Review by Ian Keogh
Astral Panic is a very 21st century graphic novel looking a little into the future when wellness programmes are also accessed by phone. Gale’s phone dictates his life, and the opening pages spotlight the ease with which one can be oppressed by the constant bombardment of advertising and social media messages. Even those designed to help, such as reminders, induce their own sense of panic, and that’s the state in which Gale meets his new room-mate Aiden.
Katie Hicks designs Gale’s world well, representing his feelings of being overwhelmed via multiple small images of an all-pervasive tech company’s pear logo crowding around him. The corporate greed is interestingly supplied as playing the weak by selling product under the guise of essential health. Further smart extrapolations inflating present day concerns are dropped in throughout, one being Mia employed as a “cheer advisor”. She guides people to make-up products, but also has to comply with regulations warning them of possibly dangerous ingredients. The title’s also clever, being not just the state Gale constantly embodies, but the name of Aiden’s band, about to play their first live gig.
Aiden contrasts Gale by not being dependent on technology and relishing opportunities, while Gale panics about near enough any situation, making him a klutz as he tries to hide away. Although much of Astral Panic is played as comedy, it’s accompanied by a sensitivity down to almost everything being seen from Gale’s viewpoint while featuring his feelings about what’s happening. Hicks also ensures Aiden’s not just the over-confident opposite by having him offer practical advice about anxiety, although unknowingly rather than preaching.
Association with Aiden is a rising of the spirit for Gale, and while Astral Panic’s general path is predictable, Gale’s gradual crawl from emotional depths is presented with uplifting charm.
