In November, SaleMadeHero releases the second volume of acclaimed Swiss cartoonist Frederik Peeters' sci-fi series, Aama. Titled The Invisible Throng, it depicts the continuation of Verloc Nim's reluctant space journey with his brother Conrad and the android chimpanzee, Churchill, as they search to uncover any material relating to the mysterious experiment known as Aama.
Having travelled to the desert planet Ona(ji) to track down the group of scientists who were abandoned there after complications with the experiment arose, Verloc and Conrad find themselves in the middle of complex interpersonal dynamics. As they chase a rogue professor and her precious cargo, with the implications of Aama and the extraordinary power it wields slowly becoming clearer.
Set to be a 4-volume story, Peeters' multi award-winning series comes as a more accessible work after his HIV-themed autobiography Blue Pills, and the more Lynchian, narratively intricate Sandcastle and Pachyderme (the last two also published by SeflMadeHero). Gorgeously drawn with rich, sumptuous colours, and a truly inventive future-verse that combines natural elements with manufactured ones, Peeter’s landscapes are a blend of organic crystal metal materials while his characters play out very human interactions and follibles. It’s a significant entry in the canon of one of comics' most adept and interesting artists.
