A Fantastical World - ‘The Panharmonion Chronicles’
January 24 | Written By Emma Porteous
‘The Panharmonion Chronicles’ is a trilogy of fantastical graphic novels written by Henry Chebaane and illustrated by Stephen Baskerville. Readers are introduced to this pioneering new series through its colourful 2023 debut graphic novel ‘Times of London’ which introduces female protagonist Alex and her companions in their travels through the cities of Ontario, London and Edinburgh.
Author Henry Chebaane has around 30 years of experience as a creative director and multimedia artist which is made clear in this novel especially when considering the musical productive scenes, equipment mentioned, and professional language used by the characters. Most recently Chebaane has been preoccupied with renovating a luxury boutique hotel in London, which inspired this story as he got involved in researching the history and heritage of London and Kings Cross in particular. He also owns a multimedia publishing company called Supanova which this graphic novel series is released under, and which music mentioned in the graphic novel are released under also. Also contributing to this trilogy is illustrator Stephen Baskerville - a notable artist in this field who has worked on projects such as Spiderman, Judge Dredd, Transformers and Doctor Who. His art style complements the novel well, with a rougher touch that feels less polished, much like the complex and hardy plot of this novel and its characters. His art wonderfully portrays and brings to life the world of the future and past of The United Kingdom and humanises the characters, both moral and immoral.
In this novel readers are whizzed through a wondrous plot of special abilities, alternative history and a villainous supremacist group with ethnic cleansing ideologies. Though readers may feel overwhelmed with being led through this fast-paced and action packed plot, there are reprieves through the music centred scenes with main character Alex as she produces music under her label. Interestingly, this music is available to listen to on Youtube under her alias, LX8. This music was created as the author Chebaane aspired to create a fully interactive story, complete with upcoming purchasable props, music, art and he has even centred many scenes around his own boutique hotel. In this way, readers can relive and recreate entire scenes and chapters of the novel in the real world, almost able to summon characters themselves from the pages. Chebaane also looks further into the future to expand the novels beyond ink and paper and aspires to create a global platform for readers and musicians to collaborate together within and connect with new compositions and music genres.
LX8 is the alias of the main character of ‘Times of London’ who is a musical composer releasing music which the readers can listen to in the real world. Her music is electronic, and maintains an upbeat and features alluring female melodies across her songs, with presumably Alex herself as the singer in these compositions. It is even possible to hear the sounds of her culture in her music with the song ‘Hyper Borealis’ featuring indigenous throat singing which accompanies the familiar beats and electronic instruments heard in her other compositions. The contrast between the traditional and modern is not unfamiliar to this graphic novel, as the future meets the past being a constant theme in this graphic novel. Hearing these songs in the real world knowing they are created by a fictional character is a disconcerting and odd sensation, but not unwelcome. There have been similar artists like this before portrayed as virtual or animated characters and LX8 is one of the newcomers in this advancing field. The discography is a fantastic companion when reading along and allows the reader to really get sucked into this technological and advanced world, creating an all-encompassing adventure. It almost feels cinematic with its multimedia manifestations.
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