Obscure Comic of the Month was a column I wrote from 2015 to 2017, where I would take a look at a comic or series that wasn't really talked about. This covered independent comics, zines, weird spins-offs, webcomics and more. It's been away, but now it's back.
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O Sarilho by Martin Shizasese - 2016 - Present
Contains Spoilers
When you're attending a convention, particularly one dedicated to creators, writers and artists, it often becomes difficult to decide on what to give your attention to. I often joke that I wish I was a millionaire purely so I could go to comic book conventions and just buy everybody's comics. However, as I am not made of money, I have to be discerning.
Shilling your own comics at conventions is difficult. I know, I do it all the time. On the one hand you kind of want to sit there quietly and let the work speak for itself, on the other you want to shout and scream and vie for people's attention.
This is how I ended up with both books of O Sarilho. It's creator leaning forward from their table to entice me with tales of future Romans and alien space gods. I've been in situations before where a creator has given me the big sell, and ultimately the comic they produce turns out to be measures less interesting than the pitch they frantically sold it on.
I'm happy to say, however, that O Sarilho was not one of those situations.
I want to begin by talking about how this comic deals with it's depiction of future Romans. The concept of saying 'what if the Roman empire never fell and they were around in the modern day and/or future' is not an uncommon one, and has been rendered many times in the world of comics over the years. One commonality amongst these stories, however, is the tendency to merely transplant the Roman empire wholesale into the world of the future. Same attitudes, same fashions, same language, same gods.
Anthropologically speaking, this of course makes no sense. If the Romans were still around after 2000 years they almost certainly would have gone through massive social and cultural change, but O Sarilho is probably the first time I've seen this acknowledged in a story of this type. The future Romans of this tale are far different from the ancient empire that was. Time has seen a shift in attitudes, religion has now evolved around emergent technology. The military has changed, as has it's political systems. The state language of Rome? Italian of course, Latin died long ago.
Of course, the comic itself plays coy around it's alt-history. It's open to interpretation as to whether the Mediterranean empire of the story even originates from Ancient Rome, or if it began as a later resurgence. Ultimately, it's origins don't matter, the world being elaborated upon slowly as we begin to see this world though it's character's eyes.
But what of the story itself? Well, the plot begins with a group of fresh faced recruits of various different backgrounds, eager but nervous about their final days of academia leading up to the careers of their adulthood. From the loose and somewhat exaggerated art style to the subject matter of secret crushes and youthful anxiety, this leads the reader to presume the story will be a light-hearted 'young people at fantasy academy' type story full of interpersonal conflict and low stakes drama.
Then the characters begin dying in droves, limbs are amputated, minds possessed by unknowable alien intelligences and those who walk out alive suffer from heaping piles of trauma.
If you want to get me on board with a story then I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for a bait and switch like this. Lull the reader into thinking this is going to be a relatively light hearted tale and then go right for the brutal violence, and O Sarilho executes this with aplomb. It also keeps the readers on their toes. You think you know which way this story is going, until you don't.
Once we are over the threshold, the plot unfolds into a network of much bigger ideas. For the surviving characters, a new and difficult network within the halls of power must be navigated, an uprising on the fringes of the empire begins to gain momentum and the mystery behind the corpse of what seems to be an alien space god has yet to be unravelled. The story can go anywhere at this point, and its an exiting feeling to know that anything could happen. It's unpredictability is it's greatest strength.
O Sarilho is ongoing and updated regularly at it's main site, though if you know me I like to read my comics in big chunks in print form. So I'll certainly be picking up further volumes as they become available. Either way, whatever means you prefer to consume your comics, I highly recommend you check it out. Everything you need to know you can find out here.
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Jack Harvey 2021. O Sarilho (c) Shizamura. Images used under Fair Use.
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