Our material and natural world is sometimes interrupted or even complimented by the supernatural. Sometimes these incidents are a one-time occurrence and sometimes they appear as synchronicities or as signs that appear over time and time and time again. It could be a haunting, a talisman, or even phantom lights that change our world as we know it.
Buy Ocultos by Laura PérezIn her new graphic work, Ocultos, Spanish comics artist Laura Pérez, whose Totem was reviewed by Steve Geise, explores these magical and sometimes harrowing moments in both continuing storylines and stand-alone vignettes. Pérez’s artwork is dark and haunting, while at the same time beautiful and approachable. Her verbal storytelling is sparse, but full of depth, as translated by Andrea Rosenberg.
I think that this is a work readers will need to visit several times, not because the work is difficult to understand or process, but I believe her different stories will resonate differently depending on the reader’s time of approach and re-approach. Some will land through her words. Some will land through her magical visuals. Some will land because of both.
If you are into graphic works that linger and slowly reveal themselves, then this is the book for you.
Ocultos is published by Fantagraphics and is available now wherever you get your books.
