Set in a dystopian future, alternating between current time and flashbacks, between an urban environment and a natural landscape, Dörfler is as much about space and time as it is about the characters who inhabit the two landscapes. Strange inter-dimensional creatures live in the ancient lands of the Northern Mountains, where electronic and engine powered machinery is rendered inoperable. The city is a police state where the military subjects its citizens to experiments that turn memory and identity into malleable, political tools. While one woman wreaks havoc against the totalitarian state in revenge for what they'd done to her, two lovers wander through the Northern Mountains trying to distinguish between real and false memories. The towering landscapes, reflected in the very dimensions of the book itself, play an important role in the story-dizzying skyscrapers of rock formations and trees in contrast to the desolate, vertiginous cityscape that looks like a decaying version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. A bold and sure to be talked-about debut graphic novel.

• TPB
  7/10/2020