I’ve been reading Yuko Ota and Ananth Hirsh’s comics at Johnny Wander for years and had Pixels of You, their collaboration with J.R. Doyle, on my to-read list since it was published last year. I ended up getting the paperback out from my library.
Pixels of You is beautifully and boldly illustrated and tells a moving story of a relationship forming and deepening with marginalization and social justice featuring prominently. The colour choices by Doyle are superb and the pages are popping with expression. This is compelling sci fi and a joy to read.
In a near future, augmentation and AI changed everything and nothing. Indira is a human girl who has been cybernetically augmented after a tragic accident, and Fawn is one of the first human-presenting AI. They have the same internship at a gallery, but neither thinks much of the other’s photography. But after a huge public blowout, their mentor gives them an ultimatum: work together on a project or leave her gallery forever. Grudgingly, the two begin to collaborate, and what comes out of it is astounding and revealing for both of them. Pixels of You is about the slow transformation of a rivalry to a friendship to something more as Indira and Fawn navigate each other, the world around them—and what it means to be an artist and a person.
Pixels of You
