REVIEW: ‘Tomorrow,’ Issue #1

Tomorrow #1 is published by Dark Horse Comics, written by Peter Milligan, with art by Jesús Hervás, colors by James Devlin, and letters by Sal Cipriano. There’s a new virus in town. But what was designed to disable computer hardware makes the jump to the organic. With the sickness spreading like wildfire no one knows what to do. Death comes swiftly to millions and amidst all this, a cello plays a Schnittke.

With a world rapidly plunging into chaos, Tomorrow #1 manages to balance both the global event it depicts as well as the small personal realities that event effects. While covering so many different aspects of a world-spanning epidemic makes the book feel busy, Milligan manages to keep the narrative clear and easy to follow by keeping the majority of the book focused on a select few individuals. The massive event the story depicts retains an extremely personal feeling. This is particularly true where Oscar is concerned.

Oscar is the most frequent lens through which readers are shown the events of this story. Oscar has a hard time processing powerful emotions. He easily gets overwhelmed and turns to his cello, and the comforting presence of his twin sister Cira, to help center himself. When the outbreak catches him thousands of miles from home, his struggle is particularly impactful. Milligan does an excellent job of relaying the characters’ thoughts. These internal monologues have that feeling of telling yourself exactly what you need to hear in a desperate attempt to stave off a panic attack that feels excruciatingly inevitable. Oscar’s pain, and need to disengage from it, felt genuine and authentic. I couldn’t help but share in this character’s sense of overwhelmed struggle.

The art of Tomorrow #1 does a great job of emphasizing the tension, and desperation, that exists throughout the story. The characters drawn by Hervás are extremely emotive. He also does a great job creating a point of view which places the reader inside the story. Coupled with the emotion present within the book, the visual presentation creates an almost claustrophobic feeling. Like all the desperation being depicted in the book is threatening to engulf the reader.

Hervás also does an excellent job of structuring the panels. Many pages use a single page-sized panel, with other panels set within it. This creates an interesting feeling of cohesiveness. As the larger panels pull the rest of the page together. Additionally, the coloring also goes a long way to support the drama that unfolds on the page. Devlin uses lots of strong contrasts to help flesh out the emotion within the panels. This further highness the tension already present within the story.

Tomorrow #1 does a lot and does it extraordinarily well. While both introducing a global crisis, as well as the key characters the book will follow, is a lot, it manages to keep the information clear, and its moments impactful. If the creative team can keep this up Tomorrow has the potential to be an emotionally impactful series.

Tomorrow #1 will be available wherever comics are sold on February 26, 2020.

Charles Hartford

Lifelong geek who enjoys comics, video games, movies, reading and board games . Over the past year I’ve taken a more active interest in artistic pursuits including digital painting, and now writing.
I look forward to growing as a writer and bettering my craft in my time here!