Writer: Henry Chebaane / Penciller, Inker, Colour Artist, Letterer: Stephen Baskerville / SC / Supanova
Review by Paul Dunne
24th May 2024
The Pitch: Alex Campbell is a Canadian musician struggling with a conflicted identity, a tragic past and repressed supernatural abilities. Orphaned at a young age, life was never easy on her and is about to get a lot worse. Alex is a primed time bomb in search of a fuse. Following the inheritance of a decaying 19th century London house from a mysterious ancestor, she moves to Camden, hoping for a new life and a better future. Soon, her renovation plans are being undermined by agents of a shadowy corporation with ancient roots and a malevolent agenda. While resisting their increasingly hostile actions, Alex makes some shocking discoveries about her past, her family and herself that changes her grip on reality. The hostilities soon escalate into violent confrontations, unveiling a doomsday supremacist conspiracy, hidden under the surface of two London cities, England and Ontario. It’s just a question of time before it spreads across the world. Alex is the only one who can stand in their way. If she makes it in time. TIMES OF LONDON, the debut novel of artist and designer Henry Chebaane, from his trilogy THE PANHARMONION CHRONICLES, is a gritty thriller that grapples with philosophical questions about the nature of time, reality, and identity.Masterfully illustrated by veteran graphic artist Stephen Baskerville (Spider-man, Transformers, Judge Dredd, Doctor Who),the heady blend of science-fiction, horror and alternative history is spliced through with occasional hints of wry humour, pop culture and homage to music lovers of all genres.
Sometimes you just have to admire the ambition.
Often with comics, at least if you skim the internet, you’ll find that people want challenging stories with a wide reaching grasp, but feel starved of them, especially from larger, established publishers. Well, leave it to the independents to offer what those guys seemingly can’t. Parharmonion Chronicles, aside from being difficult to pronounce, is a story with huge scope, that takes a novelistic approach to the breadth of its story. I’ll admit some difficulty in grasping it in the early stages, as it skips between not only time-periods, but alternate versions of it’s locations, dizzying the reader somewhat. But there are things to anchor ourselves to. Alex Campbell, the books’ protagonist, is a young woman with abilities, some learned, some innate. She’s a talented musician, but also secretly telepathic. Given this and her origin, which is molded from fire and tragedy, she could almost be a superhero. Alex has a conflicted identity, something a lot of people will engage with, but even with her abilities, her story seems somewhat small compared to what comes after she inherits a building in King’s Cross. What this opens to is rich story, sown with the history of the area, of London… and an alternate history of the world itself!
Admittedly, there will be elements we’ve seen before. Doctor Who get’s a look-in, as well as some plot elements that might resonate with those of us that have seen or read ‘Bodies’, the Vertigo comic and it’s slightly less occult-esque TV adaptation. But these elements are not rip-offs, more a sharing of ideas and scientific notions that give spark to big ideas. What’sreally interesting is what’s under the surface. Alex represses her abilities and with it, her identity and therefore to a certain degree, her race. And that’s one of the more interesting aspects of the book, how it uses racism, self-hatred and otherness to fuel a wider story. The villains of the piece aren’t as subtle. Theirs is a eugenics based blending of science and racism, a combustible mix even in the now. Add steampunk science fiction and a dose of science fact and just imagine how big the bang will be! Of course all art is a mirror, and the book holds one up to the darker elements coursing through our current timeline, asking us to recognise, stop and think. The patriarchal power structures that hold people down are not just present in the words and actions of people, but in the architecture of the world they build and the book makes a compelling argument for a rethink from the foundations up.
Chebaane is clearly a writer with imagination and compassion. He proposes big ideas and asks big questions, as good writers should. He wants to take in a vast scope of personal interests (architecture, history, music) and personal injustices and upsets and in doing so, allows the reader the chance to view those things from a safe distance, stripping away the immediacy of news and the internet, and clearing the path for thought and calm to influence emotional response rather than anger. There’s a dense ornateness to his writing and the ideas he wants to pack in and that may make it a patience-testing read for some, but it’s worth sticking with until the ideas coalesce.
Stephen Baskerville’s art is a real pleasure. An artist who knows his way around science fiction machines from his much-loved Transformers days, Baskerville creates a believable back drop to fantastical set of notions, paying as much care and attention to detail to the fictional spaces as he does the reality-based ones the story starts in. Londoners will see familiar places and now may not be able to walk past them without wondering what’s really going on behind closed doors. He creates a nice colour palette that blends nicely into his pencils and inks, and uses good, realistic lighting to center us the immediacy of the story. There are two more chapters to follow in The Panharmonion Chronicles, so expect more expansive ideas and action to come!
The Panharmonion Chronicles Vol. 1 is available from select stockists. Find out more here!
