This book surprised me from beginning to end and I loved it!
We start with an architect and his life, starting from when he was younger and becoming a renowned creator to the 'now' where he's creating a place to keep humans alive on the moon due to an asteroid hurtling towards Earth.
What could go wrong?
Well, when his downfall comes in the form of <spoiler> a terminal diseases </spoiler>, we see the way his life falls apart. He returns to Earth, no longer interested in his job, and trying to sort out his life.
He begins to remember a lot about his life and his choices, and the things he loves the most that he's lost. It's a great depiction of how people act when they're sure they will have no fallout, but even with death looming, the fallout is still catastrophic for him. It shows regret surpasses everything.
The ending was satisfying, and left me wondering what really happened. Was it exactly like the book, or did we have an unreliable narrator who wants someone to finally see him as the hero?

David Rubin is a master of visual story-telling.
El Fuego is a very dark story about a man who has reached his limits and who tries faces all that he has wrought.
It's also a story about the end of the world and both tales are intertwined in a genius and breathtaking way.
I loved the character design and world-building, it was both colorful and ugly in the best of ways.
The end of the story does feel like Alexander Yorba thinks he redeems himself.
I'm not sure I like the idea that he did not have to face all of his mistaks and all of those that lhe let down... maybe he was incapable of such a realisation.

Summary:

Alexander Yorba is an architect, making him the rockstar of his time. Why? There’s a deadly asteroid heading towards Earth, and the design of the moon base is now critical. Granted, this moon base will only accept the wealthiest people on Earth.

As one of the designers, Yorba can guarantee his family will make it into this base. If he can maintain his focus…The latest news regarding his health ruins all that focus, tearing apart his family and putting the fate of everything he loves in danger.

Review:

Oh boy. El Fuego was intense. I have many feelings about them, and I’m unsure how to describe them! So I guess that’s something - if you’re looking for a graphic novel that will make you feel, this one is worth checking out.

The story starts with the world on the bridge of destruction. So yeah, heavy intro. We then get to learn about the main character, Alexander. You’re not supposed to like Alexander, and David Rubin did an excellent job of ensuring that.

The story that unfolds from here is…a lot. It’s introspective, dark, punishing at times, and sometimes poignant. I’m unsure how to feel about the ending, and I almost wonder if that’s the point.

The artwork is raw and gritty. In other words, it’s freaking perfect for this raw and gritty story. It is vibrant yet very dark, capturing the character’s downfall and the reality of the world around him. I can’t praise the art enough.

Highlights:
Dystopian Tale
Race to Save the World
Transformations

Trigger Warnings:
Cancer
Infidelity

Thanks to Oni Press and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The world is ending. The self-centered, selfish "savior" gets a cancer diagnosis and reflects on his choices. He is in too deep. The world is literally depending on him. Big Brother doesn't care about him, only what he can offer. The character development is impressive. I loved the look at human nature and the impacts of our choices.
The on page sex prevents this as a purchase for teen spaces. Must addition for adult graphic novel collections.

Sometimes grotesque, almost always beautiful. El Fuego covers a possible apocalypse in the future, centered on a man whose failings condemned his family to not escape this horrible fate. Rubin's art is phenomenal and the environments and atmospherics are at times lush and bleak.

Terrifying and heartbreaking in equal turns. Also, some of the most beautifully colored panels I have ever seen. Who knew the apocalypse could be so wonderful to look at?

i can't imagine giving this anything but 5 stars, to be honest. reading this graphic novel felt like i was watching a captivating movie - like if you combined don't look up with mute - and i did not want to put it down. it was 3am and i just did not want to put it down.

the story itself may feel refurbished and exploited, especially in the last few years albeit for a good reason, but the way it's delivered to the reader was, i thought, exceptional. i wanted to stare at every panel for hours on end, i don't know, something about it just really clicked for me. it makes great use of dialogue, where it runs on and on sometimes only to shock the reader with stillness, with color and gradient being the dialogue instead, and it's - ugh. it just really spoke to me.

if i had to recommend an adult graphic novel to somebody, it would probably be this one.

I just couldn't get into this one. I found the pacing rushed, the characters too unlikeable and unsympathetic, and the the exposition to be wooden and uncreative. There was also a fair amount of reliance on body horror in the art that, in many places just seemed to be there to be edgy. All in all, this was not for me and I can't, in good, conscience, recommend it to anyone. There are well written apocalyptic settings that serve as commentaries on capitalism and this just isn't one of them.

The art by David Rubin in the Ether graphic novel made me desperate to read his untranslated graphic novel El fuego. Thankfully it has now been translated from Spanish and I was able to snag an early review copy through NetGalley. While I had struggles with the storytelling in this graphic novel the art once again was some of the coolest and most captivating I have ever seen. The panel work and just the hallucinogenic colour palette that David Rubin utilises is incredible. I absolutely flew through all 200+ pages and I am keen to get my hands on this one in physical.

Thank you to NetGalley and Oni Press for the arc! The synopsis sounded interesting, but ultimately this was another story about some insufferable, rich fuck who we’re expected to feel sympathy for. Here are some other thoughts I had while reading:

Someone took lots of inspiration from Blade Runner, but this story is a far cry from Blade Runner’s prowess.

As an artist, the style of portraiture here pisses me off. Space the eyes farther apart I beg. Obviously, this is a very personal complaint

Every single person in this graphic novel is insufferable; the mc especially was irritating. Yubaba or whatever the fuck is pathetic and whiny and I hated being in his smelly shoes. I’m glad they’re all gonna die.

The one saving grace was the interior design of these rich assholes’ houses. Love me some midcentury modern and space age design!

In conclusion, this largely was ass. Yet another Blade Runner wannabe fails on almost every front. How tragic. -2 stars

Set in an indeterminate future where a colossal asteroid is on its way to smash into the earth we follow the story of Alexander Yorba, a renowned architect tasked with developing and completing Plan B.

Plan B is a habitat on the moon that was meant to save humanity if the Icarus rocket fails to destroy the asteroid as planned, both of these plans have a bit more complexity to them than initially stated.

At the start of the novel Alex finds out he has terminal brain cancer and we follow the trail of self-destruction that happens in the last of his few months alive whilst watching this mirror in the deterioration of society as the asteroid gets closer in the last few months of the planet.

A searing indictment on fame and self deceiving behaviour, we watch as all the layers are stripped bare and a person gets submerged in a madness based on their own narcissism.

Richly illustrated with an almost dream-like quality alongside the burst of visceral anger as Alex and society spiral into destruction, with a lot of colour juxtaposition to reveal parallels. The depiction of a decaying and fiery world at the end is so strong, especially in its contrast to Alex’s mental state.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Alexander is a socially committed architect who, due to life’s circumstances, is led to become something he never would have dreamed of. Upon discovering that a gigantic meteorite is on a collision course with Earth, he is hired to design a lunar colony. However, these habitats are far from capable of housing the entire Earth's population, turning the project into one for the elite. When Alexander is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, he decides to abandon everything and return to Earth to spend his last moments with his wife and daughter, unaware that his actions may have doomed them.

"El fuego" is an introspective work about the human condition, following a character deeply regretful in the face of death. It is only when he confronts his own mortality that he begins to realize how selfish he has been and how his decisions have affected those who loved him, whom he, in turn, did not know how to love.

The parallel drawn between a condemned man and a humanity on the brink of extinction allows Alexander’s reflections—of being finished and rejected—to be extended to society’s situation. The protagonist is a man with delusions of grandeur and severe megalomania, forcing us to confront humanity’s own selfishness and arrogance. In this world, we have faced countless threats, and by playing God, we have managed to avoid the consequences of our actions. But there is always something, one last unavoidable thing (a brain tumor for the man; an unstoppable meteor for humanity) that will force us to face the end and evaluate the damage done.

Rubín’s artwork complements the story, portraying a tortured and decaying man who has seen better days, along with a technologically advanced Earth still clinging to its old habits. There are delightful moments where we see Alexander walking through a ravaged Madrid or a ruined Rome, empty settings that will continue to exist, reminding us that the end of humanity doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the world.

This is a deeply hard-hitting work filled with intense dialogue that doesn’t shy away from cynicism and accompanied by exceptional artwork.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
This is the second time I read El fuego by David Rubín (first one being in Spanish), and I am still amazed at the artwork. The author’s style makes it possible for a meteor to approach Earth little by little and for the reader to follow its trajectory, its trail, every bit of grain and rock.
Alexander’s journey is a terrible one: from hero to a caricature of himself to a lonely man waiting for the end of the world. Some of the other characters’ monologues may feel overwhelming, out of place in a comic book with such an art to admire, but not Alexander’s, never Alexander’s. And even if dreams become nightmares and never truth, and some of the moments may seem confusing, it is impossible to put the book down.

Alexander Yorba is the talented architect who is going to save humanity from extinction. But when his own extinction is more imminent than he had expected, he is forced to look back on the life he has lived.

This graphic novel starts with the birth of the meteor as well as Alexander. This engaging storytelling sees them both move towards the central conflict of this story. The illustrations of the meteor are just mesmerizing and one of my favourite parts of the art in general. Rubín has a visceral art style that matches the intensity and grittiness of the story.

After Alexander learns he has mere months to live we see him confront the life he has lived up to that point. He visits old friends, in a ghosts from Christmas past style, who confront him with his shortcomings.

"...and your greatest Achilles heel... ...Selfishness... You've always been obsessed with pursuing epic causes, with becoming the new Messiah come to save the world...” “...Always one step ahead, always blazing as bright as a bonfire, like a star whose incandescent glow prevents you from seeing that you are setting fire to everything around you, everything you love."

While Rubín has Alexander look back on his life, we are in a way invited to contemplate our own lives. To think about how we have lived. Have we stood by our own values? Have we been good to the people we love?

"How long ago was it that you strayed off course, Alexander?" "When you decided that turning a blind eye to your own principles was a small price to pay to ensure your name would appear in the history books of the rich and powerful?"

Rubín does not shy away from social commentary in El Fuego. Giving us a bleak version of the future that features sex robots you are invited to 'roughen up', a giant Putin Tower in the middle of New York City, and the (still existent) gap between the rich and poor. Telling us in no uncertain way that humanity has screwed up.

"We are the mote of a mote of dust with respect to the universe. We are nothing. A mutation, an error called life that will soon be corrected." "Existence is a miracle we have failed to deserve."

But despite this, there is also hope in this book. Focused on the small, the every day, the personal.
"...My dream now is for you to live, to grow up, to fall in love, to suffer. I want you to be miserable, and happy, to get your heart broken and learn to put it back together again."

The ending of El Fuego keeps us thinking. What Rubín wants to communicate, and how we interpret this. There is ambiguity in the ending that only further cements the overall message. Life is what we make of it.

This graphic novel is perfect for fans of evocative art with thought provoking storylines that will be on your mind for days after putting it down.

TW: drug use, graphic sexual content, cheating, suicidal ideation, terminal cancer diagnosis, body horror

Thank you Oni Press and David Rubín for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was a graphic novel that gripped me and I read in one sitting. A story about the world facing a potential apocalypse is right up my street. It was interesting watching this man who had been set up to be the saviour of humanity, struggle with his inner demons and gradually fall apart.
The art was stunning, particularly the more abstract panels.
However I did not feel especially engaged with the characters in here and found it hard to correlate the person we see at the beginning with certain decisions they made near the end. I also struggled at times to understand what was reality and what was not, and I wasn't sure if that was the intention.
Overall an interesting read that was certainly compelling but didn't entirely hit the spot for me.