Something dark is stirring on Aeaea. Writer Laurence Alison and acclaimed 2000AD artist Simon Harrison are preparing to launch the second and final part of Circe on Kickstarter, completing their dark and distinctly unconventional reimagining of one of Greek mythology’s most fascinating figures.
Following the events of Circe Book 1, the story returns to Circe’s island, and to the complicated relationship between the goddess and Odysseus. But with the Ithacan’s journey inevitably drawing him homewards, Circe Book 2 asks a rather different question: what happens to Circe when Odysseus leaves?
The answer takes the story far beyond the familiar events of The Odyssey.
Part Two, in the works from British independent publisher PSYComics, expands the strange mythological world established in the first book, drawing Circe deeper into the affairs of gods, monsters and primordial forces. Hecate, Helios, Hades, Nyx, the Furies and Cerberus all have roles to play — but exactly how they collide is something best left for readers to discover.
Because this is very much Circe’s story.
Goddess. Witch. Lover. Daughter. And now something more.
At its heart remains a story about love, trust, deception and the consequences of our choices – particularly when mortals and gods become entangled with one another.
But if Laurence Alison is making things difficult for his characters, Simon Harrison is making them look absolutely stunning and his artwork is, arguably, the immediate reason to pay attention to these preview pages. (And Neil McClements Variant Cover is icing in the cake).
Readers familiar with his extraordinary work for 2000AD will recognise an artist with little interest in making the mythological world comfortable or conventional. His stark black-and-white pages combine vast pools of darkness, explosive light, photographic textures and extraordinary shifts of scale.
The result is Greek mythology that looks simultaneously ancient, psychedelic, erotic and nightmarish.
Circe herself moves effortlessly between sensuality and menace. Gods appear genuinely otherworldly. Monsters emerge from near-total darkness. Ships, warriors, skeletons and supernatural creatures seem almost to dissolve into Harrison’s blacks.
There is an extraordinary physicality to the pages – but also a sense that reality itself becomes unstable whenever the gods intrude.
Most importantly, it simply doesn’t look like anybody else’s Greek mythology comic.
And the scale is growing.
The images revealed here offer glimpses of what lies ahead without giving away why it happens: Odysseus at sea; Circe surrounded by her familiars; the chariot of Helios tearing through the heavens; armies of the dead; and confrontations with beings whose power dwarfs that of mortals.
Something is coming to Aeaea.
And Circe is preparing for it.
Circe Book 2, will bring Alison and Harrison’s story to its conclusion, while continuing the wider mythology established in Odysseus: In Defiance of the Gods. It is both companion to that story and a deliberate inversion of it – remaining with the woman whom the traditional tale eventually leaves behind.
The forthcoming Kickstarter will offer the complete second and final chapter of Circe, with further details of the campaign to be announced shortly.
For now, these pages provide the tease.
And with Simon Harrison producing some of the most striking work of his career, it looks as though Circe intends to go out in spectacular fashion…
• Sign up to be notified of the launch of Circe Book 2 right here on Kickstarter
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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