Apsara engine

A woman goes out for her regular evening walk on the beach, contemplating her relationship with her husband, until she sees a mermaid washed up on the shore. And here text and graphics suddenly diverge: the words reveal a recent affair, while the frames depict the mermaid dragging the woman down into dark waters. That mesmerizing juxtaposition in "Come Back to Me" inaugurates Som's extraordinary debut collection, signaling an exceptional graphic achievement. Other prodigious standouts include "Pleasure Palace," about two unlikely strangers who meet at a posh resort and, as the older woman offers the younger man a glimpse of a mythic past, unexpectedly leave together; "Swandive," in which a pair of conference attendees are drawn together by their flesh and--literally--blood as they map out a wondrously inclusive future; and "I Can See It in You," about an interracial couple whose party-going--and perhaps their very relationship--is interrupted by a not-so-mysterious intruder. Richly hued, gorgeously lettered, and often exquisitely detailed, Som's work, the writing as well the art, presents a brave new world of diverse women--talking, dancing, dreaming, plotting--living among friends, lovers, and chimerical creatures, in familiar cities and faraway landscapes, balancing the expectantly mundane with the utterly fantastical.

Som's provocative collection of short comics explores the idiosyncrasies of gender, desire, friendship, courtship, family, and culture through speculative fiction. Each of her eight stories, rendered in fine pen and exquisite watercolor, explores a different facet of life in distinct futures, with a focus on South Asian perspectives and cultures. "Apsara Engine" is the least narrative of the bunch, a puzzle-like mapped series of vignettes of futuristic people on the phone, in lust, and attaining nirvana. In "Throat," a man is confronted with an acquaintance's pet human/dog hybrid and finds it more intelligent than its owner believes, while "I Can See It in You" finds an interracial couple in strife after an impossible guest crashes a party. The resonant "Swandive" features two desi transgender people who meet at an academic conference, bond, and map out a glorious urban trans future in (literal) blood. Som's delicate lines are turned to sharply expressive faces and gestures, with subtle sepia tinting the stories and luminescent, layered colors on chapter openers reminiscent of retrofuturistic stained glass. And the font is a precise cursive, as if pulled from an illuminated manuscript. Som is a master of pacing, letting the emotion of her scenes churn and roil in the reader; her debut heralds the rise of new talent to watch. (Apr.)