Sacrifice #6

Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Dalton Rose

I've really enjoyed Sacrifice, Sam Humphries and Dalton Rose's self-published and micro-distributed mini-series.  It's told the story of Hector, an epileptic who was somehow transported to the Aztec Empire in the period immediately before the Europeans arrived.  The series has followed his attempts to protect the Aztecs from the genocide that Spain brought to them, but we've seen him fail again and again.

Now, in this last issue, Tenochtitlan is in Spanish hands, and Malin is leading her remaining guerrilla fighters into the jungle to regroup. Hector lies dead, but that in turn leads him to a conversation with Quetzalcoatl, the god who has turned his back on his people.

There were a number of things that hadn't been explained yet, but with this issue, everything is made clear.  Humphries has done a terrific job of shining some light on a topic that is not usually explored in mainstream entertainment, and he handles it with sensitivity, while still telling a very good story.  This series is vastly superior to anything he's done at Marvel as of yet.

Dalton Rose's art is terrific.  He employs a number of different styles in this issue, from the psychedelic cartooning of the realm of the gods to a more realistic depiction of the pre-Aztec period.

Dark Horse is going to be publishing this entire series in hardcover in September - I highly recommend getting ahold of it.

Sacrifice #5

Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Dalton Rose

The second of two issues of Sacrifice that I picked up this week is just as good a read as the first.

Things have not gone well for the Aztecs after their first contact with the Spanish.  Despite the efforts of time traveller Hector in uniting the people of Mexico, he has not been able to stave off the effects of smallpox on a population that has no natural defense against it.

Now, the Aztecs are making a final stand at Tenochtitlan, and Hector, who has been in seclusion for the last six months, has to make a final sacrifice to try to save the whole thing.

This issue gets a little more psychedelic than the last few, returning more to the look of the first issue, which had Hector first arrive in Moctezuma's territory.  It's never been made clear if Hector has actually traveled through time, or if everything we've seen of him has been a sort of fever dream brought on by his own psychoses.  That uncertainty is amped up this issue, as we are given glimpses of both worlds.

While the delay between issues has been very long, so it's hard to remember all the details of this series, I must comment on how much story Sam Humphries has packed into the first five issues of this comic.  It really is a dense, nuanced read, and I feel that, after getting the final issue, I'm going to want to read through it all again in one or two sittings.

Sacrifice #4

Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Dalton Rose

I don't know when this book actually came out (Sam Humphries website said it was coming in January), but my favourite comic store, one of only two in the country that sell this book, only got their copy of issues four and five today.  I was going to read them both together and then write about, but I decided that a self-published and self-distributed book that is this good deserves to have as much written about it as possible.

Sacrifice has been following Hector, a depressed young man who has somehow found himself in Mexico City (then called Tenochtitlan) just prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the Americas. Hector has had a difficult experience in Moctezuma's empire, being seen by almost everyone as mystical and special, but not always accepted by the different religious sects that are jockeying for power.

As this issue opens, Hector is performing the sacrifice of a great warrior, during which he receives a vision of his own time.  He realizes that, if he is going to do anything to save the Aztecs from the fate brought to them by the Spanish, he has little time to influence Moctezuma into uniting with the city-states he has been ruling by fiat, and preparing to repel the Spanish invaders.  This plan doesn't sit well with one of his religious rivals, and Malin, the famous female rebel who sided with Cortes, manages to disappear to parts unknown.

I've always been attracted to the idea of revisiting the earliest instances of contacts between Europeans and the indigenous Americans, and like how Humphries has been using this series to somewhat balance the historical scales.  I look forward to reading the next issue, which is just a little ways deeper into this week's reading pile.

Sacrifice #3

Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Dalton Rose

I feel very fortunate to shop at one of the few stores across North America that sell Sam Humphries's self-published and self-distributed mini-series Sacrifice.

This is a very compelling story about a man who has somehow traveled back to the time of the Aztecs just prior to the invasion of the Spanish.  It's not clear yet if Hector has really moved back in time or is simply imagining everything that has been happening while lying in a hospital bed after suffering an epileptic fit.  What is clear is that some time has passed since the last issue, and Hector has been on the run with Malintzin, the leader of a rebel army.

Malin is a fearsome warrior, but we learn in this issue that Moctezuma's best warrior, Tlahuicole, is actually her brother, who had been captured when her people lost a battle to the Aztec forces.  Now, as a certain holy festival approaches, Tlahuicole wants Hector, the last trained priest of Quetzalcoatl to be the one who kills him, thereby ensuring another year of prosperity and safety for all the Aztecs.

This is a very cool comic, both in the depth of its research and presentation of Aztec culture, and in the strong visuals that Dalton Rose uses to tell the story.  I appreciate that Humphries is breaking ground in many different ways with this comic.

Sacrifice #2

Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Dalton Rose

There's a great deal to like about Sam Humphries and Dalton Rose's self-published, and self-distributed comics series Sacrifice, but a big one for me is that I don't know when a new issue is going to appear in my pull-file.  I just got the first issue last week, and suddenly the new one is here! 

Sacrifice is a very cool comic.  It's about a guy who has ended up back in the period of time right before the Spanish conquistadors made contact with the Aztecs.  It's a time of great sectarian violence, and a time of revolution, led by the female warrior Malintzin (known to the Spanish as Malinche). 

Hector, our point-of-view character and time traveler has found himself embroiled in the conflict between the followers of two gods, and is pressed upon to kill Malintzin before she can be sacrificed, for reasons that are somewhere between complicated and unclear.  There's a lot going on in this comic, and the pacing can feel a little off at times (especially at the end of the issue), but I really like what Humphries is doing with this.

There's an easy parallel between this comic and what Brian Wood is doing with Northlanders at the moment - both tell of societies at the cusp of great change (and that's before Cortes shows up; things are going to get a lot worse for the Aztec), and both tell their stories using plain speech.

Rose's art is great, and everything about this self-directed effort is professional and very interesting.  Given the inherent rarity of this comic, I feel lucky that I've been able to secure a copy, and that it looks like I'll be able to read it through to its completion.

Sacrifice #1

Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Dalton Rose

I really do shop at one of the best comic stores in North America.  They were one of the handful of stores to sell this comic, which most shops got a couple of weeks ago.  Since we are in Canada, and our shop chose the least expensive shipping method (so they could make money selling the comic at cover price - a crazy notion, no?), it only arrived in time for sale this week, and despite the fact that first prints of this comic are commanding high prices on Ebay, they continued to sell it at cover price.  Decent people.

Anyway, this self-published comic comes from the writer of Our Love is Real, which was one of the biggest surprise comics of 2011, in terms of both its shocking subject matter (people have sex with animals, vegetables, and minerals, but not each other) and its limited press run.  Now Humphries is doing the same thing all over again, but this time with a six-issue mini-series.

Sacrifice opens as Hector escapes from a hospital, and then goes for lunch at a crappy taco joint.  Suddenly, he is transported back into the time of the Aztecs, just prior to the arrival of the Spanish.  He is found by a group of Aztecs, who plan on sacrificing him before they see the intricate tattoo on his back.  They decide they need to take him to Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City) for an audience with Emperor Moctezuma.  Hector becomes the focus of a theological debate between the men who found him, supporters of the god Quetzalcoatl, while the Emperor's adviser supports Huitzilopotchli.

As the story progresses, we learn a few more things.  Hector is epileptic, and has always had a strong interest in the Aztec and their fate at Spanish hands.  Is he really traveling through time, or are these visions merely the product of his disease, a la Joan of Arc and Louis Riel?

Dalton Rose's art is very good.  I see a few influences in his work - Paul Pope, European comics, Michael Allred, and the style of the cartoon King of the Hill all mash together in his art.  The book, coloured by Pete Toms, looks vibrant and bold, with bright backgrounds.

I'm very pleased that I've got the opportunity to collect this series without having to wait for a trade.  These are some very talented people making this comic, and I hope that this fiercely independent approach to doing business is successful for Humphries.