8/29/14 - Trillium - (DC/Vertigo)

Now son, you've heard me !@#$ing go on about dimensional travel, before, and how much I !@#$ing hate that !@#$? Walking through a big !@#$ space donut, landing !@#$ knows where, and discovering you're on a parallel Earth run by !@#$ing McDonalds, or some such? Having to survive in places where Hitler never lost, Rome never fell, and no one ever !@#$ing invented toilet paper? 

Well, let me tell you, there's one thing I !@#$ing hate more than space donuts, and that's !@#$ing time machines. Time travel makes me want to shoot things in the face, repeatedly. Every !@#$ time I go back I have to have a legion of people watching my every !@#$ move, just to make sure I don't !@#$ something up and create a parallel world of my own. 

And the complications are... well, let's just say there's a reason I get kind of misty when I think about President McKinley. And that's all I'm going to !@#$ing say about that. 

 

See if you can find me in this photo.

But, as with dimensional travel, even if you don't !@#$ing want to do it eve !@#$ing again, it's still fun to read about. And same with time travel, too. There's reasons SPYGOD makes time on Saturday nights to sit down and watch a certain BBC show. And there's reasons I force people to !@#$ing watch it with me at gunpoint. Because it's good for them, and I really !@#$ing care. A lot.

Which brings me to Trillium, the new graphic novel by Jeff Lemire -- a truly weird and mind-blowing dance of time, space, language, identity, and the far-reaching cosmic connections that bind us the !@#$ together.

So it's 3797, and the !@#$ has hit the fan. Humanity has mostly succumbed to a god!@#$ sentient virus called The Caul, and is down to about 4000 people - period. And this !@#$ing plague with a plan is creeping its !@#$ way from system to system, intent on stomping humanity underfoot and wiping us off its !@#$ing shoe.

"Wibbley Wobbly Timey Wimey" my bony !@#$! Get me out of here!

And here's the thing, son -- the only !@#$ing thing standing in its way is a bunch of white flowers, being watched over by a bunch of blue aliens with a !@#$ weird language. And some poor Xeniologist is trying to communicate with them so her people can take them and live, and do this before her superiors decide to go all "manifest destiny" and take them, hurt feelings or broken bodies be !@#$ed.

Thing is, it's also 1921, and a former soldier is trudging through the Amazon with a small expedition, trying to find the big !@#$ lost temple of the Incas. He had a really !@#$ing bad go of it during the Great War, and life in England since just hasn't done a !@#$ thing for him. So here he is, looking for something that may not exist, and then having his !@#$ handed to him by the locals, who aren't !@#$ing happy to have nosy white people walking on their !@#$ lawn.

One big !@#$ weird coincidence later, these two people come face to face in his time. They can't !@#$ing understand each other, and they're both confused as !@#$. But there's one word they both have in common: Trillium.

And that's when things get really !@#$ing weird...

Now, let me tell you something, son: Jeff Lemire is a !@#$ing treasure. Canada should insure his !@#$ hands and his head for a couple million dollars apiece. !@#$ knows, they'll do it for much less worthy individuals, some of who I wish they'd !@#$ing frog-march back across the border in chains and throw to the !@#$ bears. 

"SPYGOD, I'm taking away your gay card..."

 But if you were !@#$ing astounded by his work on Animal Man, and were incredibly grateful that he managed to not only salvage the !@#$-tastic mess they made of the Green Arrow reboot, but also knock it out of the !@#$ing park and all the way to the moon, you haven't seen anything until you see what he does when he writes and illustrates his own work. That's when the chains come off and he goes !@#$ wild. I'm thinking of things like Essex County, The Underwater Welder, and his last major work for Vertigo, the post-apocalyptic epic Sweet Tooth. They're trippy, heartfelt, and never less than outright !@#$ing astounding.

(Yes, son, I used that word twice. I'm !@#$ing allowed)

So why should you get the collected edition of Trillium? Let me break it the !@#$ down for you, SPYGOD style. 

1) The Story

I get really !@#$ing bored when someone wants to tell me a science fiction story, these days. I've been there, seen it, gotten the !@#$ t-shirt, and been orally serviced by some weird thing out behind the toilets while waiting for them to call my number and send me the !@#$ home. 

"I can make a film and make you my star /
You'll be a natural the way you are"

So when I say that this science fiction story is something that takes all the time travel tropes we've had shoved on us by !@#$ movies and lazy !@#$ novels, turns them upside down, and gives us something new and interesting? That's !@#$ing saying something.

This is an epic in every sense of the word. This some fierce !@#$ing imagining. There's one big !@#$ story masquerading as two, and yet the underscore of decency and humanity floats alongside it to bring you back to the !@#$ing ground in spite of the wonder. And that is an achievement.

2) The Art

 Yes, his art looks a little !@#$ing weird at times. He's got some !@#$ good drafting and style techniques, but the people all look like they've come off a big !@#$ bad drunk, and sometimes they all look the same from work to work.

But you know what, son? It !@#$ing works. The downbeat human presentation only serves to aid in his presenting creaky, old spaceships that are the last hope of the human race, or possibly its doom, or ancient temples that could be human and alien at the same time (maybe !@#$ing both), or whatever. His sense of realism underscores the fantastic, and makes it truly stand the !@#$ out.

That'll wake you the !@#$ up in the morning, alright.

3) The Audacity

When SPYGOD went to his friendly local comic shop, and bought the first issue, he was amazed to see that they'd played around with the format. The first part of that first issue was one way, covering one time period, and then met the second part halfway... from the back forward, for the other time period. You had to flip it upside !@#$ing down to read the whole thing, and see how they came together in the middle.

"A cheap gimmick," you say? Well !@#$ you. It works perfectly with the story, itself, and they mirrored that in future issues when they got separated in time (and yet still together, sort of) -- having you read the tops of the pages one way, and then read the bottom half the other. There were upside down panels interspersed with the normal ones. All kinds of visual tricks to disorient you, and yet bring you closer to the feeling you'd get when you have to wrap your !@#$ brain around this kind of !@#$.

Which was, if I'm not !@#$ing mistaken, kind of the idea all along.  And if so, well done.  

SPYGOD'S Verdict: Three thumbs up for a trippy, intricate, and truly weird tale that takes us to the far reaches of time and identity, but never loses its humanity along the way. Lemire's excellent storytelling is top notch, and his already-formidable art and design hits a new benchmark, here.

Trillium - get the trade paperback at your local comic store!