There’s something incredibly evocative about the way Sam Hart’s Memories: Ruins captures a universally recognisable period of our lives with its wistful reflection on childhood. A fusion of autobiography and fiction it has an eerie feel that somehow manages to sit at peace with the slice-of-life qualities that are at the forefront of its narrative.
It’s very difficult to pin down exactly how Memories: Ruins should be described in terms of genre which is, to be frank, to its advantage. Initially it sets itself out as a story looking back on the Hart family’s summer vacations in Cornwall. One of those hazily recounted pieces of autobio that we can all relate to – distant memories of holidays where the innocence of childhood is remembered through an adult’s eyes.
In these opening pages we see two young brothers seeing the legends and history of Cornwall with wide-eyed amazement as on a trip to the beach their father regales them with stories of Roman settlements, piracy and secret smugglers’ caves. Meanwhile their mother inspires them with her artistic practice, sketching the environment that surrounds them. As the tale progresses, though, other elements seep in with stories of guardian angels, phantom pirates, and childhood imagination being added to the mix.
Given the number of seemingly disparate threads that Memories: Ruins contains in its compact 20-something pages it’s quite remarkable that it manages to pull them all together thematically. Yet somehow it does. Perhaps that’s because as a reader the familiarity of those ideas of childhood security and comfort being challenged is so resonant here. Hart’s art plays a vital role with a slightly dreamy quality to early pages appropriately depicting that near intangibility to our memories of our early years, and full-page illustrations acting as mini-chapter breaks giving us time to consider and absorb the often melancholy air that permeates the comic. All of this is thematically enhanced by Flavio Costa’s subtly nuanced colouring.
Sam Hart will be tabling at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival this coming weekend. Memories: Ruins is highly recommended for your buying consideration at LICAF.
Sam Hart (W/A), Flavio Costa (C), Joseph Illidge (E) • Self-published
Review by Andy Oliver
