God is dead, and His daughter, Anu Veniya, is searching for her purpose in his absence. Reaching His eye, she finds beings fighting to the death, a reversal of the expected battle to survive. Here, she encounters something very surprising – but who is the winged man, and why is he so important to Anu Veniya? And why is Anu Veniya currently imprisoned?

Hasker Brouwer’s first volume of Anu Veniya felt like a much more accessible work than his prior story, Nahamaha, and this second volume, despite its abstract art style, continues in that vein.

There’s an incredible density to the artwork even when it’s actually pretty minimalist in its visual style; there’s no shortage of clever use of negative space, or clever composition; of tiny bits of detail that reveal themselves upon close inspection.

It feels like that on near enough every page of this volume too; it’s an absolutely breathtaking piece, each page being a phenomenal work of art on its own.

The story itself is fairly straightforward, but – helped along by the visuals – is dripping with subtext and metaphor, fully infused with philosophical questions, along with the pondering of bigger, more existential and metaphysical matters. Though of course it helps to have read the first volume, this story does stand on its own and there’s a helpful, story-so-far introduction that’ll bring you up to speed with the events in volume two.

It’s utterly compelling from beginning to end, finishing with what is essentially a post-credits promise that Anu Veniya will return.

That same promise also comes with a plea for patience; Brouwer admits that these dense and visually beautiful volumes take an enormous amount of time and dedication to produce, which is entirely unsurprising once you’ve seen even just a few of its 150+ pages.

It’s a towering achievement, a phenomenal work of art and definitely well worth waiting for. However long it may take, I’m definitely on board for the continuation of Anya Veniya’s journey through a post-God universe.

Anu Veniya Volume 2 is available now, and you can buy it directly from Hasker Brouwer’s website, along with his previous work.

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