By Fabien Vehlmann and Roger Ibáñez Ugena
Translated by Dan Christensen
Review By Luke Williams
What’s become of a world whose only hope of survival lies in the humanity of a child and a voiceless monkey?
The second Europe Comics translated publication to cross this reviewer’s tablet in the past four weeks, The Beast-God begins with the introduction of a young ape, No Voice, and his struggles within his clan for recognition and a place in its hierarchy.
In No Voice’s moment of triumph, his clan is set upon by a tribe of human hunters. He’s captured and enslaved as a living talisman for the tribe, trained and conditioned to be super aggressive as a contestant in ritual death matches.
Many years pass, and No Voice has become a merciless killer as the tribe returns from exile seeking to take the throne of the Empire from its ailing ruling family. In the midst of a natural disaster, No Voice escapes and begins to stalk his former captors, as they wind their way to the capital.
In essence, The Beast-God is a tale of revenge, with a revolution subplot woven through it. It’s a thoughtful story and action is used sparingly, but when it does occur, it’s violent and bloody, but not gratuitously so.
The titular Beast God introduces the story and appears again at the end, with an appearance in the odd panel here and there, but it’s the members of the tribe that propel the story. Each chapter is devoted to a key member of the tribe, and told from their perspective, though there isn’t enough space to develop them as characters and consequently it’s difficult to empathise with them.
The atmosphere is gloomy, exacerbated by the flat, earthy colouring; oranges, browns, yellows, grey and green, though atmospheric adds to the despondent and downbeat air; offering little in vibrancy and light as respite. That doesn’t detract from the lovely fluid brushwork, the innovative camera angles and well-structured layouts lending weight to this reviewer’s theory that there is no such thing as a poorly drawn French comic.
For all that, that’s not to say that this is a bad comic – anything but that! There’s no question that this is a classy piece of work, beautifully drawn and well written… just a bit grim.
Luke Williams
• The Beast God is available digitally here from Europe Comics from AmazonUK (Affiliate Link)
Fabien Vehlmann debuted with his script for Green Manor (Dupuis, Cinebook in English) drawn by Denis Bodart, first published in the legendary Spirou. He followed this with Samediet dimanche with Gwen (Dargaud). Working with Mathieu Bonhomme on art he created Le Marquis d’Anaon and IAN (illustrated by Ralph Meyer), both series published by Dargaud (Cinebook in English). He has since gone on to work on the long-running Spirou & Fantasio series, Seuls (Dupuis; Alone, Cinebook), adapted into a film in early 2017.
Roger Ibáñez Ugena has contributed several short strips to the fanzine GN, written by A. Garcia, along with Hirami for the publisher Camelon. With writer N. Peris, he co-created Sukebe, and went onto create 14 strips with writing partner Raule for America’s Penthouse Comix magazine, Hole’n’Virgin, Amores muertos, Cabos sueltos” (Amaníaco), and Jazz Maynard for Dargaud. Using the pseudonym Nono, Ugena has also created various erotic comics for the American market, including Sizzle (NBM).
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Brought up on a diet of Commando, British Boys Annuals and Asterix, Lucas Williams’s day job limits his reading time. Luckily for everyone else this also restricts his writing time.
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