Kroma
Lorenzo De Felici, creator, writer & artist
Image Comics, 2023
Lorenzo De Felici is best known as the artist (and co-creator) of Robert Kirkman's series Oblivion Song. His story is especially well-suited to a writer/artist, as it revolves around a conflict between a monochrome world and a colored one. Kroma (not a monster at all, but a young woman with one green eye and one blue) lives her life in darkness as a prisoner in the Pale City, where she has been portrayed as the source of all evil. One member of the elite Makka begins to see her as a normal human, setting a series of events in motion. Her patron is killed, but she escapes into the forest outside the city. Pursued by a search party from the city, she is rescued by a man who was exiled years earlier. He is crazy and dangerous, but he teaches her about the power of color over the deadly giant lizards that rule the forest. She also learns that the fearsome King of Color is nothing but a mountain of shiny crystals: an awe-inspiring sight when struck by the sun, but not an archenemy. She leads a lizard army to attack the town and reveal the truth to its citizens. In the process, she learns about her true origin and frees the people to live in the world instead of being ruled by lies. On the face of it the idea of color being branded as evil is a bit outlandish: how monochrome would it really be possible to make the Pale City? But the story proceeds surely from one adventure to another, and it is striking visually, especially the shifts from monochrome to color.
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