at the beginning).
Godfarr’s art is dark, bloody, and unsettling A-list level.
The story demands your involvement more than anything/other distractions.
There are basic elements that crush the experiments of this story and root the ground.
It’s easy to get lost here, and it’s not always a thrill for all readers.
