Indie Initiative – Dave Dastmalchian’s Through is a Must Read

If you’ve clicked on this review, you probably already know Dave Dastmalchian. Maybe you’ve seen him in a few movies or TV shows where he’s played a small but memorable role, or in his starring role in Late Night with the Devil. However it was that got you here, buckle in because Dave Dastmalchian’s Through is a ride.

Through the Eye of the Needle…

Released by Z2 Comics, Through tells the story of college student Alix Gaulden. Alix has had a hard life after her parents died in a car wreck, which has toughened her up. Her bitterness constantly has her at odds with her roommate, Sam, who refers to her as somewhere between a Karen and Ann Coulter. One morning, she goes for a run and slips on some ice into a frozen river and breaks her leg. She’s saved by a mysterious man, who she learns has been following her since she was a kid. Alix decides to play detective and find out more about the man who saved her. 

She breaks into his house, and after examining the mini sculptures he has built in the eye of a sewing needle, Alix is transported to a different world. The more Alix goes back, the more she learns her past is entangled with this world she had no clue existed. Alix becomes intertwined in her mission and the clues she’s found, but she’s hindered. Not by her broken leg, but her broken attitude. Her inability to ask for help or even show the simplest of courtesy clips her wings.

Dastmalchian’s scenes transition smoothly, making them jump to the next point mid-page rather than at the start of the page turn. There were multiple times when stopping would have been awkward. Not only because the story was engaging, but there was no clean place to set a bookmark. Dastmalchian’s writing works in a story that tackles anxiety and depression in a fantastic metaphor, weaving in Catholic guilt and the effects of unprocessed trauma.

While it borrows from other fantasy stories like Alice in Wonderland and the German fairy tale Woyzeck, Dastmalchian’s story inventively mixes fantasy and noir. While Through is very influenced by DC’s Vertigo stories from the late 80s and 90s, it’s not enough to call it his Sandman, but there are similarities in the themes of using the tropes of fantasy to deal with issues in the seemingly normal world. You’d be remiss if you thought this was some droll and derivative modern fairy tale.

Overall Grade : 8/10

From David Mack’s cover to Cat Stagg’s interior pages, art-wise, this is a beautiful book. Cat Stagg’s contrast between the dark, icy Chicago and the fantastical, although perilous, world of Ananda Apastan works hand in hand, creating that duality needed to help Dastmalchian’s tale. While the dangers of both realms are present, you’re never quite sure which one you’re safer in.

Dave Dastmalchian’s Through is a great book. Well put together and a must-have for people who love modern fairy tales or for those on the fence about fairy tales. While it will be easy to point to some tropes and where the references come from, they are remixed enough to visit Alix’s worlds a trip through the eye of the needle worth taking.

Check out Forrest’s review of Z2 Comics’ The Return of the Blues Brothers: Escape of Joliet Jake, here