Review by Ian Keogh
Orsay works as a gardener in a small French town, but as seen on the sample art, it’s on a world where astonishing, almost artistic life forms called Whols have inexplicably manifested. They use no resources, are generally peaceful and are so common that scientific interest has died down. Orsay’s life changes, though, when one suddenly becomes aggressive, and the encounter with it leaves him able to transform his hands and forearms into any shape his mind conceives.
Although far more abstract, as a starting point creators Florent Ruppert and Jérôme Mulot are surely taking inspiration from the extraordinary creatures long populating the works of Leo. As in his graphic novels, the alien creatures are a feature of life, but largely passive. Mulot and Ruppert have them as the focus of social protests in which Orsay is caught up when he travels to Paris to have his condition medically assessed. He prevents a young activist suffering greater injury, and accompanies Basma to hospital where he learns others have been transformed. A horrific incident provides the impetus for Orsay to investigate the possibilities of his new condition.
Ruppert and Mulot are a writing and drawing partnership whose back catalogue is packed with the observationally quirky, and that’s the same route taken here, for what’s almost the anti-superhero story. The deliberately languid pace bolsters that opinion. Unlike the similar decompressed work of Brian Michael Bendis’ later Marvel period the gaps aren’t filled with conversation, but with contemplation, of surroundings and of Orsay’s principles. A non-confrontational nature and a rural upbringing means he’s not considered many aspects of city life, and the whole idea of social activism being new to him is well transmitted.
For all that, for 75% of The Extraordinary Part it’s the visual trips into psychedelic weirdness punctuating Orsay’s story that most impress. These are dazzling, brightly coloured pages manifesting when Orsay attempts communication with Whorls, imaginative pop art abstractions conveying a different form of connection. Examples are found on the endpapers, introducing expectations of what’s coming. Also tragically stunning are the results of killing Whorls with water, leaving attractively floating bubbles, the horror being that they’re the broken down portions of a creature living until moments beforehand.
Horror manifests with increasing frequency, as with every tale with someone using super powers for good, there’s the equal and opposite reaction. Mulot and Ruppert do have an interest in a superhero slugfest, but it’s not the be all and end all of their investigations, which focus as far as possible on the reactions of ordinary people. Because those reactions aren’t as predictable as we sometimes believe, events sometimes take a startling turn, none more so than when Orsay learns just how integrated he can become. That leads to the most imaginative section, a constant visual delight.
The Extraordinary Part so far runs to three volumes in France, and if they’re all as good as this let’s hope Fantagraphics run Part 2: Juliette’s Eyes into translation ASAP.
