Aliens Among Us

RED SCARE, by Liam Francis Walsh

Liam Francis Walsh’s masterly graphic novel debut, “Red Scare,” takes place in the fictional town of Clinker’s Corners at the height of the Cold War, when most Americans believed communists had infiltrated their institutions and neighborhoods. Ironically, anyone with a different set of values was considered an enemy, bringing the American way of life dangerously close to the Soviet way of life. The fear of being accused of communist affiliation resulted in a conformist attitude that spread across American society. Outward “normalcy” became the only acceptable form of social behavior.

But if normalcy is the norm, how can a young girl stricken with polio and tottering on a pair of crutches ever fit in? Peggy Monroe, the heroine of “Red Scare,” is isolated. Her peers taunt her, her twin brother ignores her, her mother is depressed and her father, a veteran of the Korean War, is an amputee suffering from PTSD. If all this isn’t traumatic enough for Peggy, America is on the brink of a nuclear confrontation with Russia, U.F.O.s are roaming the skies and ruthless F.B.I. agents will stop at nothing to locate a glowing, red tubular artifact that enables its possessor to fly at incredible heights and speeds. Walsh, a New Yorker cartoonist and picture book author, conjures a universe familiar to older fans of the period’s science fiction, film noir and True Crime comics, but he does so with such vigor and excitement that younger readers will turn the pages at a speed rivaling that of the mysterious artifact.

The story — tightly wrought, intense, unpredictable — offers plenty of heart-stopping set pieces, but the real strength of the novel is Peggy’s gradual transformation from an aggrieved, explosive character into a selfless, courageous one. Her initial desire to be like everyone else is so all-consuming that she puts herself and others in danger. In these moments, her inner compass is pointing in the wrong direction, so she is taken aback when her new and only friend, Jess, accuses her of selfishness.

Peggy’s character transformation is nuanced and believable, since it unfolds within her relationships with family and friends. It is from them that Peggy eventually learns to pursue morally just solutions instead of quick, reckless ones. But this transformation comes at an immense cost: She must survive progressively terrifying encounters with a seemingly indestructible stranger, an unhinged F.B.I. agent and the neighborhood bullies.

Walsh’s breathtaking action sequences call to mind the crime comics of the great American duo Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, while his characters’ facial expressions and expressive body language will remind you of Hergé’s “The Adventures of Tintin.” The inking of the panels, with its dramatic play of light and shadows, is squarely within the tradition, but a singular creative decision sets Walsh above his influences: his use of color. Instead of adhering to naturalistic coloring, Walsh shifts his color palette within sequences according to the emotional state of his characters. The tension between realistic inking and symbolic coloring is not unlike the tension between text and subtext in well-written dialogue.

Walsh’s pacing is remarkable, too. An individual panel may contain dialogue from several characters simultaneously; a single line; or a moment of silence. Demonstrating the impressionistic volatility of a rousing yet nuanced symphony, “Red Scare” is a virtuosic performance.