Shi v1 cover header
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Shi v1: “In the Beginning, There Was Fury”

Writer: Zidrou
Artist: Homs
Colorist: Homs
Lettering: Calix Ltd
Translator: Matt Madden
Published by: Dargaud/Europe Comics
Number of Pages: 67
Original Publication: 2017

The premise for Shi is interesting.  Too bad it took 60+ pages to hint at it.

Can We Get a Story, Please?

For books I complain about at PipelineComics.com, there seems to be a recurring complaint: The first volumes of the series don’t tell a complete story.

It’s not a complaint I often make.  I get the serialization of stories.  If a story is meant to be three, four, or six books long, so be it.

Usually, though, there’s an attempt made in the first volume to have a complete story that will then lead to the next book.  It’s a hook that works because the characters are interesting or the situations are so crazy or the setting is so fascinating.

“Long John Silver” works because you know it’s a four volume story, the art is tremendous, and there are a few interesting characters in it.  You know where the story is going.  By the end of the first book, not only have you been introduced to the main characters, you can see what their goal is, you enjoy the conflicts, and you aren’t at all lost despite whatever teases the writer has included to set up later books.

“The Campbells” works because it started as isolated short stories that happened to join together and create a larger tale.  Also, the art is insanely good.

“Ken Games” works because it has great art, strong thematic elements, and characters who are interesting and easily differentiated.  Also, you know it’s only three volumes going in (later expanded to a fourth), so your expectations are set.

I’m not sure what to make of “Shi,” though, after its first volume.  This book is all set up, but I don’t have a clue what it’s setting up.  And it’s not that exciting feeling when you know anything could happen next; this is more like that lost feeling when you’re not sure why what you’re reading matters. At the very least, a better answer to how the two wildly different time frames relate would have gone a long way…

The Good “Shi” News

The Great Exhibition in Shi v1
The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London’s Hyde Park (Ask Wikipedia for more details)

The art is gorgeous.  Homs’s detailed architecture and scenery help place the bulk of this book firmly in the 19th century.  From the clothes the characters all wear, to the style and scope of the buildings they’re walking around and living in, everything feels real.  You don’t for a second doubt the veracity of the environments.  There are no shortcuts on these pages, and some go so far over the top that it’ll stop you dead in your tracks to admire all the detail and design work Homs had to do for the album.

This is as good or better looking than any period piece costume drama movie that might be up for an Oscar in any given year.  It’s just that impressive.

The Middling “Shi” News

Kita in the rain in Shi v1

That period of British history is rather ugly, isn’t it?  Everyone complains about the patriarchy and sexual harassment and class warfare today, but take a look at what was happening in England 160 years ago… (The story is set in 1851 or so.)

At the heart of the “Shi” story is a rich family that can buy its way out of anything.  They enjoy all the most disgusting and audacious displays of their wealth, including but not limited to sending their daughter away for a few months to “take care” of her pregnancy, carrying on the legacy of a secret society whose orgies include induction through forced public deflowering, and some other things I can’t mention here for spoilers.  Let’s just say the main villain of this piece doesn’t like babies in many different ways.

So, yeah, you do have to be comfortable confronting a corner of society as it was in those days.  It was dirty and morally reprehensible, and featured behavior that doesn’t not hold up well today.

This book was originally published in early 2017.  This isn’t a book glorifying any of that behavior.  It’s pretty clear that Zidrou doesn’t like it, either.  He even tries hard to draw a parallel in modern times to a different rich man whose station brings him face to face with some serious troubles.  It’s obvious there’s a direct connection there somewhere, but that’s being saved for a later volume.

It’s part of the time, I know.  There are rich people and the poor do whatever they can to survive, including prostitution.  (See “Golden Dogs” for another story in this vein.)

Plot Structure

It’s a curious structure in Zidrou’s script.  We start in modern times, as a man returns home after his company was found, at trial, not to be responsible for the loss of lives due to his company’s product.  Just when things go bad there, we jump back in time to the early 1850s, where two woman are running across multiples roofs and away away from an angry mob of police officers.  Just when that situation gets really bad, we jump back in time a couple more years to 1851, at a time just before Kita and Jennifer Winterfield met.  Most of this album is a flashback inside a flashback.  Or a bookending sequence kicking off a scene that kicks off flashback.

The first time I read the book, I kept scanning for the connections and wasn’t sure I had made the right ones once I did.  Having read the whole book, now, it does make better sense.  I’m just not sure the frustration of the reader is worth the fancy starting pages.  Again, though, this might be something that’s necessary to pay things off in a latter in the series.

Recommended?

Shi v1 cover by Homs

Mildly so.  The art is spectacular. Read it just for that.  The story only just gets started in this book.  It’s there in the middle, but it’s surrounded by a lot of other stuff that I’m sure is setting up future pieces of the story, but just feels superfluous and confusing now.  And there’s some uglier stuff involved that might not be what you like in your escapist/fantasy entertainment.  I won’t hold that against you at all.

The second volume of the series is out and translated to English. I need to read it next to see if the story becomes more clear and makes this book read better in retrospect.

— 2018.076 —

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2 Comments

  1. I’ll wait for the review of the second book if that happens.
    As for the “first volume doesn’t come with a complete story” it seems to come a lot with “the art is really good” as a positive

    1. I have to be honest: I wrote this review a few months back, and just never got around to picking images for it and posting it, until I needed something while on vacation this past week. The second book is out now, but I”m not really enthused about re-reading the first book to refresh my memory for the second. Argh. Yet, I am curious about the second book, so you never know. It could still happen…