Ardalén #[nn]

Miguelanxo Prado's Ardalén: Vent de mémoires wraps its emotional core in one quietly stunning image: a man and a woman embracing and swaying together on what appears to be a submerged shore, surrounded by drifting tropical fish, a translucent jellyfish, a starfish, and distant palm-lined hills dissolving into hazy blue-green light. The dreamlike atmosphere — sea creatures floating through the air as naturally as memories surfacing unbidden — signals that Prado is working in that rare register where the fantastical and the deeply human feel like the same thing. Published by Casterman in 2013, this is the kind of bande dessinée that reminds you why the medium can reach places prose and film simply can't.