By Bruno Savill De Jong — As the first pages of IDW / Top Shelf’s graphic novel A Radical Shift of Gravity remind us, perspective is a funny thing. It begins with journalist Noah Hall interviewing people, finding how “where they were when ‘it’ happened” shapes their entire worldview afterwards. ‘It’ is an inexplicable selective “Shift” in human’s gravitational pull (other objects being unaffected), reducing it to roughly the same as the Moon. Some view this seismic shift as a harmless whimsical development, an alteration that adds some levity to their ordinary routine. Others are more wary of the implications, particularly as the bonds tying people to the planet (literally and figuratively) begin to disintegrate. Likewise, unforeseen circumstances change the reading of Radical Shift. While likely intended as a parable on Global Warming, the current Coronavirus Pandemic becomes infused into this comic created far before the first COVID cases, overlooking the organizational strategies and public adaptation to a worldwide event. Yet whatever the precise metaphor of Radical Shift, it makes an affectionate examination of the various stages of this event, envisioning how humanity’s mistreatment of the planet literally results in Earth ejecting us from its surface.

Within Radical Shift, scientist Isolde Spedmore reminds Noah of Einstein’s famous theorem, how gravity distorts our perception of time. Reflecting this, Radical Shift features an intriguing narrative structure; Noah’s coverage of the Shift’s developments is interweaved and shuffled around into non-chronological segments. These include (not in order) the first appearance of the Shift, Noah’s initial collaboration with Spedmore (whose technology tries to predict and adapt towards upcoming changes), his disillusionment with her, and his integration with the ‘Grounded Community’ (a group determined to live the way things were before). All the while Noah is raising his daughter Elycia. While Noah becomes increasingly embittered by the Shift, and wishes to protect Elycia from it, for Elycia it is how the world has always worked, and she becomes eager to escape from her father’s orbit.

Although featuring plenty of detailed world-building (including “air-traffic” and changes to bone-density), Radical Shift is less ‘hard sci-fi’ and more focused upon the human reaction of those floating along its surface, observing how people react to change, planetary or domestic. It asks whether you should try and fix the world, or abandon it. Nick Tapalansky complicates any simple reaction, showing how both Spedmore and the Grounded Community could be perceived as either inventive or ignorant. Occasionally the factional debates can feel slightly stilted, just as Noah’s articles (which narrate the various segments) can become a little heavy-handed. Yet the father-daughter dynamic keeps the debates emotionally grounded, and the segments sometimes culminate into wonderful moments of synchronicity. They become greater than the sum of their parts.

Kate Glasheen’s artwork separates the different segments according to color-coordinated word-balloons, alongside neatly drawn age-differences for its central figures. However, Glasheen’s artwork does feel somewhat strained, having a loose sketchy style that sometimes makes the world unclear and disorienting. Glasheen’s art is by no means ‘bad’, but it feels murky and cluttered in ways that do not serve the story. Yet there are notable exceptions, when Radical Shift becomes less scientific and more fantastical, able to fully bask in Glasheen’s soft watercolor palette.

Although a change in gravity seems relatively minor compared to other apocalyptic scenarios, Radical Shift ambitiously shows how “big changes turn on tiny wheels”, tracking and cataloguing how seemingly benign to fundamental forces sends the Earth spinning off its axis. It’s an ambition Radical Shift mostly reaches, successfully and emphatically detailing those that try to hold the world together as it's slowly breaking apart, and those that realize they must simply let go and see where they are taken.

A Radical Shift of Gravity Review

A Radical Shift of Gravity
Writer: Nick Tapalansky
Artist/Colorist/Letterer: Kate Glasheen
Publisher: IDW Publishing / Top Shelf
Price: Print, $24.99. Digital, $19.99
The world is changing. Gravity, a force everyone takes for granted, has begun to disappear. As a young journalist, Noah spends his days documenting the wondrous and terrifying shifts in the world around him. But Noah’s life is changing, too. Falling in love and raising a rebellious daughter adds new meaning to life in this mysterious floating world. As he covers the invention of new sports, interviews experts, and even journeys into space, each experience shapes how Noah views the world and, in turn, his relationship with his family. And as his daughter grows older, Noah faces the challenge every parent dreads and dreams of: letting go. A Radical Shift of Gravity is a science-fiction fable: a graphic novel that explores the ties that bind a family together, the forces that threaten to pull them apart, and the quiet beauty of a world where everyone is floating away.
Release Date: June 2020
Buy It Digitally: A Radical Shift of Gravity

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Bruno Savill De Jong is a recent undergraduate of English and freelance writer on films and comics, living in London. His infrequent comics-blog is Panels are Windows and semi-frequent Twitter is BrunoSavillDeJo.