I hesitated to review this monumental graphic novel, not because I doubted its quality, but because its mystical, metaphysical content practically defies description. Produced over 15 years, Moynihan’s magnum opus presents a bizarre alternate version of creationism as seen through an Adult Swim lens. Familiar characters from the Bible interact with alien gods, Greek mythological figures, Jewish mysticism, and tarot influences, making for a dizzying mix of ingredients blended into an unforgettable, psychedelic concoction.
Buy FormingThe story starts off on somewhat familiar ground, with Adam and Eve, and later Cain and Abel, coming into contact with a cantankerous alien god named Mithras who drops by Earth for an inspection on their progress as a species. From there, the plot branches out to eventually involve around 40 characters, all with their own motivations and histories, with a few key players facing off in a seemingly never-ending battle for universal supremacy. Just when you think you might have a bead on where things are lining up with Biblical history, such as the Great Flood, the plot is disrupted by alien hermaphrodites, or invisible gnomes, or any other wacky construct that bubbles to the surface.
Despite the deep spiritual themes, the writing is decidedly tongue in cheek, always favoring juvenile humor over any philosophical mumbo jumbo. There are no deep thinkers here, just a bunch of foolish characters following the id component of their psyches to whatever outlandish ends they arrive at. With all of the characters coming and going, it’s difficult to parse out any central plot, leaving a work that operates best as a stream of consciousness melange of disparate players engaged in pursuing their base desires. There’s just so much going on that one reading hardly suffices, making for a puzzle box of a book that can be studied and discussed for decades to come.
Considering the extensive production timeframe, the character artwork remains fairly consistent from beginning to end. However, there is notable composition improvement in the later pages, replacing the fairly flat perspective and nine-panel layouts of the early chapters with enhanced depth of field and panel variety. Colors also improve as the book progresses, with charmingly hand-colored early chapters later giving way to stunning CG-assisted gradation in the backgrounds and vivid hues. Seriously, the colors are a vital, essential piece of this work, with Moynihan carefully modeling his “spiritually motivated color theory” from tarot teachings by comics, film, and mysticism legend Alejandro Jodorowsky.
So in the end, I’m still not entirely sure what happened in the book, but the dazzling colors and hilarious cast of characters made for a wholly entertaining ride. The book favorably reminded me of Charles Glaubitz’s equally ambitious, epic, and elliptical Starseeds trilogy, also from Fantagraphics, but there is no true comparison for this singular achievement. Moynihan has constructed his own mind-bending, absurd universe here, and all adventurous readers should make a point to pay it a visit.
