FANTAGRAPHICS AT 50! Yi Yang was born in northeastern China, and moved to Bologna, Italy to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. She published two books there with Bao Publishing (Aiuto! and Autio! Fratelli). Upon finishing her degree in Italy she moved to Angoulême, France where she has created a trilogy of graphic novels with the characters from Comet Club, the earlier two entries (as yet untranslated into English) are Easy Breezy and Deep Vacation.

Yang centres Comet Club on sullen Yang Kuaikuai and his very animated best friend, Li Yu. Li introduces Kuaikuai to his other friends in the Comet Club, a high school group interested in U.F.O. phenomena (headed by the boy who saw a U.F.O. in the prologue, see below), Qi Ming. It’s bad enough Kuaikuai is sceptical of the aims of the club, he has just come in second to Qi in a maths competition. Qi Ming is super nice to Kuaikuai, as well as enthusiastic about studying U.F.O.s. Both combine to upset Kuaikuai even more. Bored with the meeting, he’s knocked off a stack of student desks when fellow club member Qu Yu is caught gazing longingly at Qi. Li and Kuaikuai leave the meeting arguing over his attitude. Li knows Kuaikuai is hiding something, he finally admits that his mother, who had abandoned the family ten years earlier, has returned. Later, a very tense family dinner edges Kuaikuai to return to Comet Club despite his unpleasant experience, and sets in motion the group’s fateful field trip in search of U.F.O.s.

Yi Yang‘s strength is her handling of the high school outcast social dynamic among the five members of the Comet Club. The whiplash dialogue between Kuaikuai and Li drives the narrative, but it’s the interplay between Qu Yu and Cheng Gong’s admiration toward Qi Ming, Qu’s crush on Qi, and Li’s yearning to belong, that elevate the story above cookie cutter YA fare.

The pacing throughout the story shows Yang is able to control the way she unfolds the narrative in any manner she wishes. The prologue, in particular, shows her manipulation of time, mimicking the phenomenon of missing time experienced during some U.F.O. encounters. Yang uses a multi-page establishing shot that pans ever closer to young Qi Ming, until a loud noise awakens him. Opening up to a claustrophobic double page spread of him bathed in light (with an inset panel of a bright object), stopping the flow abruptly. Speeding up the action, the camera bounces around the room as Qi hurriedly gets dressed and runs out of the house screaming for his Dad. Suddenly, the perspective again switches from close to far away indicating the boy’s disorientation. A full page shows a prone Qi as the comet-like object falls overhead, turning the night time into day. The astonishing two page spread that follows capture an instant in time across eight vertical panels, focusing on Qi’s eye, as the light fades away. Not before an extreme close-up shows what appears to be a U.F.O. reflected in Qi’s eye.

Everything about Yang’s Comet Club seems calculated to evoke a feeling of unease in the reader and the cast: the story is coloured in almost sickly shades of red, accented with grey shading throughout, almost as if filtered through the atmosphere of an alien planet; the panel layouts shift throughout to accommodate the actions or emotions of the characters, sometimes accentuating actions to highlight characters overwrought reactions; and, the often overlooked lettering is the anchor that holds all the dramatic tension, and complex sequence of events, together as the story moves forward and steps back, repeatedly.

The Takumigraphics imprint of Fantagraphics is off to a great start. Here’s hoping Conrad Groth and the editorial team will bring us more from Yi Yang in the future.

Yi Yang (W/A/L/C), Jamie Richards (T), C Hwang (D), Kazimir Strzepek (Production), Conrad Groth (E) • Fantagraphics Books/Takumigraphics, $19.99

Pre-order online here

Review by Gary Usher

Fantagraphics at 50 Month runs through August at Broken Frontier. You can see articles as they’re published in one tagged list here. 

— Gary Usher