‘The Junction’ (review)

Written and Illustrated by Norm Konyu 
Published by Titan Comics

The central concept of The Junction, the new graphic novel by Norm Konyu, quickly becomes predictable, as does its inevitable ending. But sometimes the real story is in the telling, and The Junction is beautifully, almost hypnotically, told every step of the way.

It’s a Twilight Zone or Black Mirror plot—an 11-year-old boy goes missing one day and turns up 12 years later, still an 11-year-old boy. The Junction follows the investigation into whether it could really be him at all, and if it is, where has he been for all this time and why hasn’t he aged?

The only clues come in the form of a bizarre journal he kept and a handful of Polaroid™ photos.

The Junction is a story of life and death, loss and hope, secrets and lies, and also an almost Bradburyesque reflection on childhood and responsibilities.

The mysteries herein—more easily resolved by the astute reader than the characters themselves—don’t really seem to be the point at all. The point, as I take it, is to make the reader feel, think, and reflect on things they may never have thought about until now. Or things they’d forgotten, that they had felt long ago.

The author’s combined words and pictures storytelling techniques even pace it all out like a TV episode, spending just the right amount of time on each individual scene to set the atmosphere as well as carry the plot.

Where the book really shines, though, is in its artwork. The highly stylized watercolor-like illustrations are a unique mixture of various techniques and were created via a special process detailed in the book’s back matter. The art throughout is impressive enough that after I finished reading the story, I went back through the book to just savor those wonderful panels and pages.

The Junction says it’s suggested for mature readers but I really don’t recall anything in it that would preclude it from being appropriate for readers of any age other than dealing with death as it does. The Junction looks, in fact, like a children’s graphic novel, but hits the adult reader square in the feels (as the young folk say).

By way of full disclosure, The Junction appears to have been crowdfunded and thus, in the way of such things, has the names of its backers toward the end of the book. Amongst those names is “Steve Thompson.” Just wanted to assure you, that is NOT me as I had never even heard of Norm Konyu or The Junction before yesterday.

Sure am glad I finally did, though!

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