Review — ‘Concrete: Stars Over Sand’ #2

The second issue of Paul Chadwick‘s long awaited Concrete: Stars Over Sand finds the title character dazed but awakening after a search party, organized by Maureen, has been sent out into the sands for him. The group fails to locate him. The first issue saw Concrete, Maureen, and Larry camping in the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. Concrete went out for a walk alone amongst the dunes and got caught in the middle of a severe thunderstorm. Struck by lightning, he collapsed, unconscious, with the first installment ending on that cliffhanger.

In this episode, he awakens, having no memory of who he is, where he is, or what he is doing there. Certain things like the moon are foreign to him. However, he is capable of thought and introspection, not understanding why he seems to be made out of stone. Concrete’s travails are interspersed with Maureen’s efforts to find him. She surmises what might have happened. She’s dealing not only with her love for him and all the worry that entails but also the worry of how she’s going to raise their child (also a little Concrete being, currently comatose) if Concrete doesn’t return.

Like in the first issue, the writing and art are excellent. Chadwick fans will not be disappointed and, once again, the amount of text, thought, and introspection brought to bear on the story feel as if they’re from another time. Moments are filled with longing, pathos, practical details, and the heartache of near misses as Maureen and the searchers nearly connect with Concrete a couple of times before missing him.

What perhaps gives the storyline even greater depth is Chadwick’s editorial at the back, in which he describes a couple of times when he underwent a loss of memory (both retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia). Though his bouts were relatively short, he stresses how important memory is to an individual’s identity. As Chadwick puts it, “what are we but our memories and our capacity to form them and act on them?” This perhaps has universal relevance in the wake of COVID and the COVID fog that people (including myself) have experienced.

The following are some of my favourite pages from this issue:

1) Concrete thinking about associative images — here, going from the sun to a mushroom cloud to the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, and then eventually the traumatic episode that placed him in a “concrete” body — without truly understanding them:

2) Maureen trying to read the stars so she can orient herself in the direction of their camp:

3) The last page of the story, a breathtaking bird’s eye view, using the visuals instead of text to convey the power and drama of what’s happening.

Concrete: Stars Over Sand #2 is available now.