Review by Frank Plowright
In 2018 Kristyna Baczynski’s Retrograde Orbit was a breath of fresh air, an introspective story of alienation with a science fiction setting. An interesting career beckoned, but doesn’t seem to have developed. Baczynski subsequently restricted herself to individual comics and the occasional contribution elsewhere, and now we have a career to date anthology in Another Realm.
It’s an elusive selection, flitting from subject to subject, never restricted to a single topic or tone, but united through the visual imagination and curiously two-dimensional art.
Baczynski’s first graphic novel opens this selection, occupying just under half the pages and reading as well as it did when first published. Flint being unable to find her place in society as it exists while yearning for possibly mythical better times heard about during her youth is a feeling many can identify with, and her journey within an SF setting will strike a chord.
The remaining content is equally self-aware, encompassing themes of personal growth and isolation under circumstances as assorted as the possible end of the world and chucking in a dead end life to travel and explore. That may not seem to fit the isolation theme, but the travel is solitary. ‘Hand Me Down’ is a highlight, a well conceived journey of a gradually diminishing bone fragment being repurposed over centuries.
Another Realm closes with multiple short strips, none running over four pages, and plenty restricted to just one. Here the topics and influences broaden into an anything goes selection. The feeling is of an idea sparking creativity, with whimsy and experimentation accompanying a sometimes dark sense of humour. It’s represented as the selection ends with ‘Nine Lives’, each page a single small panel summarising the sequential demises of a cat.
This is an eclectic and appealing selection, but the long form exploration of ‘Retrograde Orbit’ remains the most satisfying work, leading to the belief that Baczynski’s strength is thorough immersion in someone’s life and feelings rather than brief snippets.
