BEHOLD, BEHEMOTH #1: Lost Time at the End Of Days

Phew! That seems an appropriate way to start this review. Co-creators Tate Brombal and artist Nick Robles spin a riveting yarn about a coming apocalypse born in the tragic loss of its central protagonist’s brother. Greyson is a social worker trying to help others, while dealing with his own childhood trauma, waking nightmares that feature his recently lost sibling, a mysterious figure, and a monster in an apocalyptic landscape. Greyson keeps losing time to these nightmares which point to an end of day’s future. The striking thing for me is how well both the writing and the art capture the tragedy and the trauma of Greyson’s life while at the same time building up the suspense with talk about the end of the world and using the ever-present electronic media (television in this instance) to allude to the impending apocalypse through biblical reference. The script and artwork exceptionally well together to create a sense of unease and impending doom, not only in their main character, who is a mess himself (a likable one) but also in you as the reader.

Then there’s Wren. A little girl in a foster home whose life mirrors the worst parts of Greyson’s own childhood. Brombal does a remarkable heartrending job of showing how Greyson uses this connection to connect to the traumatized little girl in the wake of a grisly tragedy which sees Wren as the only survivor of what at first appears to be a tragic accident but by the end of the issue the picture changes and points to something much more shocking.

Nick Robles takes Brombal’s already remarkable script and lifts it even further with stellar art that balances the mundane with the nightmarish. In the waking present, the colors reflect a sunset, an ending of things through burnt oranges and browns which slowly fade to the blues and darks of night. Robles captures the human aspect of the story flawlessly bringing Greyson and the people around him to life. This is then balanced with Greyson’s nightmare visions which are all reds, and threatening shadows that inevitably bleed into each other when they come together toward the end of the book. The art also paints mysterious clues about the characters themselves. What do those mysterious black crosses on foreheads mean? Robles does an exceptional job of showing how Greyson’s world is blurring between physical reality and his visions because there are parts that you aren’t sure are real or in Greyson’s head. The end part of the scene when Greyson visits the foster home to check on an incident report is a perfect example. Did he attack that man or was that in his head? By the end of the book, Robles gets to cut loose in full nightmare fantasy mode as Greyson’s connection to Wren is revealed in the bloody yellows and reds of the apocalypse landscape after an event that the creative team calls The Fall.

From the striking cover, the depth of the character writing, the art that does an amazing job of bringing the emotion and unease in the script to life to the brilliant lettering from Andworld design, this debut issue is a shining example of everything good about indie comics right now.