Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Imagine being a near-teen yet wanting to accompany your mom to her workplace instead of attending a holiday camp in an abandoned shopping mall. The camp must suck real bad. That’s the case with 12-year-old Hailey, who is one of the oldest kids at her oddly located camp. With nobody interesting her age, she sneaks out of the center, meeting Jen, a mysterious, curious, bespectacled teenager who befriends Hailey. Almost immediately, Hailey starts telling Jen random facts, while the older girl begins to talk about her own bizarre origins.
In Utero by Chris Gooch is a weirdly hypnotic sci-fi tale that starts with an unexplained explosion, the smoke plumes filling the sky, as a pregnant woman and her son watch the horror unfold. The woman is eventually revealed to be protagonist Hailey’s mother. Twelve years later, Hailey’s fateful meeting with Jen, a supernatural being who assumes human form, leads the girl to dark corners of the abandoned mall, full of scary secrets and a possible explanation to the explosion all those years ago. As a terrifying creature begins to rise, Hailey is caught in a violent face-off between the military and the “monsters.”
The artwork by Chris Gooch is slightly retro in tone, very expressive and immersive, immediately pulling the viewer into its strange sci-fi world. The color scheme for the graphic novel is largely black and blue, while a few pages also feature shades of red. Chris Gooch sparingly but cleverly uses red and peachy tones in selective scenes, where the red highlights the mood of the moment. For instance, the first time we see the color red is in a panel where police cars and fire trucks rush to control a fire.
Hailey is short, plump, with inquisitive eyes, while Jen is taller, nerdy-looking, with a “know-it-all” kind of face, like she could be the next big tech billionaire. As the story progresses, we learn Jen is also a transcendental being who can take any shape and travel anywhere. She gives Hailey a trip to her birthplace—a giant egg—hence the title In Utero. The plot interestingly brings out the differences between the friendly curiosity of children and the hostile cynicism of adults. When the kids find creepy creatures in the mall, they are excited to interact with them, play with them, while the first instinct of an adult is to throw up.
Overall, Chris Gooch’s artwork is the biggest highlight of In Utero, while the story could’ve used a longer gestation period and more development. Ultimately, even though it seems to be a “man versus monster” tale, it’s really a story about how one friendly conversation is enough to forge a strong bond between two beings from vastly different worlds.
Rating: 3.5/5. In Utero is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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