When hearing the term ‘freelancer’, a few jobs spring to mind: a publicist, a plumber, a tutor or a graphic designer, perhaps. But rarely a monster hunter. I’m all for paying the bills however you can, but not every problem (even monetary!) can be solved with a sword, something protagonist Lucy is about to find out in Alex Newton’s self-published graphic novel Freelancer.
Newton transports readers to the mythical Sea of Tears to introduce us to our main character, Lucy, who is in full-on work mode (freelance, of course). Entering a cave, Lucy immediately comes across a blue, blobby monster almost quadruple her size. She fells it with ease, as its head clunks to the floor, bouncing out of the confines of the square panels. Readers are given a little insight into Lucy’s world, as she muses about where monsters originated: was it the foul water supply? Poisoned air? A curse? Or just mankind’s next stage of evolution? Shifting from the fantastical world of the cave, to the monotony of the London underground, Lucy carries her monster head with her – normally I’d assume this to be some sort of trophy in celebration of her victory, but Lucy actually looks incredibly troubled and sad, as she dwells upon what it is she wants to do with her life.
As she traipses back to headquarters, herself and the monster head contrast with the world around them; vibrant, bright colours against monotony and grey. People who are carrying on their daily lives, either ignoring the monster-issue or pretending it doesn’t exist, pass by Lucy and her monster head without even blinking. When her Tom Nook-esque boss takes the majority of her pay check in tax, Lucy begins to question whether monster hunting is really worth the crazy amount of effort she’s putting in, and whether it’s what she really wants to be doing with her life anyway. Is hunting monsters a dead-end job?
What follows are snippets of Lucy’s life in vignette format; her fights with her accountant flatmate Pru, monster battles, a therapy session with a teddy bear, you name it. Newton carefully toes the line between emotional and slice-of-life, making readers empathise with Lucy’s feeling of restlessness and yearning for meaning, whilst also making them smile at the impulsive ways she acts because of these emotions – no mean feat.
Newton’s construction of their panels really interested me throughout: whilst many are the typical square and rectangle you’d come to expect from traditional comics, others deviate into triangles or trapeziums, in order to better showcase the action, or give a close up of a character. Onomatopoeia is also used beautifully, with ‘dashes’ ‘bangs’ and ‘ZZZ’s’ being the center point of their panels – it really did feel like having live sound effects! The artistic style reminded me at times of Daniel Clover’s Ghost World, with the vibrant palette adding to the action.
There’s definitely potential for further comics in the series from Newton; an aspect that would be really interesting to explore is why and how the monsters came to be, with it being hinted at in the first few pages that this was due to a toxic substance being released. This is Newton’s sixth self-published work, which is a commendation of their hard work and skill in itself – whether the next will be a continuation of Freelancer, or something entirely new, I look forward to their next project!
Alex Newton (W/A) • Self-published, £12.00
Review by Lydia Turner
