Hilda is an absolute corker of a British series, by Luke Pearson, set in a modern-mythic Scandinavia. I’ve previously touched on it here, but was recently (and pleasantly) reminded, just now.
Specifically, these pages come from book four, Hilda and the Black Hound.
“We’re not invisible.” (what a friggin’ line)
From my POV (i.e. my perspective), it’s dang-ol’ rare to the point of vanishing that a series is magnificently simple & loverly on the surface, yet packed to the nines with excellent meaning and curiosity. Honestly, I’m not quite sure I’ve ever seen the like before across comics.
“Check it out if you can”
(that’s my little whisper mode, hehe)
Late reply alert!
I love and deeply respect Bone, but it also feels a bit over-scripted at times. I guess maybe because often, the plot tends to signal ‘here’s where it gets dramatic.’ Or clownish, or serious, or narrative-driven. Also, the backstory feels a bit Tolkien-esque on the surface, but once delved in to? It seemed like there really wasn’t much substance to it beyond ‘this person or entity is plain evil, so that’s why they did what they did.’
Compare that to Hilda, in which it feels to me like you never know what’s coming around the corner, as well as (for example) the troll peoples and dwarfs are nuanced races that are impossible to tie down in to a collective take / narrative / philosophy. This makes them seem more real and unpredictable to me.
So… I thought Bone was sensational the first 1-2 read-throughs, but it had pretty much nothing for me the third time. Which TBF is probably a ‘me’ problem, because very few works have endless read-through potential like that. Even Tolkien didn’t for me, in the end. Maybe Hilda won’t either, my next read-through…