Even with as many comics as I read, it's possible for books to slip underneath my radar, and until fairly recently, that's just what Aria had done. In fact, it was the name Lan Medina that drew me to this project, thanks to his work on Fables. As it turned out, Aria has a premise not unlike that of Fables, although it has a very different sensibility and take on the premise. Aria centers on Kildare, an immortal princess of Faerie who has been around for some 800 years and who has spent no small amount of that time on Earth, interacting with the hidden magic at work in the world. There are two stories in this Enchanted Collection, one taking place in 2003 in upstate New York and the other in the swinging '60s in London. Both feature art by Medina and Pajarillo and writing by Holguin, and both are very entertaining reads.
There are a lot of interesting things to be said with the mixture of modern day and fantasy, but The Uses of Enchantment, the first tale in this collection, seems to be focused largely on the fantasy elements. The story of Queen Joyous and Kildare ties back to the modern world, but the story rests in the fantasy realm that Oberon has created. There are several mysteries here, some obvious with a little thought (the nature of the monster and the queen) and some not so obvious (the nature of Oberon). All of the mysteries are cleverly and fairly written, though, with the keys to solving the puzzle laid out early on... Holguin doesn't do a bit of cheating in the stories, and that makes the solving of the mysteries at the end of the tale rewarding.
The second tale, Summer's Spell, is much more about the modern day than the fantasy elements, as an old lover of Kildare comes to find her in '60s London. While the first story is more about the guest stars than Kildare, who is there mostly as an enabler of change, this story focuses in on a time of change in Kildare's life. The romance between Kildare and Thomas is very sweet and real, and has all the feel of a fairy tale romance while still fitting perfectly into a modern setting. In addition, I quite like that Holguin steers clear of the cliche of Thomas playing fish out of water for too long, and instead has him learning the culture fairly easily and instead being out of place in a more subtle and more effective way.
Much of this sense of magic in this collection comes from the artwork. Lan Medina and Mark Pajarillo provide the art on both, but there's a different coloring style on each story that sets them apart. The Uses of Enchanment is easily the stronger of the two, with a lush, painted look that reminds me of the first time I saw Alex Ross's work, mixing photo-realism and fantasy in perfect measure. Steve Oliff and Andy Troy use a technique that makes the digitally-colored artwork look almost indistinguishable from painting. The second story is more traditional colors, but is still immensely detailed and beautiful, and Medina and Pajarillo really evoke the emotions present in Holguin's scripts, especially where the more tragic moments are concerned. There's a real strong sense of location with both of the stories, from the amazingly majestic fairy kingdom of The Uses of Enchantment to the period look of London in Summer's Spell.
Though the time difference and the different focus would at first glance make the two stories seem an odd match for a single trade paperback, in fact both of these stories share more in common than just creative teams. Each is about love and loss, about the capacity for self-delusion and how the desire to make others' happy can sometimes wind up causing misery if done for the wrong reasons. They also indicate that despite immortality, there are always lessons to be learned and stories to be told, which makes me curious to check out the rest of the Aria stories at some point. 8/10
