A book a day: David Rubín: Fire

Language: español

Year of publication: 2022

Valuation: between recommendable and very good

The Galician David Rubín has become a star of Spanish comics in his own right, which is no small feat, given the magnificent level of illustrators and scriptwriters – or both at the same time, as is the case – that we can find around these parts, even though the industrial aspect of the sector and even the number of fans is weaker than in surrounding countries (not to mention France). Rubín, in addition to his excellence as a draftsman and the spectacular nature of his pages, has undoubtedly been helped to achieve this recognition by his lack of complexes when it comes to addressing large themes, to which he knows how to give adequate graphic treatment. In this case, the book is set in the near future in which a meteorite is heading towards the Earth, with an 85.8% chance of collision and destruction of our planet, of course (I don’t know what this sounds like to me) , but it focuses on the fall, not only into disgrace, but into the well of his personal miseries, of Alexander Yorba, the star architect in charge of building a citadel on the Moon, the “New Hope”, so that the least a minimal part of the Earth’s population (as you can imagine, the elite of the planet, although not necessarily following genetic criteria).

In a kind of deconstruction of himself, Alexander travels through Europe – Finland, Amsterdam, a dystopian and deserted Rome, Madrid in flames – looking for his family, friends, former lovers… who serve as a mirror to discover his miseries and the failure (to a certain extent) that his life has meant. A deconstruction of the protagonist architect, but also of the figure of the hero he embodies, as Alexander Yorba goes from being the possible savior of Humanity, or at least of its survival as a species, to a traitor reviled by everyone who must find his place again. heading in the time he has left. This interest in the heroic figure is not new in the work of David Rubín, who has already dealt with it in titles such as The hero (of course), Beowulf, Grand Abyss Hotel or even Storm Notebookwhich is a kind of descent of Orpheus into hell or a recreation of the figure of Faust.

Helps provide The fire Rubín’s spectacular style, typical of him, has an epic dimension, with an ambitious and complex composition of the pages; an overwhelming display of color and a vigorous drawing – to put it a but, perhaps too vigorous in the case of the women -, in addition to the use of varied narrative and visual resources. As for the story itself and its plot, it is sufficiently interesting and even deep; perhaps, in any case, somewhat predictable, once the premises are stated, but it is something that can be ignored: it is not necessary for the scripts to be full of plot-twists, cliffhangerssurprise endings and other tricks that certain narratives (especially audiovisual ones) have accustomed us to in recent times.

Also from David Rubín in A Book A Day: Grand Abyss Hotel