If you’re at all wondering what it’s like to be stuck inside the nether regions of space while everything you know and love dies inch by inch then congrats because you’re in the right comic book review. Because this time we’re looking at Adam Gillespie’s sci-fi graphic novella, Koi.
Created by Adam Gillespie, Koi is published by Australian Publishing House Amplified Press.
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Koi delves into Discovery and Mental Illness…
Strap yourselves into your non-existent space shuttles as we warp into end of the world scenarios involving suicide and Japanese fish. Trigger warning – this review is going to include mentions of suicide so if that’s a sensitive point for you then go ahead and skip this.
Adam Gillespie’s Koi introduces us to a cold and desolate universe where the protagonist, Daniel, is the last human left alive. At the edge of space and at the edge of time, Daniel is about to make a discovery which is going to change his very existence. At least, that’s the tagline and that’s where Koi kicks off.
In actuality, Koi drops us into the belly of the beast, aka Daniel’s depression taking hold as his mundane existence seems to forever march slowly towards the finish line that is death. Think that’s bleak? Let’s go deeper.
As the last human left alive, Daniel goes about his usual tasks to keep his spaceship functioning. He exercises, he enters logs, he fixes the spaceship, he re-reads the many books that he’s read a million times in the ship’s library. He sinks further into his depression. A depression which sees his willingness to commit suicide more and more likely.
During one of his more routine days, the day in which he intends to end his own life, Daniel sees something that peaks his interest. A magnificent, giant orange koi fish. What follows soon is final frontier intrigue as Daniel goes about trying to figure out if this Koi fish is real or just another hallucination brought about from his prolonged isolation as the very last human left alive in the known universe.
Moving throughout the ship to try and follow this magnificent creature, Daniel finds the Koi fish outside the ship and in space. Somehow communicating in English, the Koi beckons Daniel to come outside and play with it. A scene which greatly exemplifies the magnificence and aura of the Koi with its bright orange set against mostly black and white artwork in this graphic novella.
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Consumed with the sound of the Koi, Daniel equips himself with a space suit and heads outside onto the catwalk and propels himself into the great and expansive void of space. However, his tether can never quite reach the giant fish. Always falling a few feet short.
This game of astronaut and fish (cat and mouse, if you will) continues on for the rest of the novella. That is, until Daniel’s self realisation that he’s the last human and he’s probably going to die anyone is overcome and he ejects the tether, propelling himself into the unknown before he finally reaches out and touches the Koi.
What follows is an evolutionary leap forward as Daniel’s entire body transforms into a gooey blubbering mess only to warp out of sight and into a form resembling the early stage of a human embryo turning into a life. It’s very 2001: A Space Odyssey which gives the reader cause to question “was David always alone or was he just the last sperm to ignite life into existence?”
Adam Gillespie’s Koi traverses time and space to give life a whole new meaning. The style of cartooning imbues the reader with a sense of reflection. Reflection which isn’t mudded up by an overly complex and detailed canvas. Koi looks at life from a whole new perspective and makes you ask yourself was this really the tale of a depressive existential crisis of a lost astronaut going mad or is the creation of life where all the madness truly lies? Gillespie has Stanley Kubrickised a simple story aimed at a whole new generation – I only hope they get it.
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