In high school, I was one of the officers of a club, and one of my jobs was finding inclusive media to share with our members. One of those pieces was Chelsey Furedi’s webcomic “Rock and Riot,” a queer love story set in the 50’s.
Later, when Furedi came out with the sci-fi webcomic “Project Nought,” the club followed along with her weekly updates. It was a great bonding experience for the club and I’m sure other members look back on it fondly as well.
Fast forward to 2022, and I see on Instagram that Project Nought is being turned into an actual book! When it arrived on February 21, it was a fun trip down memory lane to see what has changed from the original Tapas webcomic to what has stayed the same.
The Project Nought graphic novel follows Ren Mittal hopping on the bus to visit his pen pal Georgia in the year 1996. Before he can make it to her place, he blacks out and wakes up in the year 2122. He finds out that he has been selected to take part of a time-travel exchange program to help students at the University of Time Expansion understand what the past was like.
Along the way, Ren discovers that not everything is as it seems at Chronotech, the company overseeing the program, and that they may be hiding more than they let on. His designated student partner, Mars, is all too happy to have a student from the 90s to interview, while Mars’s best friend, Jia, has some secrets of their own.
Ren can’t help but slowly fall for Mars, yet since his memory will be wiped at the end of the program, is it worth making memories he won’t remember?
This amazing graphic novel was a combination of a love story between Ren and Mars, a mystery as to the true intentions of Chronotech, and an awesome science-fiction adventure spanning throughout futuristic New Zealand. There’s a lot to pack in and Furedi does a wonderful job with making sure no stone is unturned.
Right off the bat, it was a joy to revisit these characters that I had last seen back in early 2018. I loved the diversity, both in terms of development and character design, of the main characters as well as the background and side characters. Furedi obviously took care in making an accepting and believable future. You have characters not only of different ethnicities and gender/gender presentation, but also plus-sized and disabled characters. One character named Tāne, who uses a futuristic wheelchair, even helps our main characters in their most critical moments, and has some of the best lines in the novel as well.
Which brings me to my next point, which was the ART. I absolutely adored the art in this graphic novel, from the backgrounds to the different array of colors used in every scene, to even the smallest details used in the props and buildings. I felt fully immersed in the world, and throughout the story wondered what it would be like to live in 2122.
I will admit, if I hadn’t had work and needed to sleep, I would have finished this the day it came in the mail. It was a highly addictive read, there were twists even I didn’t see coming! Plus, there were a lot of frames throughout that could be used as the best reaction images, and even though half of the main characters were from the future, they were still super relatable.
In short, I would run, not walk, to your nearest bookstore or go order this amazing debut graphic novel from Chelsey Furedi! Hopefully, you’ll fall in love with the characters and story just like I did.
E. A. Young Writes 