Our Soot Stained Heart #1: Have an Un-Merry Christmas

The steampunk setting in Our Soot Stained Heart #1 is fascinating from the start. The concept of a “Fuel’s Day” where coal is given out to a city’s residents immediately sounds at home in a steampunk story. Steampunk fans will immediately find a compelling world, and it only gets more complex as the issue goes on.

Background images for this steampunk world have a kind of sketch quality to them. The linework is thin, and leaves room for the seemingly endless expanse of The Coalition, the major city in which Our Soot Stained Heart #1 begins. All the buildings, many of them huge, look like they have the same weight to them as opposed to having extra detailed and thicker-lined up front buildings seeming especially real and present while those further in the background seem to have no depth.

Ropemann’s coloring further adds to the scale. Shadows up front give way to dark orange which then lightens eventually into a canary yellow in the city’s furthest and highest reaches. The implication is a massive city, the buildings in which are big enough to shade other parts of it from the sun. The layers of smoke and fog, drawn into the expanse by Morian and given a slight gray tint by Ropemann, create a sense of early industrialization.

Careful reading is required to understand how the world in Our Soot Stained Heart #1 works and in what way it actually ties into the Christmas holiday. The core concept of the quota and the danger of being too good is explained only once in the issue’s early pages. As the story goes on, the quota and related ideas are talked about repeatedly but never referred to explicitly again. Regardless of whether this key plot point is understood or not, though, Our Soot Stained Heart #1 is dense and greatly benefits from a second reading.

Our Soot Stained Heart #1’s inverse Christmas elements are engaging right away. The story has classist elements to it–rewarding the less prosperous by turning them against each other. It’s a novel way to approach a holiday-timed comic. Rather than deliver yet another story focused on family, fun, and generosity, Hägg finds a way to present a different message that is still not altogether divorced from the holiday sentiment. It’s very engaging.

Morian populates this world with a host of distinctive characters. Some faces are angular, others plump. Some noses pointed, others bulbous. The close-in characters have significant levels of detail, especially the older characters whose faces are more heavily lined. This variety is seen not just in closeups but wider panels as well. The world of Our Soot Stained Heart #1 feels truly populated rather than just filled up with vague silhouettes.

Building up the world even further are some of the lettering choices made by Otsmane-Elhaou. In particular, the shape and style of the narration boxes contribute to the kind of working class environment seen in The Coalition. Otsmane-Elhaou uses off white, uneven rectangular boxes that have a torn paper quality to them. They feel old, discarded much like the citizens who don’t play by the rules.