The Fall Vol. 1
Written and drawn by Jared Muralt
Image Comics, 2021
Swiss writer/artist Jared Muralt began this apocalyptic story years before the Covid pandemic hit, but the deadly pandemic that drives the story creates an eerie echo of current events. Fortunately for us, Muralt's imaginary pandemic is far deadlier, resulting in the creation of quarantine zones maintained by a corrupt militia. Inside these zones daily life quickly descends into chaos, with empty supermarket shelves and street fights between desperate, panicked civilians and the military. Liam is still grieving for his recently deceased wife, but finally decides to join his parents in the Alps, where things must surely be better. Instead they encounter villages that are intensely distrustful of outsiders and struggling to obtain resources, as well as defend them from others. When Liam becomes gravely injured it is up to his daughter Sophia to look out for the family, a huge responsibility which she quickly grows into. This volume collects the first six issues of the series, and ends with a violent cliffhanger. Visually it is very much a European-style comic, illustrated in a loose, realistic style with dark, subdued coloring. In the after matter Muralt confesses to the intense learning experience of making the comic, which is only his second. There is some choppiness in the story telling that can probably be attributed to this, and there are plenty of predictable apocalyptic tropes in the plot as well. Still pretty effective, and I will likely return for the second installment to see what develops.
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