Reading the News From The Fallout

Warning: This piece on News From The Fallout discusses heavy topics of tragedy.

I grew up as a child in the 90’s, seeing footage or references to nuclear fallout drills in all sorts of media. Watching those children my age crawl under their desks to escape the blast of a nuclear bomb’s fallout seemed more like science fiction than something that was a real present threat anyone faced. Nothing catastrophic like that could ever happen in America, right? Well, in 3rd grade, I watched the Twin Towers fall on live television. So those tests didn’t seem too far-fetched in my 9-year-old gray matter anymore. 

With both the horrors that I witnessed and everything surrounding them, it felt like people’s fears were heard loud and clear. They were echoed in everyone’s hearts to try to stop them from happening again. There was no doubt that the fallout was inevitable.

I’m now 32 and living in a world where I watched the US Congress question the motives of Elmo instead of handling the collapse of our economy, the brink of international conflict, or the death of the Earth itself. It’s a world where no one hears anything about the horrors outside our windows, scratching to get in, wanting to devour us whole. Chris Condon and Jeffrey Alan Love’s News From The Fallout slips that fear on snugly like a gas mask to explore a world on the brink of annihilation from mad men, but faces rooms of people questioning your sanity as to whether the threats are even real.

To try to keep with the sanctity of not spoiling the first two issues of News From The Fallout, I present to you the series’ official synopsis:

In 1962 Nevada, a nuclear bomb test goes horribly awry and unleashes a contaminate into the atmosphere that turns people rotten. Otis Fallows, a private in the U.S. Army who is present for the test and is the only known survivor, flees the secret army base in search of a safe haven—but does such a place exist?

This is a book that has burned fears into my mind since I read it. Real fears that other horror comics haven’t evoked in me before, because this angle is unique, because amongst all the horror all around Otis Fallows, the idea of there being no haven of ideology is truly the scariest thought of all. As this is an early preview essay on the series, I am avoiding spoilers at all costs, so I will refrain from delving too deeply into Chris Condon’s writing. It will be discussed much further in the site’s full review upon release, but there is something so piercing about how he has crafted this story. Working with his team to create a story that reflects the aftermath of any destruction is genuinely awe-inspiring. Issue #1 is what will hook most readers, I believe. There is a gripping narrative that explores the government, power, and the metaphorical bomb.

However, what I am going to do here is something I don’t usually do, and I ask you to trust me as a horror critic. I believe my credentials demonstrate the validity of my request. Preorder the first 2 Issues. Issue 2 is one of the single most horrifying issues of comics I have ever read. It has evoked the fear I see in the world around me every day, which has pushed me to the brink of anxiety attacks so often, where I have to question my sanity in today’s world.

However, I can speak directly to the art, lettering, and design that make News From The Fallout a series that should already have a spot reserved on your shelf. Let’s start with Michael Tivey‘s design, focusing on the credits page. There is not enough credit given to the design work that goes into a credits page, but it sets the tone for a book if it is well done. If it isn’t given the proper tone, it can feel like a thorn jutting out of an otherwise well-woven thread. Tivey’s government redacted style page is not only crisp with the beautiful inverse use of white redaction instead of the typical black bars, but also follows the artistic style used by Love and Ostmane-Elhaou throughout the book. There is a specific graininess to the page that makes it feel like a document you were never supposed to get your hands on, from a world two steps removed from the one you know.

That brings us to Jeffrey Alan Love’s art and Hassan Ostmane-Elhaou’s lettering, which depict an ashen world devoid of hope. Every person Love depicts looks more like a blast shadow rather than a fully formed human. There seems to be an almost charcoal-like texture to everything drawn in this black-and-white world. Everything that is depicted in shades of black is musky and burned in a way that is so vivid that it is thematically touched by the bomb even before it goes off. Love’s use of shading with darkness is distinct in a way I have not seen in other artists, which makes his style one of a kind. But on the other side of the coin, when he uses white, it is so stark and contrasted that it feels untouched by the darkness around it. It comes through so pure and pristine. Often, you see it in glasses or text on signs. It just gives everything in the world meaning, which allows every panel to have so much to unpack thematically. This is one of those cases where I would buy an issue devoid of all lettering and story just to look at the art, but Ostmane-Elhaou’s lettering is critical and just as thematic as every other element of this book.

From the first text box, I was blown away by what Ostmane-Elhaou was doing with his lettering in this story. I knew that he was one of the best letterers working in the industry, but the choices made in this book are a personal favorite. The speech bubbles themselves have the same charcoal texture that the rest of the art does in a way that makes them push and fade, that has them blend with the world around them. It’s an effect that works so well with Love’s style to elevate one another to make everything flow. There are some scenes with lettering sound effects where I had to stay on the panel for a while to zoom in and examine what had been done, truly top-of-the-game level work. All of it pushes to the forefront those themes of fear of the world around you, of making you question what is even going on, and how to keep fighting, even when no one will listen.

A lot of horror hasn’t been working for me lately because things have been getting scarier outside my window. News From The Fallout takes an old set of fears and brings in something that has been plaguing my mind so much lately to deliver one of the scariest books of the year but also the most beautiful. I cannot wait for this to hit shelves to hear what other people think. I just hope it inspires people to take a moment to listen and try to get through to one another so we can all stop living through tragedy after tragedy.