Review by Frank Plowright
The Horizon has been such a bleak series to date that the opening sequence here striking a note of hope about the future instead only induces negative foreboding despite a rare infusion of colour. The boy has now recovered from the sickness allowing the flashback of The Horizon 2, and so he and the girl continue their journey.
Anyone believing the inclusion of colour and a chapter of the boy and the girl discussing the future indicates better times hasn’t been paying attention. More colour features than in previous volumes, but the step of creator JH from stark black and white to colour is no comfort. This is dark swirling colour reflecting the dark mood. In other ways this is also the most remarkable art of a remarkable series, with JH overlaying masses of illustrations from earlier to form collages of chaos, their density hard on the eye.
Just as a fair portion of the previous volume concentrated on the girl, most of this has the boy central. Much of The Horizon 2’s flashback sequence concerned impending death, and the same theme is explored here via a different mindset. With everything that’s going on, is it life that’s futile, not death? Such topics don’t make for easy reading, but The Horizon is a series designed to plumb the depths of emotion and anyone not feeling the pain seriously needs to question their responses.
This volume distils the entire series. When everything is so hopeless is despair and giving up the only rational answer or should life continue in the hope of something better? JH’s solution isn’t quite as black and white, and the answer lies in humans not being intended for isolation, and how sometimes worth isn’t measured by individual presence, but by how meaningful someone is when they connect with others. It’s a point beautifully and poignantly made in the penultimate chapter. It leaves the last chapter for healing, and that’s also memorably presented.
Comfort is at a premium in The Horizon, but it’s found in small moments over the course of a magnificent series.
