No Refuge

Phoenix Comics’ Deputy Editor, Joe Brady and versatile illustrator and animator Patrice Aggs imbue their much-anticipated sequel to No Country with energy, purpose and synchronicity from the start.

Emotive panels from varying perspectives chart the odyssey of Hannah, Bea and their little brother Dom, searching for their father in a world run by a corrupt government and torn apart by civil war. Reminiscent of Ian Serraillier’s The Silver Sword, as the children tenaciously fight to be reunited with their parents in the face of adversity, it uses dynamic and expressive storyboarding to reflect their anxiety, despair, hopes and fears.

Imagine if you were forced to leave your home without any notice. What would you take with you? For Bea it’s her art pad where she draws bees to leave as a trail of clues for her father. For Dom it’s his toy pink pony. Hannah just wants to keep her siblings safe as the stakes rise and danger threatens.

Animated and vivid close ups bring the reader into the emotional maelstrom of the protagonists as they experience a myriad of problems including the need for food and shelter, fierce survivalists, wild animals and suspicions about whom they can trust. All the while they fear pursuit and capture while attempting to reach their final goal. Symbols of state control and the effects of war are everywhere as Hannah and Bea sense that they are being followed.

Aggs uses strong, primary colours to represent rural, urban and subterranean landscapes switching from hues of blue, green and slate grey during the day to dusky violets and shadowy browns at night. Interiors range from the rough to the clinical to the plush to the tight to the dangerous as the children traverse obstacles during their journey.

No Refuge is a compulsive and powerful read which raises pertinent questions about the risks refugees face every day trying to find a place to call home. Opportunities to start conversations about important issues raised in the novel are provided through interactive questions at the back, which encourage readers to think, draw and empathise.