I caught up with Blue Delliquanti‘s O Human Star just a few minutes ago and am left deeply impressed. The comic is full of emotional resonance, the art is very expressive and the storytelling is excellent. It hits so many of the points I most value in comics, which has placed it among the comics I most look forward to each week.
Blue is especially deft at portraying relationships, with obvious attention paid to the nuances of conflict and genuine tenderness. This sensitivity was clearly valuable in presenting the same-sex relationship that is central to the story and grounds the story amid the robots and other science fiction elements that also have importance in the story.
The science fiction elements strike me as reminiscent of Osamu Tezuka’s work on Astroboy. Similar tensions are present for artificial lifeforms in this work as exist for the robots in many of Tezuka’s works, and it works very well in O Human Star.
Throughout the comic each character is very relatable and so far each chapter has been surprisingly moving. I can’t recommend O Human Star highly enough.
Alastair Sterling was the inventor who sparked the robot revolution. And because of his sudden death, he didn’t see any of it.
Until he wakes up 16 years later in an advanced robotic body that matches his old one exactly. Until he steps outside and finds a world utterly unlike the one he left behind – a world where robots live and do business alongside their human neighbors and coexist in their cities. A world he helped create.
Al seeks out his old research partner Brendan to find out if he is responsible for Al’s unexpected resurrection, but his return raises far more questions for both of them.
Like who the robot living with Brendan is. And why she looks like Al. And how much of the men’s past should stay in the past…
O Human Star is one of the winners of the 2012 Prism Comics Queer Press Grant, an annual grant awarded to cartoonists publishing comics that feature LGBT characters and themes.
1 comment on “O Human Star”
O Human Star has been one of the webcomics I read page by page as they come out for years. The current chapter has delivered poignant moments and laid bare the conflicts and character motivations that were driving the story. It’s a truly wonderful comic and I’m surprised it hasn’t gained a wider readership.