To spend time at Lily and Generoso Fierro’s website is like being invited to dine with a colourful couple for a few hours. They blog about the “carbs and caffeine” they consume on a regular basis, share recipes for dishes like Pasta al Nero di Seppia con Calamari e Pomodoro (Squid Ink Pasta With Squid and Tomatoes), and discuss their love for cinema and graphic novels in passionate detail. It’s a far cry from the comic they have created together, called Vessel.
It’s hard to explain what Vessel is about because even though its description on distributor Domino Books’ page is succinct enough, the 56-page book comes across more like a beautiful dream captured on paper than a narrative that travels dutifully from Point A to B. It is the kind of book one can have an intriguing conversation about, which is probably the point.
Set in 2062, it is a time when science has finally enabled the human body to be used and rebuilt at will. The protagonist is a woman named Kim, the eponymous vessel into whose body the hopes and dreams of unnamed scientists are poured, with mixed and eventually tragic results. She is studied and dissected, her memories revealing themselves in short bursts to create a poignant back story of poverty and exploitation. Kim happens to be Vietnamese-American, a minor detail that inadvertently reveals much about where power ultimately lies when a human body is being used in some way.
The nicest thing about Vessel is undeniably the art that sometimes leads to panels of much beauty. These images exist on Instagram showing how coloured pencils are used to create lemon trees as well as slowly constricting cardiovascular walls.
One assumes the roles of artist and writer are split between Lily and Generoso, the former a brain and cognitive sciences graduate from MIT, the latter a DJ and self-taught filmmaker. It’s easy to think of Vessel being born from discussions based on these colliding worlds of art and technology.
Here’s to more stories from their undeniably appealing world.
Lily Thu Fierro and Generoso Fierro (W/A) • Self-published, $18.00
Review by Linday Pereira
