Horizon: The Fear continues Andrew Wildman’s rite of passage adventure

HORIZON: The Fear by Andrew Wildman

‘We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are’ – Anais Nin

Comic creator Andrew Wildman very kindly sent me a copy of Horizon: The Fear, the second book in his HORIZON trilogy recently – what I’d describe as a “rite of passage” story – and a beautifully told story at that.

Andrew describes it as a story of Love and Loss, Fear and Freedom, a toy rabbit… and very big robots!

The HORIZON story centres on 15-year-old girl, Alisanne. Her life quite simply, for her, doesn’t work. She has lost the one she loves the most and everyone else is the enemy. She is stuck in between. Between childhood and adulthood, between life and death, between school and home, between then and now and between waking and dreaming. Irritated by her mother, bullied at school, challenged by her counsellor she falls… into a dream… where everything begins to change.

When we last saw her, in Horizon: The Falling,  her talking toy rabbit, Moon, a gift from her father many years ago, was guiding her through her nightmare. Teaching her to be ‘present’ and overcoming her anxiety of being caught out at every turn.

Now something bigger is stalking her. Something that to her is quite simply… The Fear.

With this second title in the series, longtime readers and fans of Andrew’s work – not just on HORIZON but Transformers and Frontier: Dealing with Demons – this talented creator reveals how the HORIZON story has grown in the telling, expanding from one book to a trilogy.

“They say life imitates art and vice versa,” he says. “This book is a work in progress. Life is a work in progress. Those who have read book one will know that HORIZON was intended to be a single volume. But life came along and interrupted that and I decided to do the book in two parts.

“The interesting thing for me was having made that decision new areas for HORIZON opened up,” he reveals. “Sometimes, with the best laid plans in place, you just have to go with the flow. You just have to go where it takes you. Something else that came up was that the big scene and resolution in this book was supposed to be the conclusion to HORIZON but it wasn’t until I go there that it was clearly not the end. It was clear that there was something missing. In a flash it came to me.”

Talking about the final scenes of The Fear and an iconic image of a mysterious tower seen in the first book, The Falling, he explains a scene at the end of this new release with the tower was never part of the plan.

“The first glimpse we get of the tower in book one was only there to illustrate a particular point in Ali’s journey but that was all. I never intended her to go there again. But there was something nagging and that is why HORIZON is now a three book project. Ali needed to go to the tower. What she will find there will be revealed in book three.

“But for now, jump in and go on her journey of discovering who that big bot is that we have been seeing for a while. She needs to know, and she wants you to be there with her.”

Andrew’s art and story on this project are stand out, delivering a thought provoking tale of personal development and survival with consummate style. Well worth taking a look, either on Andrew’s web site, or track him down at the next major British comics event for a look at his work.

Part three of HORIZON,  The Flying, is currently in development. This final chapter will take readers on Ali’s final part of the journey as she deals with the fundamental parts of her personality, her concerns and will take her through a breakthrough that will drastically change her experience of life.

HORIZON: The Fallling and HORIZON: The Fear are now available from Andrew Wildman’s online shop

• More about the HORIZON project: www.horizongraphicnovel.com

• To keep up to date with the development of the project drop your details in here



Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Graphic Novels, Comic Creator Spotlight

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