Introduction

In issue number one, Terrance goes home to relax only to find himself suddenly in the world of Fantasma. This is a strange world seems to be inhabited by cute fairies and other intelligent creatures who seem to have become trapped here for some reason unknown to us at this point.

Our hero Terrance is a good guy despite having to live with mindless fools in every corner of his life as well as in every street. He is the kind of guy who will help other people without thinking about it. He is pretty gruff though, and swears quite a lot. The first person he encounters is called Florizel; a young fellow who has lost his eye, being a decent chap Terrance helps him get it back from one of the unusual residents of Fantasma.

Terrance did say "it's all too much effort" "I wish it would all go away".

The problem is that it's probably going to take a lot more effort to get back to reality.

Be careful what you wish for, or you may get it!

In issue two Florizel has gone back through an "exit", which by the way are unique to each person so each individual has to find their own, there is no other way to leave. Terrance however has his guitar stolen for use as a "sacred artefact". Terrance and his new friend Francis give chase, they get caught up in the mischievous machinations of the cute fairy Flourella from the first issue.

We learn that the world of Fantasma is a place where souls go to find what they are missing; it's a place where the only means of escape is to find what's missing.

Most of us probably live in our own Fantasma from time to time. Some of us probably are still trying to discover ourselves.

To me Fantasma is a rut that many including myself get stuck in whilst trying to find our way in life, although admittedly it's not quite as fantastic as this one. The element of frustration is there in the characters though as they have to procrastinate as they struggle with the tricks and diversions created by the inhabitants. Freedom from here is not made easy for them.

By issue three the two guys; Terrance and Francis make it to the abode of the creators of the Fantasma world. The boss and ruler of this place is another strange fairy called Moronica.

Flourella and Moronica, taunt the two stall, and complain about things. They seem hell bent on distracting the two from escape. Moronica opens a trap door to get rid of her unwanted guests.

The world of Fantasma is full of people; hundreds even thousands. All trapped, all still looking to find themselves. In many ways it's very true to life; trying to find yourself and get on in life is a long hard struggle, sometimes even endless.

In Moronica's pit there are hundreds of people all rooted into the ground; Bound and stuck where they are. As symbolic as it is, people are similarly bound by responsibility, bills, families, relationships, jobs and other things which might hold people back.

Art & Design

This comic like so many other of Selina's comics is simple and uncluttered, and well planned in most cases. Although I noticed that in one case the dialogue was in reverse; being on the wrong side of the frame. There is one such example on 9 where Florizel introduces himself to Terrance. Florizel should have been drawn on the opposite side for the dialogue to work, because if you follow the flow of the frames it reads answer before question.

But other than this the layout works very well. The toning is fairly simply done, and the line art is well thought about. We have nice thick frame borders, and a nice variety of lines for backgrounds and characters generally with an emphasis on the characters.

Overall this comic was an enjoyable little flight of fancy, very imaginative. But at the same time it's quite an eye opener. Life is hard, finding yourself even harder; this comic just puts all that into visual perspective.