THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2025! Jua OK!’s Road to Chimera instantly strikes the reader with its powerful and expressive use of visual metaphor. Described as a book that “explores themes of otherness and trans identity as a spiritual pathway” it embeds those themes in a kind of fantasy comics environment with a central character on a quest of self-discovery. On this journey they will meet others who share their experiences and travel through locales that will ultimately lead them to a place of self-realisation.
Road to Chimera is one of a growing number of graphic narratives (the work of Leo Fox obviously springs immediately to mind here) to frame trans lived experiences within the allegorical, and making them all the more connective to the reader for that careful use of symbolism. OK!’s choice of second person narration also draws us into events with a greater sense of intimacy, firmly inserting us into the protagonist’s worldview by addressing the audience as if we were the main character of the story.
Couching the major developments in an otherworldly encounter with a seemingly supernatural entity gives Road to Chimera an elevated sense of the spiritual that makes its truths feel all the more profound. OK!’s art, with its beautifully considered colour choices and irregular page layouts, emphasises this quality with a sequential storytelling structure that eschews the predictable for something more dreamlike and mystical in presentation.
Jua OK! has used both illustration and photos of ceramic and metal artefacts in the telling of this story and he includes a section at the back showcasing those physical objects as an extra in Road to Chimera. This is a powerful yet celebratory piece of comics that is absolutely on my must-buy list of recommendations at Thought Bubble for 2025.
Jua OK! (W/A) • Self-published, £12.00
Review by Andy Oliver
Jua OK! will be at Table C5b in the Redshirt Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2025 runs from November 1oth-16th with the convention weekend taking place on the 15th-16th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2025 coverage so far in one place here.
Poster by Ng Yin Shian
