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Saturday, 14 March 2009

Rocco Vargas. The Dark Forest. Daniel Torres.Dark Horse Comics (2001).


A gorgeous piece of romantic science fiction, the future as it should be with beautiful, stylish art and a solid thoughtful story. A mysterious virus has swept through the solar systems computer network, it has displayed only the message " The world breathes through the forest..." and vanishes as mysteriously as it arrives. Rocco Vargas, one time space explorer, night club owner and science fiction writer and Dr. Jill Covalsky, a scientist, both wonder about the message and find that it may have more meaning than has been realised. When an attempt is made on Jill Covalsky's life the chase is on to find the true meaning of the phrase. When it is revealed it is as gloriously sweeping and galactic as it should be.
This is science fiction about the possibilities of the future, it is as lushly romantic as the great travel posters of trains and ocean liners from the 1930's were, they are full of promise and the glamour of technology. The future is rushing ahead at full speed. The style of the book is very distinctive, it is the 1950's catapulted ahead into an retro future with flying cars that have tail fins and look like they came straight off the set of Grease.
Daniel Torres has drawn the future like it should have been, robots everywhere, technology that feels as futuristic as it should populated by a cast that wear double-breasted suits as naturally as breathing. The detail of his art is wonderful, he has a number of crowd scenes which are full of life and carefully differentiated characters. Daniel Torres is willing to go for a big idea as well, to give his story a wide scope that matches the huge vision of the future. A pleasure to read.

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