I Had Issues! My Review of Jerel Dye’s From The Clouds

The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo is ten years old. I got this mini comic the time of it's third year of existence. I spent some time at the most recent one this past weekend and hope to report on some findings I got there. Boy the signs of the current political climate were present even in my overly purple prose. I could never have predicted the world today, but I sure felt something. I will reread the comic later today. So can you at Dye's site (link below). Originally published October 29, 2012. Edited for clarity.

When I first saw the cover of Jerel Dye's mini One Android Stories: Deep Waters, I envisioned him as some kind of successor to Brian Ralph, but where Ralph seemed to focus on an imagined primitive world, Dye appeared at least equally interested in things mechanical. He brings the natural, mechanical and otherworldly together in From The Clouds, a recent winner of a MICE Comics Grant and a good example of what can be nurtured in the prospering Boston comics scene.

In ten pages, Dye spins a tale of benevolent otherworldly beings who literally descend from the sky bestowing gifts and encouraging peace. The story partially takes on the form of parable but never gives a clear ending or moral. Dye plays on the idea of change by playfully and confidently adding literal imagery to metaphor and leaving the reader to wonder where either begin or end.

Given the nature of the last four years with Americans crying foul over both real and perceived changes to their way of life, From The Clouds reads very much like a product of its time. The ending is as uncertain as the next four years appear to be as ideologues are locked in more of a neck and neck race than I could have ever predicted a month back when I first picked up this comic.

It will be interesting to dig this story up another four years from now and see if the its meaning and weight have changed. It will be fun to do that and gauge the measure of this comic to the newer, stronger work that Dye will likely create. This is a starting point to something. Let's see what that is.