Review by Ian Keogh

Meka is a departure for French creators, fixing on giant robots as a theme, and then having the rapid immediacy of the manga comics in which they usually appear. The difference is phenomenally detailed art, taking the action sequences and laying them over exquisite backgrounds. Mega is a quick reading experience, but took Bengal two years to draw.

It takes place in a future where attacks from giant robots are so commonplace the authorities have their own combat force in place. The robots are holographically controlled from within, which is why the two halves of the story were originally released as Inside and Outside, and are so vast the human pilots can walk considerable distances inside them. The focus is on a battle experienced Lieutenant Llamas and Corporal Onoo taking part in her first mission. It leaves the pair trapped and needing to escape in a hurry as the Meka is programmed to self-destruct if downed.

Having set a deadline and introduced a pair of contradictory characters, Jean-David Morvan then plays out the options imaginatively, all the while just dropping in aspects relevant to the world being explored. The big picture of who the enemy is and what they’re trying to achieve is only mentioned in passing toward the end, and is cleverly subjective, but so much of relevance to people trapped as Llamas and Onoo are seeps out as they attempt to escape. That visually they resemble French heroes Valerian and Laureline and for a long while have a similar relationship is surely no coincidence.

There’s a looseness to Bengal’s art, with sketchy lines defining incredible detail. Every bit of debris is drawn at the scene of an explosion, and while he could get away with larger panels during later scenes of a journey, he instead chooses to show multiple locations in detailed small panels.

A little indulgence and padding occurs as memories of carnage are introduced toward the end, but this is the plot heavy section, as military training has some value. The beginning, title and cover illustration might have readers believing giant robots in action will predominate, but the actual story is far more human and all the better for that.