Graphic Novel Review: UNDER-EARTH by Chris Gooch

UNDER-EARTH by Chris Gooch (Top Shelf Productions, NOvember 2020) Paperback, 560 pages. ISBN # 1603094776 / 9781603094771 Winner of the 2020 Aurealis Award for Best Graphic Novel / Illustrated Work  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Under-Earth takes place in a subterranean landfill, hollowed out to serve as a massive improvised prison. Sunken into the trash and debris of the past—GameBoys, iPhones, coffee cups, old cars—we follow two parallel stories. 

Equal parts sincerity and violence, Under-Earth explores humanity's inextinguishable drive to find meaning, connection, and even family—and how fragile such constructions can be. 

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     Don’t be intimidated by the size of this thick (580 pages) graphic novel by a promising indie creator from Australia. The art style is simplistic yet inventive, and the story is very fluid with sparse dialogue and never more than six panels per page. It didn't take long to pull me into the story and I finished it across two days. 

     The dystopian society of prisoners inhabiting a deep underground landfill that has been repurposed with streets and run-down buildings have no hope of ever escaping. The entry point is miles above them, where new inmates are lowered into this giant hollowed-out cell by helicopter. 

     The entire prison populace (except for the armed enforcement officers) have to pay for everything in their meager existence - - food, shelter, clothing and even entertainment (only card-playing, gambling, and betting on gladiator-like fights run by a corrupt and greedy warden). They earn dollars by scrounging through the giant landfill to salvage usable parts and items and then barter for money.

     Writer/artist Chris Gooch leads us through this oppressive landscape by following two parallel stories. A new arrival, big and muscular yet quiet, is thrown into the gladiatorial games as a reluctant combatant and becomes the warden's favorite (although it earns him very few favors). He befriends another man and connects through a found beat-up novel (a diary by an unknown prisoner). The brutal environment, full of everyday violence, hard physical labor, and poverty challenges their stressful relationship which is tested one final time.

     The other story centers on two female inmates in a relationship (the only females identified as such in the novel) with breaking-and-entering skills that become employed by a unreliable administrator who promises them a useless schematic of the prison to nurture their hopes of escape. 

     Both of these relationships are brought to a head in the final chapters, although the ending is anticlimactic, perhaps indicative of the hopelessness of this world/existence. I wasn't disappointed, although I would have appreciated a more positive resolution. Gooch employs just four colors in his art to get effect, with the occasional red helping to emphasize the violence. 

     I'm glad that Top Shelf brought this work to U.S. shores. Gooch has two other graphic novels, which I may seek out.