A Vicious Circle
There are comics that sit with you well beyond the final page. They follow you throughout the day, interrupting your normal routine with persistent nagging. A Vicious Circle has been living inside my head like a phantom for 3 days now, and I never want it to leave. Tales of time travel and "good vs. evil" have been the foundation of storytelling for eons, but there’s something more at play here than Mattson Tomlin is letting on. At face value, you might see this as the story of a time-traveling assassin trying to stop a madman from bringing about the end of existence. But the “something more” is that this is about opposing forces fighting each other, desperately trying to stop the inevitable. This is the story of heartbreaking and resonating resistance - when you want something, but can have nothing. Two prisoners sentenced to serve a lifetime running in a vicious circle.
The story welcomes you in an unassuming, non-foreboding way. Shawn Thacker wakes to a groggy wife and an energetic son, his home slowly filling with chatter and the energy of a family getting ready for the prospects of the day. A radio broadcast then abruptly proves the outside world is not as hopeful. A news bulletin about an integration-blocking bill proposal reveals our story’s political climate and what evils await Shawn and his family as a black family in the south; however, there’s a greater evil chained up in the Thacker basement that draws much more immediate concern after it escapes and takes the lives of Shawn’s family in as much time as it takes for him to run an errand in town.
With his family taken from him, Shawn is consumed with recapturing this evil, a sadistic, murderous, man named Ferris, not only responsible for Shawn's loss, but also hellbent on bringing about the end of the world. Adding to his fury, Shawn also shares a troublesome bond with Ferris that sends them both hurling through time when one of them is killed, thrusting the reader into a series of time jumps, accompanied by a masterful "homage montage” from Lee Bermejo of some of the most iconic comic art styles of our time. The sudden shifts in story art convey Bermejo’s immense talent, but also the chaotic and disorienting lived experience for these characters. They somewhat resemble a bleak and harrowing Tom and Jerry, destined to chase one another to infinity and beyond. As the battle between Shawn and Ferris spirals through the dizzying dance of these time jumps, you get a sense that though this was not the first time, will this time be the last? Moreover, who will ultimately achieve what they’ve set out to do?
This book brilliantly illustrates the futility of time and our control over it, not to mention being brilliantly illustrated in itself. Tomlin makes us both connect with and hate how cold and rigid time can be, despite playfully breaking all its rules.
Rating: 10/10
Words: Mattson Tomlin
Art: Lee Bermejo
Letters: Becca Carey
Publisher Boom! Studios
Reviewed by Greg Lickteig