Page 45 Review by Stephen
"Before me, I see all that was.
Behind me, all that will be."
- Words ascribed to Isis, on the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen
Well, that was a revelation, and it makes much more sense to me. I'll let young Teresa explain:
"Most peoples see the future as in front of them and the past as behind them... For the Egyptians, this was not the case... Since the future is unknown, it is located behind the speaker, where it cannot be seen. Conversely, the past, having been experienced, is known, and so is always visible... Their picture of the past was constantly evolving, like a giant fresco being painted in front of them."
Beautifully explained and exquisitely expressed, like everything in this album-sized hardcover where the light is a constant source of wonder and Teresa's expressions are priceless.
Newly arrived in Berlin from Italy, Teresa is the youngest person on a team organising an exhibition on the tomb of Tutankhamen and everything that was discovered within during the archaeological expedition of Howard Carter back in 1922.
Indeed, we will slipping seamlessly between the days and nights of that momentous discovery, and Berlin during the 1990s where Teresa, wandering the streets while wondering if she'll find accommodation, makes a discovery of her own: fellow Italian Ruben, a pretty, skinny, dreamy young punk living in a very fancy squat and off his Dad's allowance while keeping the old man emphatically at arm's length.
"Here's the first thing I should have learned about [Ruben]: if we had a destination we were heading for... we would never get there in a straight line."
Quite right too: the b-roads are always more beautiful, and you're far more likely to learn stuff along the way. It's a shame that any deviation or detour from Teresa's customary straight line unnerves her so. It's a shame too, that she has terrible trouble sleeping.
I don't think I will be giving anything else away, but it does all dovetail so satisfyingly, I promise you.
And there are "some sexy scenes".
Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month, March 2024.
The publisher writes:
"A sublime and romantic journey into Egyptian grandeur and a romance in the making, from the incomparable Manuele Fior (Celestia). Teresa's life has always been a comfortable straight line, with every goal set for herself achieved right on schedule. It comes as little surprise when she wins a prestigious scholarship to help mount an exhibition in Berlin celebrating the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb by Howard Carter in 1922. Ruben is a fellow young Italian who never finished his art studies and views Berlin as his personal playground.
When Teresa and Ruben meet, fate will forever change the trajectory of their existence. Hypericum follows, in parallel, Carter's landmark 1920s discovery in Egypt and Teresa and Ruben's passionate yet tormented love affair, set in 1990s Berlin. Between Egypt and Berlin, the two eras confront and intertwine in a story that has at its center the hypericum, or St. John's wort, a plant with unusual properties….
This sublimely romantic journey into Egyptian grandeur, the vibrations of youth, and the anxiety of the heart is a masterpiece of graphic fiction by one of the world's great contemporary graphic novelists, about how the strongest bonds are created by the passage of time."
