It’s challenging to talk about Chronophage, the new graphic novel from Hack/Slash and Grayson writer Tim Seeley, and Collapser artist and IDW regular Ilias Kyriazis. On the one hand the book’s central concept is an irresistible hook. On the other, you really want to arrive at this emotionally raw and impactful sci-fi horror romance as fresh as possible.
For maximum effect and surprise, readers should experience the twisty genre-blending tale just like its heroine Chloe Lawal. We meet the 33-year-old single mother exhausted and dissatisfied with her life, working multiple jobs and back-to-back shifts to make ends meet, while worrying (justifiably) that her teenage daughter Kai will repeat Chloe’s own mistakes with a skeevy boyfriend.
In the rare minutes she has to herself, Chloe clings to her dream of being a fashion designer, but it’s all feeling quite hopeless. And on a particularly frustrating, despondent day, where Chloe is resentful about the path her life took, she meets enigmatic businessman Heath. They start a sexually charged relationship, but it’s more than excitement Heath brings to Chloe’s life. His presence injects inspiration and new opportunities – along with strange memory blackouts, nightmares and disturbing paranormal encounters. Because Heath literally eats time, cherry picking what he considers people’s bad moments to erase from existence.
We’ll leave the plot there, but Chronophage calls to mind Love Death + Robots episode Beyond the Aquila Rift, and the Alastair Reynolds short story it’s based on. Chronophage isn’t about embracing pleasurable delusion over disturbing reality, though; it’s about choosing to chop out chunks of your personal history. Could you do it? Could you live with the conscious loss of your past; the events that shaped you if it meant something better right now? The big picture of life consists entirely of smaller connected pieces, so what if you start plucking out select fragments?
Much like life, Chronophage is many things: sexy, scary, sometimes slice-of-life funny. It’s erotic one moment, stomach-turning the next, and delivers a memorable, bittersweet ending. Keeping the reader engaged, and the root of the book’s emotional power, is the relatable and highly likeable character of Chloe. Kudos to Seeley for scripting such natural-sounding dialogue for his harried heroine. The scenes between Chloe and her mother are a special highlight, combining tenderness, disapproval and skepticism in a way that accurately reflects complex parent-child relationships.
Seeley’s writing is complemented by Kyriazis’s art. The Greek comics creator has an emotionally intense and visceral style that really comes into its own during the graphic novel’s more horrific, and erotic, moments. Kyriazis casts aside more conventional panel layouts and colour choices when the biggest story beats hit, really heightening their impact. Chronophage is definitely a book for mature readers only, who can handle the sometimes lurid surrealness.
Chronophage becomes trippier towards its end, as well as arguably more hurried. Personally I would have liked to see Chloe spend more time weighing up the gains and losses of her situation. I also would have appreciated a deeper dive into the details of Heath’s feeding habits – like how long can he subsist off one partner, and what happens when he’s done with them?
Still, Chronophage makes a thought-provoking and engrossing read. It’s a suitable release for Valentine’s month, looking at sexual desire and familial love through a tonally dark lens that sci-fi and horror fans should easily connect with. Chronophage is published by Humanoids, and is releasing in physical and ebook form on February 15.