Ikon
Ikon
centers on Aleksandr, a hard-of-hearing Afghan war veteran, who becomes entangled in art smuggling to cover his father's medical expenses amid the economic chaos of 1990s Russia. He unexpectedly discovers that his associate, Nikolai—a dishonored and undead psychopomp—is more than he appears.Nikolai is covertly attempting to penetrate the smuggling ring, which is a conduit for supernatural entities to obtain items for their arcane rituals. One such ritual threatens Aleksandr's life, intended as a sacrifice to break the dysfunctional curse tormenting the smuggling ring's leader.
Ikon contains examples of:
- Art Evolution: As a long-form comic, the painterly art style has shifted over time into a Leyendeckeresque rendering technique with bold brush strokes.
- Bilingual Bonus: Intended for American audiences, Ikon's dialog is presented in English despite being 'in Russian', but the setting is Russia, and so signage, newspapers, and so on are in Russian, including joke news articles under the assumption the reader can't understand them, and a pun on a vandalized gravestone that translates to "ALL HOPE".
- Blemished Beauty: Aleks's character design is that of a conventionally attractive man with some shrapnel and burn scars that don't actually disfigure his face.
- Career-Ending Injury: Aleksandr's dad, Abram, has gone recently blind due to a hemhorrage brought on by complications from diabetes. It has degraded his vision to the point that he can no longer work at the print shop he once owned.
- Color-Coded Eyes and Animal Eyes: Multiple characters have unique eyes:
- Nikolai is a classic case of Supernatural Gold Eyes.
- Marina sports the Black Eyes of Evil.
- Yuri's ice blue eyes are evocative of a goat or horse as a case of Hellish Pupils.
- Counterfeit Cash: Aleksandr is counterfeiting American 100 dollar bills in the 90s to keep up with economic chaos.
- Crapsack World: The characters live in mid-90s Moscow, a lawless time of economic instability. Each character has their hand in some illegal venture. Even Aleks's parents seem to be unfazed by their son's involvement with organized crime.
- Distinguishing Mark: Aleks's lower lip has a contracture scar that others erroneously mistake for 'herpes'. Nikolai has lichtenberg figures across his entire face.
- Forgot the Disability: Aleks is hard of hearing. After he loses his patience and storms out of a bar in frustration, Maks tries to find him by calling his name along the street before having a personal 'oh, duh' moment.
- Invisible to Normals: Birds can talk, but their speech is unintelligible to normal humans. Small demonic creatures accompany Robert, an occult-dabbling businessman from the art smuggling ring, but Aleks can't perceive them.
- The Mafiya: Aleksandr's printing business runs under the influence of a Krysha who demands not only cash payment but for Aleks to work for their "business partners" as they dictate.
- The Masquerade: Some characters such as Nikolai, Yuri and Marina are supernatural characters who live double lives to pose as normal humans.
