In Laura Pérez’s first solo book, Ocultos, a character says “It seems our world lacks words to grapple with all the things that seem inexplicable.” This statement could very well be the raison d'être behind Pérez’s stories, which, while not wordless, rely on a series of beautiful illustrations to do the telling. Fantagraphics has published three of her works in English – Ocultos, Totem, and now Nocturnos – across this trio themes emerge that Pérez’s style is particularly suited to tackle. Mysterious, enchanting, often haunting, even her simplest layouts are wonderfully evocative. Existential questions are raised and observations made. Often we see characters arriving in remote locations to soon be greeted by strange, unexplainable sights or events. And while, yes, fear is a natural reaction to such occurrences, these figures also sense something more within these incidents, as if portals are continuously opening to something deeper. The excitement of travel is common amidst Pérez’s pages, but we also see characters living their everyday lives on the boundary lines between this world and other, unseen ones. The universe is alive, Pérez is saying, in ways we can’t even begin to fathom.
Nocturnos on its own is a powerful book. A spell to remind us how nature weaves a way into everything around us, down to our subconscious. In those depths, too, time is more fluid and illusory than we’re willing to believe. The book’s pacing is perfect, felt straight away as we’re steadily led up to the first two-page spread, riding a growing wave setting us up for the impact of encountering the enormity of the night sky. To then descend into varied snapshots of life underneath that multitude of stars. Some lives are given more time than others and each individual experience is unique, but Pérez strives to make us understand that we are all part of the same continuum. In this sense we also get resonances from her other books. An echo of the dead deer from Ocultos, and the same man, here revealed to be a truck driver, telling someone else about the bizarre dream he’s had concerning the nature of the universe. Birds soar across all three books, a metaphor for the progression of life as well as a useful device to take us between scenes. As the main bird is an owl, a nod to Athena/Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, as we are guided to it. With the book’s realm being the nocturnal, we are shown how the dark is ripe with information, full of meaning we can engage with but not fully understand. But those steps into this vast reservoir of meaning are perhaps the point. The truck driver’s dream reveals the possibility of telepathic communication between species, as he relates this dream to a bartender it gives meaning to the encounter we’ve just seen him have with a fox on the highway.
Memory also plays a large role in Pérez' work, characters going in and out of their own personal timeline, appearing at different stages, throughout their lives. The stories being a sort of prayer to accept that everything in this world is going to pass away, though hopefully somehow continuing on. The book is a grand, and it must be said, successful attempt to convey this and its concomitant emotions on paper, as well as capture all those sensations that grasp at the beyond.
A particularly poignant passage illustrates how humans may be more like AI than we wish to believe. And yes, not the other way around. It’s an uncomfortable thought. But a valid one, if this world is in fact a simulation. What then of these ethereal communications if that is the case? Interactions are meaningful to us, matter to us, nonetheless. This segment is hopefully not a pro-AI stance but rather emphasizes the importance of our relationship to the world of dreams and other realms of existence. Not easy to explain but simply bringing up the issue to get us thinking is the point. The questions raised are never entirely answered though what glimpses come offer more meaningful connections with this mysterious continuum of which we are all a part.
Pérez’s use of color is masterful. Ghostly blues abound, washing over or giving way to more natural, earthy tones, all with a majesty that evokes a sense of something more. In fact, the book would make a beautiful advertisement for a Tourist Board Of The Unconscious if such a thing were to exist. “Come on in! Forget your illusions of control and immerse yourself in all the wonder we have on offer!” As these marvels are all shown to be part and parcel of the night.
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