The cover was the main reason I did start this, I thought wow this is beautiful. I read the description and got curious.
Sadly, I was very disappointed. The art is okay, not my favorite style ever but I loved the colors and the way they were constant throughout the book, changing when confronted with different emotions. The story was okay but the relationship was very toxic (also the book was a lot more explicit than I initially thought it would be, which bothered me a little because there were no sorts of warnings whatsoever).

Unfortunately, this one did not work for me. I liked the overlapping timelines between modern Germany and Egypt in the 1920s, but the story itself is a bit too loose. I feel like I am missing the point in the story where it would all make it worth reading. The art style is quite nice, but the characters are very forgettable.

Thank you Netgalley UK for an ebook of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Europe Comics was launched in 2015 in an effort by European publishers of graphic novels to more attention from the English-language market, and it’s unfortunate that they have just announced that they are shutting down. They apparently will continue to publish a few titles each month, but these will only be available through other publishers, and mostly not in English editions.

So, there are two story lines here. The first retells the story of Howard Carter’s discovery and excavation of the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen in 1922, in Carter’s own publications recollections. It’s a straightforward recitation of the facts, with schematics of the tomb. The second, set at the turn of the 21st century, concerns twenty-year-old Teresa Guerrero, an Italian university student come to Berlin on a grant to work as scientific assistant at the state university’s installation of a Tutankhamen exhibit. And on her fist day in the city, she meets Ruben, an artist her age, also Italian, who has been in Berlin for two years, living off the checks his father sends every month and not accomplishing very much. But Berlin at the time was a huge playground for people their age, and he intends to remain there as long as possible. Teresa has missed out on her chance at student housing, and before the day is out she has moved into Ruben’s dingy squat -- only temporarily, of course, but somehow, time passes, and she never leaves.

Teresa is goal-oriented and has always lived her life in a straight line, doing whatever she sets out to do. Ruben’s life, however, is totally lacking in straight lines, He just wanders from one thing or place to another, but somehow, they hit it off. He often pushes her buttons and she reacts angrily, partly because her insomnia screws her up, but they always return to each other. And the sex is good.

And that’s basically the story. It seems to be a rumination on the connection between the past and the future -- the latter symbolized by the 9/11 attack, which ends the book. The Egyptians (the author says) perceived the future as being behind them and the past ahead of them, and this is why they buried their kings for eternity. Or something. It’s not at all clear what the author/illustrator intends to do with all this, to be honest. The art is excellent and the two young characters are nicely portrayed as they move into what looks like it will be a shared future. But I think I’m missing the point of it all.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Hypericon is a graphic novel about two characters in different lives; Howard Carter (an Egyptologist) on the verge of unearthing Tutankhamens tomb in the time period of 1922, and young woman, Theresa, straight off the bus working as an assistant scholar in Berlin working on the discoveries that were found in Tutankhamens tomb (in the year 2001).
I got rather confused in how these two stories gel together apart from being about the discoveries from the tomb. The graphics were great and drew my attention more than the storyline. I'm a little puzzled by this book, in all honesty.

Set in 2001, Hypericon follows its protagonist through a year-long placement in a Berlin museum, during which she struggles with chronic insomnia, lives in a squat, and a has a tumultuous relationship with a man she meets on a train. The characterisation leaves something to be desired, as they interactions are puzzling, and their relationship is mostly based in surprisingly frequent and graphic sex scenes. This plot is split by sections showing a past expedition to discover the tomb of Tutankhamen, which was mildly more interesting.

I enjoyed the aesthetic, with its watercolour style illustrations and mix of text styles to differentiate between accounts of the tomb expedition (hand-written and on lined paper) and internal dialogue. There were different levels of detail at different points throughout, through it doesn’t feel disjointed. My only technical issue is that there is a significant amount of German dialogue, with no translation provided.

Generally, this was an adequate reading experience, but I am left not quite knowing what to feel about the graphic novel as a whole.
2.5 stars

The art wasn't bad but more explicit than what I anticipated. The story itself felt a bit disorienting as I couldn't see the connection or that the main character had any passion, she felt very passive. I also found the relationship and how it started to be somewhat problematic.

I really liked the artwork in this graphic novel, especially the gouache-esque illustrations of the excavation in Egypt. The description was definitely different from the plot inside the novel, which I was definitely thrown by. While the dual POVs were easy to follow, I wish the book would have focused more on the storyline of the excavation of the tomb and the resulting exhibit. I wasn't enamored with the romantic subplot, it felt rushed and really took over the plot of the novel despite being a point of lesser interest. The ending definitely took an odd turn, the narrative was odd and a bit disjointed, only really pulled together in the last few pages - which felt rushed.

I liked the artwork in general, although the art of Teresa seemed to change drastically from the start to the end. I really liked the artwork of the Egyptian side. The romantic relationship was quite frustrating, and there was a lot of sex.

thanks NetGalley for the eARC!
dual story of an archeologist discovering an Egyptian tomb and a grad student in Germany who meets a pretentious man child. there's honestly not much more to it.
I don't have many thoughts on this except that I liked the art style and that I found the storyline boring/pretentious/incredibly lacking.
I didn't get any point out of it or even really any story from it at all.

What the hell was this?
A possibel answer could be: bloody f*cking shit. sorry not sorry.
I have litereally no idea, how such an ugly and realy questionabel book could have such a beautiful cover. This cover was a freaking trap, which leads me in my worst nighmare.
Firstly, I hated the art work. It was really ugly. I like a lot of differnt styles, but what i dont liek is, if you can clearly see, that the artist didnt cared for details or even of the artwork itself. Its just sad to see. And honestly i hate it, as i said before.
I also hated the Mc. And the story.
I cannt say much about the story itself, Just bc it was 1. unclear, 2. confusing, 3. real, real shit, i dont want to talk about.
Poor litlle, innocent girl went to Berlin and meets wannabe punk bad boy. Then they have sex. Thats it.
btw. I read this book as a german native speaker. I saw the many, many grammar mistakes this guy makes. Some of this shit, what was supossed to be german, was so confusing, i couldnt understand it at all.

content/trigger warnings:
sexual content

The first time I read it, the parallels between Teresa and Tutankhamun didn't make much sense to me. But, after rereading and sitting on it a bit I think it's about how nature connects us to the past more than knowledge. Teresa suffers from insomnia, a natural occurrence for her, while Tutankhaum is forever asleep due to the nature of death. Tatankhaum's tomb had St. John's Wort as a natural element with historical meaning while Teresa took St. John's Wort, a natural and historic medicine to help with insomnia. Add in the curious nature of the human mind. In the 1920s, archeologists found Tutankhamun's tomb and wanted to learn more about it. In the 2000s, Teresa was able to ease her restless mind by studying their findings and devoting her career to it. A lot of details about Teresa's life are unknown to the reader, much like how details of Tutankhaum's life are unknown to Teresa. We see her year through vignettes, not the details we wish we knew. Much like how Teresa, and the archaeologist, only see Tutankhaum's life through the brief details they know. The desire to learn more about people, fictional or not, connects the curious reader to the curious mind of Teresa.

Her relationship with Ruben was 'meh' to me. It makes sense for the story and helped her find stable housing, but I didn't feel much toward them as a couple or Ruben as a person. Him owning an old Nazi coat was slightly uncomfortable. It didn't have the symbols on it, but Teresa was able to tell what it was. I don't know, that part was just yucky.

If English is your only language, I suggest reading a digital copy or having Google Translate nearby. There are quite a few panels not in English (it's a mix of German and Spanish)

Hypericon by Manuele Fior is a thought-provoking and haunting graphic novel that explores themes of loneliness, grief, and the human desire for connection. Set in Berlin in 2001, the story follows Teresa, a young Italian woman who is struggling with insomnia and mental fragility, as she helps organize an exhibit of Tutankhamen's treasure.

Fior's exquisite artwork captures the essence of Berlin's bleak and lonely landscape, which mirrors Teresa's state of mind. The use of muted tones and stark black and white contrasts heightens the sense of isolation that permeates the story.

At its heart, Hypericon is a character study that delves into the complex psyche of its protagonist, who finds solace in reading Howard Carter's account of his discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922. The novel seamlessly weaves together Teresa's present-day struggles with her fascination with the past, exploring how the two are intertwined.

As Teresa navigates her way through the city and the exhibit, she finds unexpected connections with Ruben, a fellow Italian expat, and other characters she encounters along the way. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that her deepest connection is with Tutankhamen himself, and the mysteries that surround his life and death.

Hypericon is a mesmerizing graphic novel that draws the reader in with its haunting atmosphere and intricate storytelling. It is a testament to the power of art to transcend time and space and to the human need for connection and meaning.

Teresa, a fearful woman, moves to Berlin to study King Tut and ends up meeting Ruben, a fearless man, who lives in Berlin. The two begin a romance and it follows their relationship throughout the story. There wasn't much of a plot or lesson learned to be honest about their particular story together, but it roped in with the story of King Tut and how we all seek comfort when fearful. The art is beautiful, but pretty sexually explicit. I wasn't expecting to see half the things I saw in here. I'm not usually too bothered about something being explicit, but it was to the point of discomfort for me. I'm glad I read it and could be something others may like to read, but it isn't something I would read again or want to read if it was part of a series. There were a few quotes I enjoyed from this that I thought described this story well and it's characters.

"A city in which Ruben always manages to find his way, in his own fashion, moving with the curiosity of a child."

"Ruben drove my fear far away. Or maybe he took it all on his shoulders, who knows? He's just made that way."

"You know what sleep is? Something we invented to keep us from noticing how long nights are."

The illustrations are nice but the sex scenes were unnecessary - don't see how they added anything to the story.

Book cover like this one will always attract me. Reading took me less than an hour, gladly, as that cover truly deserved to grace better content.

Comic takes us through two timelines, archeological discovery of a Tutankhamen’s tomb and coming out of age story in Germany eighty years after excavation. Early 2000’s Berlin is shown with knowledge and pleasant detail, but it’s hard to feel anything about little adventures of Teresa, book’s protagonist. She arrives to work on exhibit of tomb’s treasures and while excited about the professional opportunity, her days are filled with existential dread and chain smoking. Suffering from insomnia girl meets Ruben, a happy-go-lucky squatter she quickly loses her head for between punk parties and abundance of sex. Things are escalating pretty quickly, yet still feel merely a draft.

I was expecting more detailed art and storyline inside after being tempted with vivacious cover, but it was rather a letdown. I surely enjoyed the colour palette, but many parts of the comic, especially desert digging, feel almost like watercolor impressions. Teresa’s look isn’t better, at times you would think her older and younger sisters visit pages of the graphic novel, her appearance so undone. Ruben is drawn in such detail, that one may question love of the author to his female character. Excavation part is soothing and grand, I liked handwriting on the stretchy panels, but Berlin segment is a silly teenage drama. Teresa describes her good girl life going like a straightforward highway, yet makes one bad decision after another. It feels like the couple has nothing better to do than being together, until pleasantries end and they fight. There is absolutely nothing I was able to take out of their story, neither would any teenager with head on their shoulders.

Comic shines in contemplating abstract matters like passage of time or what it means to live well. Author uses St. John’s wort plant as a tie-in symbol of healing and protection between parallel worlds and it plays out well, reminding readers to live a little as in a big picture and grandiose of time we are just beautiful messy thin strains of almost nothing.

i liked the plot and the illustrations are nice but i don’t think I understood the topic of the past story, maybe I missed something. the font type of some parts were difficult to read. otherwise, the book was a good read

thanks to netgalley and Europe Comics for a copy of this book

إسلوب الرسم والألوان المستعملة جميلة.... كل شيء ثاني ؟ ما عيبني :|

translation: (the art style and the colors were really pretty….. everything else ? didn’t like any of it :| )

This was strange and weirdly sexual. The sex scenes were unnecessary, I don't see how they added anything to the story. I liked the illustration style, it was nostalgic and made sense with the story. Honestly the story was a bit boring and did not hold my attention, but others might like it.

Hypericon it a comic the mix past and present, through inserting historical and real characters, like the archaeologist and egyptologist who found Tutankhamen’s intact tomb, Howard Carter, where we can read through his discovered diary that are being read by Teresa, an Italian, suffering from insomnia who is a fragile person, that just arrived Berlin to organize an exhibit of the faraoh.

This comic showcases the doubt and lack of confidence of the characters in the past and present with delight, almost making us loose ourselves in their thoughts and ours too. This is noticeable when it’s showcased to us the relation between Teresa and Ruben, both have diferent objectives and lives, but they came from the same country and found eachother emotionally outside their homeland.

It’s important to say that this book has ligth sexual content, so it is ****not suitable for kids. At the begging of the book I also didn’t like the experience “reading” the untranslated german language, but momemts later Teresa also has the same thought, it was a good way to mess with the reader's feelings.

Thank you NetGalley and Europe Comis for this ARC and the experience of reading it!

Hypericon is a graphic novel with two narratives running parallel to each other. The first being that of British Egyptologist, Howard Carter, in 1922 on the brink of the incredible discovery of Tutankhamen's intact tomb - and a young Italian woman named Teressa in 2001, fresh off the plane to Berlin where she herself is chasing the opportunity of a lifetime - a student assistant position working on an exhibition of the contents of that very tomb.

As a child, I was obsessed with Ancient Egypt and thus by proxy, the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb. One of the highlights of my young life was getting to see an exhibition of some of the grave goods from the tomb when they came to a museum near me. I really enjoyed the depiction of Howard Carter's narrative, the illustration panels were wider and resembled postcards or snapshots of the events overlaid with text from Carter's diary/field notes. The young Ancient Egypt nerd in me was pleased to see that a number of the illustration panels for Carter's narrative mimicked actual snapshots taken during the discovery of the tomb.

I also enjoyed the parallel narrative of Teressa, a young woman teetering on the edge of both possible incredible achievement and ruin (in the same way that Carter was). Teressa suffers from insomnia, and in the hours that she can't find sleep she finds comfort in reading Carter's accounts from his 1922 excavation. I really enjoyed how Teressa would mentally draw parallels from Carter's excavation process and Tutankhamen's short reign, to her own experience.

Once in Berlin, Teressa starts to develop a sort of double life. One in which she's a hardworking and high achieving professional in her field; and another in which she's is living in a squat with a man named Ruben after meeting him on her first day in Berlin, and about whom she knows little, other than that his carefree and roaming spirit is the exact opposite of her's.

I will say, Teressa and Ruben's relationship felt like a weak point in the narrative to me. It didn't feel like Ruben's plot line or influence assisted in or bolstered the previously established parallel narratives that are established for Teressa. I didn't really get their dynamic, or why Teressa continued the relationship throughout the graphic novel and into the epilogue. Ruben constantly tunes out or ignored Teressa when she's talking about the things she's passionate about; Carter's discovery, ancient languages, etc. It seemed like the majority of their relationship is largely based off of sex and not much else. Personally there wasn't enough context for their relationship to make it feel fully fleshed out, or in integral part of the overall narrative. To me, it felt like a bit of a distraction and a missed opportunity.

And lastly, I'm guessing that the author intended there to be significance in Teressa finally overcoming her chronic insomnia and being able to sleep through the TV coverage of a major world event (no spoilers, but I'm sure that you can guess). However, it wasn't clear what that significance was, and for me it felt like the use of this major world event in the plot was rather arbitrary and a bit voyeuristic.

Overall, I would say that I liked this graphic novel but would have preferred a lesser focus on the relationship, and a greater exploration of Teressa's coming of age narrative running parallel with the historical ones.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

[this review will be updated at the end of the month to include a link to my Graphic Novel Wrap Up Video for March - in which this will be covered]