Marcel Dorcel is a convicted criminal with three exes, a mind that's keen on identifying political subterfuge, and enough experience surviving the wilds of Zarkass that she makes for the best (worst) tour guide one could hope for. In her own words, "just because I'm ballsy doesn't mean I'm stupid." But then again, if one were not relying on Marcel to ford the wilds during the apparent crumbling of the local human outpost, then who?
TRAPPED ON ZARKASS is exquisitely colorful and richly indecent, what with its focus on an odd-couple pair who is absolutely terrible at doing precisely whatever it is they're supposed to be doing. Marcel is the guide and bodyguard; Louis Doisy is an entomologist sent undercover from the local human government. Louis is supposed to be investigating the wreckage of an unnamed adversary's ship, but as often happens in sci-fi exploits, the woman has her own agenda at hand. En totem, navigating jungle flora, all the while surviving encounters with giant spiders, carnivorous butterflies, and hostile populations of roach-people puts this duo on high alert from cover to cover.
One imagines the task of surviving a mysterious planet of hostile others would be equally exciting and terrifying, and TRAPPED ON ZARKASS delivers on both accounts. Is tracking down and investigating an intergalactic crash site on a wayward Earth colony worth the effort? After dropping into the luscious greenery, all bets are off.
Not to say the story makes it easy for these characters to have a good time. Marcel is crass and butch and doesn't really give a shit, but she's a felon who can't quit digging a deeper grave for herself. If she and her partner can pull off this mission, then she'll sleep in a real bed for the first time in 20 years. Louis is snotty and upper-class, but her ambition tends to outweigh any sense of danger lurking over the next cliff. A person with a secret agenda and with nothing to lose tends to harbor the most gall. Marcel and Louis hate each other from the outset, but if they're going to survive the bush and make it back to civilization before everything turns to crap, then they must swallow the irritation they have for one another, one thorny affront at a time.
TRAPPED ON ZARKASS is a beautiful book and demonstrates the best character art many contemporary European comics have to offer: angular but dimensional character designs that don't take up more space than they need to; brilliant and moody coloring; environmental designs and background artwork with layers of informational detail; compelling character expressions that never give away too much. Cassegrain has a style that offers comfort and order on one level (e.g., balanced page composition, smart character blocking) and desirable anarchy on another (e.g., designing messy and dangerous slums, ruins, battle sequences, caverns).
One finds it difficult to disassociate the comic's superlative design quality from its narrative spectacle. For example, it's one thing for readers to come across a lying and scheming indigenous queen and her chosen warrior, but it's another thing entirely to see the warrior stride into frame while mounting a massive cicada and wielding a war axe. It's one thing for readers to learn the local roach-people use the mucus of large lion-caterpillars to protect their skin, but it's another thing entirely to see the locals grieve the loss of their partner-beasts, then throw themselves to their death, glimpsing the emerald splendor of this far away planet for a final, sharp, and fleeting moment.
The book's flaws are niggling but not imperceptible. Notably, Marcel's attitude vacillates unpredictably between caustic foolery and optimistic thuggery. The woman knows more about the planet Zarkass and its dangers than anyone around, but constantly berates the locals and draws ire from her allies. Her insults are hilarious (e.g., "snotty vagsack," "holy ovum," "deadballs," "bloody vulva"), but the butch woman's intense love-hate relationship with the universe makes for seesaw storytelling. As for Louis, the woman is a good foil, but her apparent knack for having helpful visions of next-step adventuring feels too contrived to be effective. Louis is funny because she's absolutely the last person one would want to rough it with in the bush; but perhaps that's the point. Nevertheless, TRAPPED ON ZARKASS wrings from its pages a tale of otherworldly sci-fi in which suspiciously opportunistic people from very odd, awkward, and asynchronous points of origin strive for survival.
