'Hardears is an Afro-Caribbean fantasy-adventure graphic novel by Matthew Clarke and Nigel Lynch. The story takes place in an alternative world on Jouvert Island; a magical analogue of the island of Barbados and begins when a super-storm of unprecedented strength obliterates the island, leaving it totally defenceless.
'As the island reels from the devastation, Mr. Harding, the head of the Merchant Guild, charges in and promises to rebuild the economy of the island by creating jobs in his giant corporation. However, it’s soon discovered that Harding is a parasite and is capturing people from the island and using their life essence or vibes to feed his factories.'Bolo, a local hero, saves his love Zahrah from Hardin and cronies but the lovers are then framed as rebels against the state. The state has been compromised by the factories and the workers who know the truth about Harding must go into hiding. If Bolo, Zahrah, and their allies don’t take down Harding and the corrupt government, all will be lost. Together, they must find the strength of their island and ancestors to fight the evil forces that have taken over their homeland.'
Hardears is a new graphic novel from Megascope Comics that breaks away from expected comic norms and instead brings readers a world created around the myths and legends of Carribean folktales to create a new fantasy world unlike anything you'll have seen before.
Set on the Jouvert Islands, the story follows several characters, including Bolo, a local hero who has the power to increase his size and strength, something that has made him a champion farmer who can easily outpace any new farming machine. When a mega storm hits the island Bolo springs into action, saving the young woman he has a crush on, Zaharah.
With the island devastated by the storms a local businessman, Mr Harding, steps in to assist the population rebuild, and thanks to his amazing machines the destruction is quickly repaired. However, it appears that there is more to Mr Harding than first appears, and he soon starts taking over the island, forcing the population into working in his giant factories, and putting down any rebellion with swift force. When they discover that Mr Harding is draining the essence from people to stay young and strong Bolo and Zaharah flee. Together with some new allies they begin the hard process of building a resistance that can stand against the dangerous Mr Harding.
The story of Hardears felt a little overwhelming at first, due in some part to the fact that the first few dozens of pages of the book were given over to a small guide about the world, where places and people were laid out to readers, and long paragraphs given over to the various supernatural and fantastical entities and phenomena we'd be encountering. It felt like learning a lot before even getting the chance to begin; and even then when it came to the book some of these things didn't really come up much. I occasionally wondered why I'd had to read a long description of a certain creature if it was only appearing in a couple of panels.
Despite this, the story is pretty simple, it's about people fighting for their freedom and their lives, which is a story that everyone can understand and get behind. It meant that the heroes felt larger than life, people fighting to save everyone and everything they've ever know; whilst the bad guys just want to consume and destroy, leaving nothing in their wake. It's big and grand, and that definitely works in the books favour.
There is a large section in the middle of the book that shifts focus away from Bolo and the events happening on the island, instead following the crew of a ship that gets lost and has to fight their way through a four way pirate war to be able to get back home to Jouvert Islamd. This section is okay, but its the one that interested me the least, and at times felt like it was padding the book a bit. These characters arrive towards the conclusion of the book, and prove to be a decisive factor in the finale, but they could have still served the same purpose without us having to see what they were doing whilst everything else was going on.
I can't say too much about the art for the book, as sadly the preview version was released in black and white rather than full colour, something that the final book will be in. I think having the book in colour would definitely have changed the enjoyment of the book for me, as there were quite a few times that the book felt dull and oppressive, where the limited colour pallet definitely changed how I processed certain parts of the book.
Overall I enjoyed Hardears, despite not loving everything about it. It offered me a fantasy story that felt so different from anything I'd read before, and it definitely feels unique to itself. I'm looking forward to reading it again when its released in full colour, to see if perhaps that allows me to enjoy the book full.
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