Writer / Penciller: James Romberger / Dark Horse
31st July 2021 (Released: 10th March 2021)
The Pitch: The polar ice caps have melted, and New York City is flooded beyond recognition. An independent loner, along with his cat and only friend, struggles to live another day in this makeshift community, populated mostly by outsiders like himself while the depraved elite thrive ruthlessly on the outskirts. But his world is disrupted when he encounters both a mysterious woman and a trapped blue whale. Will they be each other's salvation. . . or destruction?
The future is always dystopian in comics. Even the bright futures have a black heart. What place, then, does hope have in a future where destruction is not just a distinct possibility but a inevitable certainty? Post York gives us just such a world. Although the things your brain may reach for when reading this are Waterworld and Rashomon, it's closer to Waterworld and a Christmas Carol, where the living is techno-Dickensian and the ghosts are all from Christmas present. Our lead is a young, yet embittered survivor in what is left of NYC after the polar ice-caps have given out and returned to their original state. Manhattan is drowned, with people living at what were once the very heights of real estate, with a sea front view as far as the eye can see. Partly, it reminds one of Brian Wood's The Massive, with many people living on ships, never calling anywhere home.
HOW DO MAKE THE BEST OF THE WORLD WHEN SO LITTLE OF IT IS LEFT?
Nick, our nominal hero, proves himself to be anything but. An animal lover, scavenging for cat food in other's survival spots, we see him steal in the first version of the story, commit murder in the second and attempt to save a whale in the third. As the book moves through these variants, you come to realise that there is no blanket way to see Nick. Like all of us, he contains multitudes. You find yourself asking “what would I do faced with similar choices in a similar world?” And of course, there is no easy answer. The focus is not on the wider choices society makes or has made to bring us to this point where we drowned the world, but on the individual moral choices of the people living in aftermath. Perhaps the word 'aftermath' may even be the wrong term. It is the now, the world that is. It simply is life as it is happening. Yes the environment fuels the decisions of the characters, as our environment fuels ours. But how do you make the best of the world when so little of it is left?
Romberger's writing is sparse. When first flicking through the book, I thought it might be silent. He shows the confidence of someone who knows the images can tell the story. And what images they are!Romberger has a delicate line, using the blacks wonderfully to create the immersive world of Post York. He gives you a clear look at the expansive horror of city submerged, a rising, slow death from which ultimately there can be no escape. The book's atmosphere is one of decaying elegance soundtracked to the vinyl-scratch of eighties hip-hop, making the comic at once an object of both past and future. Genuinely beautiful things happen in Post York, as they will do when the world really does come to an end. Until then, we have art helping us through. Pick this one up. It may be one of the things you want to read before the end comes.
You can buy Post York at your favourite comic shop now.