European comics creator Nils Hamm brings an unusual project to Image Comics, or perhaps it's Image that's bringing Hamm to North American readers. Astro is an unusual book in a number of ways. There's the most obvious way -- the format -- as this thin volume boasts a high-end grade of paper bordering on cardstock and is larger than a typical comic book, with more of a magazine size. But it's the silent, surreal storytelling within that really sets this book apart from the crowd. Did I fully understand what Hamm was trying to say with this bizarre but charming mix of innocence and psychedelic imagery? No, not even close. But the creator and his story never let go of my attention and my curiosity.
A space traveller finds his rocket ship caught in a galactic spider's interstellar web, and he's forced to leave the ship or else be consumed by the impossible arachnid. He jumps into space, and he falls, falls and falls until finally landing in a suburban backyard, where he's first befriended by a curious pooch. That friendship leads him to others... with some children, with some free spirits with a taste for mind-altering substances, and with the ocean. On the beach, the astronaut finds something he's been looking for... actually, two somethings. He rediscovers the stars once again, but he also encounters love, and he's torn between the two.
Hamm's artwork is richly organic, wonderfully touching and cute yet alien and odd all at once. The diminutive characters are immediately likable. I found I was reminded of the art style of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine animated film from years ago. Hamm achieves an impressive three-dimensional effect throughout the book, and the characters and backgrounds are full of texture. I was surprised and impressive with how expressive the main character is, given the fact that we never see he/she/its face. The colors throughout are vibrant, but they're not really primary colors either. There's a darker palette at play as well, and it reinforces the slightly off-kilter, surreal tone of the book.
The writer/artist pulls something of a fast one on his readers early in the book. He leads his audience to believe that Astro has landed on Earth, but as the story progresses, that proves to be less and less true. The setting something of an Everyworld, a familiar backdrop that still boasts wondrous, alien trappings. The psychedlic sidetrip in the second act boasts a dramatically different tone that the rest of the book. Like Shakespeare's play-within-a-play in Hamlet, Hamm offers surrealism within a surreal story. It's a dizzying, challenging scene, but I like the contrasting tone between the innocence of the children and the drug-addled perception of danger.
The ultimate message of this book -- I'm guessing -- is that searching for one thing may lead you to find something else altogether that you need just as much, if not more. Part of the enjoyment of Hamm's wordless storytelling here, though, is that it's wide open to interpretation. The reader's perspective and imagination are vitally important factors in the meaning of the story as well. As I first delved into Astro, the elusiveness of meaning proved to be a little frustrating and off-putting, but the deeper one gets into the book, that element transforms from liability to selling point. 7/10
