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A review by marthmuffins
Infidel by Pornsak Pichetshote
3.0
Infidel - 3.5/5
A really solid comic which is undermined by the fact that everything takes a backseat to The Message. Now, the message here, about the insidious nature of racism/xenophobia and how it infests the core of people and systems, is important and well realised here but it overpowers the book to such an extent that things like character and plot take far too much of a secondary role here.
I never felt as if I entirely knew Aisha or Medina, or any of their myriad of friends and relations, well enough to be suitably invested beyond a surface level. There are a lot of elements here which could've got me invested but they never entirely came together, and which wasn't helped by the sheer number of characters a reader has to keep a track of, especially in the 5 issue space this story was provided.
To add to that, the decision to.
The horror was very effective though, with Aaron Campbell's art perfectly suited for the ghosts and spirits infecting the bones of the building. Not to undersell the writing in these scenes though, the text of hateful words going across the page when the ghosts are present is very effective.
So yeah, this is a tentative recommendation. Just be aware that this comic is focused on that Message over everything else and, as needed as that message is, it does overpower the whole story to the determent of the characters and plot.
A really solid comic which is undermined by the fact that everything takes a backseat to The Message. Now, the message here, about the insidious nature of racism/xenophobia and how it infests the core of people and systems, is important and well realised here but it overpowers the book to such an extent that things like character and plot take far too much of a secondary role here.
I never felt as if I entirely knew Aisha or Medina, or any of their myriad of friends and relations, well enough to be suitably invested beyond a surface level. There are a lot of elements here which could've got me invested but they never entirely came together, and which wasn't helped by the sheer number of characters a reader has to keep a track of, especially in the 5 issue space this story was provided.
To add to that, the decision to
Spoiler
switch up the protagonist from Aisha to Medina partway through didn't help with my difficulty to connecting with the characters. Suddenly we're going from a fairly well sketched out character to focus instead on her somewhat interesting but not nearly as developed friend. It really didn't work for meThe horror was very effective though, with Aaron Campbell's art perfectly suited for the ghosts and spirits infecting the bones of the building. Not to undersell the writing in these scenes though, the text of hateful words going across the page when the ghosts are present is very effective.
So yeah, this is a tentative recommendation. Just be aware that this comic is focused on that Message over everything else and, as needed as that message is, it does overpower the whole story to the determent of the characters and plot.