10 YEARS OF THE BF SIX TO WATCH! When Norm Konyu’s first graphic novel The Junction was self-published in 2020 there had been a gap of several years between that moment and when he’d scribbled his first very rough notes for it in 2012. Since then Konyu has become somewhat prolific in his output, with A Call to Cthulhu, Downlands and The Space Between the Trees all being successfully Kickstarted in the last two years. His fifth book A Fall from Grace (currently in the last week of its crowdfunding campaign) already completed. Even more impressively three of those books have been picked up and published by Titan. We did tell you he was someone to watch back in 2021.
A Fall from Grace sees Konyu flexing his storytelling muscles. For a start, unlike his previous books, it’s not an unsettling supernatural story (this is fantasy rather than horror). Secondly it’s a far more playful affair with Konyu discarding dialogue for an inventive symbolic form of communication. Taking place at the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire it follows the God Axopoptl whose remit involves such responsibilities as stinging insects and landslides. Happy to simply luxuriate in the worship of his followers, Axopoptl is about to get an unpleasant surprise because what is a god without worshippers? And events down on Earth are conspiring against him.
This is perhaps Konyu at his most expressive and inventive with the language of comics. Characters do interact but instead of text in speech balloons we get symbols (or… do I dare to say it… emojis?). It’s actually a fascinating narrative choice given the way it asks us to consider character motivation and interpret their intentions. It also gives Konyu plenty of scope for darkly comedic whimsy. Axopoptl’s descent from the heavens, for example, ends up with him powerless at the feet of Spanish soldiers with his only exclamation within the resulting speech balloon being a resonant pile of steaming faecal matter.
In this regard see also a double-page spread of him (below) walking through different periods of history, one panel at a time, before the story picks up again in the modern age. Here Axopoptl is working in the big city in a world where the gods of the neglected pantheons are having to take on the most pedestrian of employment positions. All of them dreaming of the day they will one day regain their former glories…
Colour is used more intensely to build atmosphere and evoke reactions here than in some of Konyu’s other books. Character designs are also more extravagant in conception to fit the humorous mood of the piece, while page compositions range from the tight and intimate to capture the monotonous routine of Axopoptl’s new life, through to huge dramatic double-page shots to bring the crashing fantasy elements to life. If you are a regular Broken Frontier reader then you will know already that anything from Norm Konyu is worth your backing. Those new to his work can count on this as an excellent entry point. It’s very different in tone to his other books but what it does have in common with them is Konyu’s deft use of the storytelling tools available to him in his comics narrative toolbox.
Norm Konyu (W/A) • Self-published, £6.00 digital/£12.00 print
Review by Andy Oliver
2024 marks the tenth year of Broken Frontier’s ‘Six to Watch‘ initiative. Look for articles throughout the year celebrating the work of those artists who have been a part of the programme.
