ASCEND – Special Edition
Written by Keith Arem Art by Christopher Shy
Ascend Website
IDW Publishing

I’ve waited a long time to read this book. I remember seeing Ascend on the shelves a few years back, just amazed by the beauty of an angel spreading transparent wings in a sea of green. I’m fascinated with angels, which probably explains why Marvel’s Archangel is my favorite character. (That and the fact I could probably write Warren better than anyone who has tried.) Anyway, I read through some of Ascend at the store, and was immediately lost. There was no hook in the writing, and I couldn’t concentrate with the angels looking so life-like and dreamy. Also, I couldn’t read it all because the guy at the counter had an iron claw in getting folks to buy the book or leave the store… for good. So, I never bought it, mainly because of the price. Blame my inner bargain hunter and Kohl’s clearance prices, but I do have limitations to what I buy. For this book, I felt it best to come back and read it like I have now. Luckily for me, there’s a special edition to help me out a bit this time around.

Ascend is one of the most beautiful graphic novels to exist. Christopher Shy releases a multitude of inspiration and emotion into this book, causing readers not only to admire his craft, but appreciate it in a way that can only be explained in that moment of silence a person has when viewing a painting at the city art museum. It’s a long stare, feelings rushing to the head and heart like a freight train on fire, and ideas of how the picture came to be created and what it essentially means. Ascend does this to the reader, and it’s a feeling endured page after page. A continuous barrage of artistic expression from Christopher Shy, filled with Heaven, Hell, and Humanity. A true piece of modern art.

Unfortunately, the writing is where the book falters. Writer Keith Arem proclaims this book to be based upon a dream he had, awaking and telling his wife before the dreaded memory loss kicks in. (I’ve been a victim to that way too many times!) For starters, that’s pretty freaky to dream up a war of angels in Heaven, Purgatory, and human souls being harvested to continue mankind’s evolutionary downfall of war. I would think either the drugs he was taking at the time were very, VERY good, or Arem had just returned from a David Lynch film festival to dream this stuff up. That’s not to say it’s impossible, but when you look at Christopher Shy’s art and the complexity of the idea, it does become admittedly far-fetched. But the idea is a good one, and it’s initially what grabbed my eyes away from the Marvel and Top Cow section on the comic book shelf to see the interior of this angel-infested tale.

But what prevents this book from being a classic and immensely popular like other independent greats such as Sin City and The Crow is the production design of how to tell the story in words. There are no caption boxes. No word balloons. Just two fonts. The main font tries to tell the story for more than six different characters, and using italics in the felt-tip pen font is not going to distinguish who is talking at the moment. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started and stopped reading this book because my head was just spinning half the time. “Who the hell is speaking?” It’s like trying to read Ben Templesmith’s art on 30 Days of Night without Steve Niles. Caption boxes were essential to this book or different fonts if caption boxes were not an option; or at the very least, different colors for the font that was used. Without any of those, the dialogue clutters into one voice, causing the story to be very introverted and distant. This also triggers Arem’s voice to become monotone like a poetry slam and doesn’t open to bringing the reader into the luscious environment, which is something I would have definitely enjoyed with Christopher’s beautiful work. Arem claims that he “didn’t want to spoon feed the audience”, but with this type of story, you kind of have to be the spoon. It’s epic and controlling, and without clear direction, causes many to lose consciousness during the trip, and that’s a shame because I really want to love every part of this book. But it’s difficult when the story is lost because of technical decisions in the lettering, and in my opinion, a certain stubbornness from the writer in not allowing his audience to truly grasp the characters and the ultimate message of this angelic war.

I still admire and enjoy this book because I can’t stop looking at it. Christopher Shy should be rewarded for his masterpiece, and not dragged down by the other issues that plague Ascend. Maybe this book is meant to be read in pieces from your coffee table. Maybe it was never meant to be read at all. Or maybe in the end, it’s being accurate to the dream itself: Beautiful, alluring, angelic, and nonsensical. Just enjoy what you see and don’t comprehend what it means until your eyes open to the morning light.

GRADE: B

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