“Karma City” v1 – v6 by Pierre-Yves Gabrion

Karma rules in this sci-fi police procedural.  You better be good for everyone, or they won’t let you into the city….

Karma Kameleon

Gabrion is not hiding his influences with this book.  There’s a back-up story at the end that gives the history of Karma City.  A central figure in it is Seldov Asimovic.  The rules for Karma City are vaguely reminiscent of Isaac Asimov’s Rules of Robots, and I’d just guess that the first name is a tip of the cap to Hari Seldon, the star of Asimov’s “Foundation” series.

The fun with Asimov’s Robot series is that the stories generally tend to be about one of those three rules being broken and how that impacts society and robots.  Asimov was a very cerebral writer.  He thought through these things a lot.  Those rules were written in stone. Any violation raised plenty of red flags that the writer could then play with to dramatic effect.  Asimov was great at thinking logically through those things.

With “Karma City,” there are four rules.  They’re written out at the beginning of each volume in the second half of the series, but let me sum it up: Be good for civilization and not yourself, and you’re in.  Be selfish, and you’re out.  You wear a watch and carry an ID card with you that border patrol scans every time you enter the city.  If you’ve been bad for the whole, they won’t let you in.

So, of course, the story kicks off with border patrol letting someone into the city with bad karma.  It’s against the rules, and it ends badly, kicking off the whole story.

Dramatized with The Three Amigos

Three characters are investigating the murder.  Napoli is the grizzled veteran who pushes the rulebook off to the side when he needs to.  Asuka is his long-term partner who’s a bit of a class clown.  And Kate Cooper is the new addition to the force who’s put in charge of this investigation.

Napoli is the quiet one. Asuka fills the role as the voice of the partnership. Cooper is the frustrated, by-the-books newbie who wants to make a good first impression but is continuously foiled by her partners.

It’s a bit of a police procedural cliche set-up, but it works. Gabrion defines the characters quickly and strongly, then sticks with them.  The natural drama between the three propels the book and moves the investigation forward.  It’s a lot more entertaining with Napoli around, that’s for sure. Asuka is almost comic relief, but he does function to explain some of Napoli’s eccentricities, since Napoli doesn’t talk too much.

There’s a natural initial worry that Gabrion would turn Cooper into the weak woman stereotype, the kind who’s fresh out of school, filled with hope, and immediately reduced to a puddle.  But she’s not. Yes, the realities of the system she walks into do frustrate her, but she never gives up fighting.  She doesn’t go after Napoli directly, but she knows the system well enough to use it to her advantage when it counts.  Not even her direct supervisor can manipulate her into dropping the investigation.

Most importantly, her dogged determination saves the entire investigation from being swept under the rug.  In that case, the larger case never would have seen the light of day.

Still, Napoli has some secrets and some tricks up his sleeve, and he’s not ready to show all his cards just yet…

Formatting Issues

This series is available as six separate books, with each having a different page count. The first book is 31 pages, parts 2 – 5 are about 24 pages each, and the finale is 47 pages .  (The main story ends a few pages short.  There’s a short story at the end explaining the history of Karma City.)

On Izneo, the first volume is wrongly listed at 176 pages.

Going with the math, it looks like 176 is the total number of pages in the series, but the series was originally produced at this more North American style pace.  It’s a double sized opening and closing, with a shorter page length in every issue in-between.

Combined, the total series so far makes up the first of two tomes.  It doesn’t look like the second book is out yet, though.

The French edition of the book is available all in one book at a higher price.  I’m not sure what the reason for this publication plan is, though I can think of a couple of marketing reasons for it.  For starters, it provides a lower entry cost for North American readers to offer a first “issue” at a cheaper price.

The murder mystery part wraps up with the fifth book.  The sixth book covers the court case and introduces new elements that will set up the second cycle in the series. Yes, there’s a larger arc to this.  I’ll withhold judgment until it’s available and I’ve read it, of course, but I like this series as a police procedural.  The next direction it’s looking to go in feels like it’ll be a much larger thing.  That can combine with the procedural part, or it can take everything over.  I’m hoping for the former, not the latter.

For a good model on how to do that kind of thing, the late, great “Fuse” by Antony Johnston and Justin Greenwood did a great job balancing the two.

The Art of Gabrion

If you’re used to the dense four tier layout of art in so many Franco-Belgian books, Gabrion’s more open layout will surprise you.  It’s positively airy.

He goes with three tiers per page, and usually with only a couple of panels in each tier.  As manga is to North American comics, so this book is to the typical album. There’s a lot of space on these pages, but it’s all laid out well and the story never suffers from the art. Gabrion’s art style fits in with it. There are times when things get exposition heavy, which isn’t unusual for a procedural like this, and the art easily accommodates it.

He still uses lots of backgrounds and draws expressive characters with futuristic-looking tech. He has elements of artists like Paul Azaceta (earlier in this career) and Chris Samnee.  A few well-placed shadows can suggest an awful lot. There’s a certain cartoony element to his art in the facial expressions, though this never turns into Spirou or anything….

I love his establishing shots in outside areas.  Gabrion lays them out in a way that brings you into the story, with thoughtful shadow work setting up the sun’s position consistently.  There’s a strong sense of space and volume, with enough detail to layout the buildings without trying too hard to be exacting and detailed.   It helps draw you into the story when the art draws you into a scene like that.

The Lettering

Yes, I have to comment on the lettering.  It’s much larger than I’d usually like to see, but it’s size appropriate. I like it.  For a book filled with pages with large panels, the larger balloons and lettering fit in well.

The font is comic book-y enough.  It doesn’t try to get fancy in an attempt to mimic hand-lettering, so it remainds easy to read.

But — and this is a big but — it runs afoul of the crossbar-I rule consistently.  Ugh.

Recommended?

Yes, I enjoyed it a lot. But, then, I loved those Asimov stories when I was a teenager, too.  I was an easy mark for this one.  The high concept is an interesting one that Gabrion could easily push harder in future stories.  The characters are quick to grasp with a dynamic that keeps things lively, even in the most mundane parts of an investigation.   Gabrion shows a lot of imagination and skill in putting this story together, and I’d very much like to see more.

For more about the series, you can visit the Official Karma City website.

— 2018.050 —

Buy It Now

These link to the first volume. You can work your way up from there.

Amazon doesn’t offer the English edition of this book, though you can get the first issue in French for free through their Kindle Store:

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