I am always checking for new graphic novels from Iron Circus Comics, one of my favorite publishers in the game who consistently bring strange and amazing comics and more. This recent release offers an eyebrow raising yet intriguing premise: it is a graphic memoir of cult survivor Amy Rose’s childhood in the late 90’s. Occulted is the true life-tale of Amy’s childhood and the power of literary freedom that changed her life for the better.
Occulted
Ryan Estrada, Amy Rose (writers) Jeongmin Lee (artist)
Iron Circus Comics
May 2023
Occulted opens to a night star full of stars, with a single comet blazing and falling. It is 1997 and nine year-old Amy Rose is speechless. This little girl has seen something incredible that would render most people awestruck—it was a historic event, after all. Even though she’s a child, hushed into silence by the cult she has been raised in, she feels compelled to speak about the marvelous thing she’s seen: the Hale-Bopp comet. This comet is the bearer of change in her life and the coming days bring heartache, discovery, confrontation, and joy as this little girl becomes her own hero and to truly being seen for the first time in her life.
Jeongmin Lee’s artwork moves between haunting and dreamlike, chronicling the very oppressive life Rose led in the temple and the freedom she found in the outside world before she was forced back. The graphic novel is filled with black-and-white illustrations with grayscale tones that make certain pages and panels pop with additional depth. For example, the backgrounds and screentones used in panels illustrating how influential and powerful the Temple’s leader is make her stand out as imposing and revered. Jeongmin’s attention to detail makes sure that facial expressions — like the ones young Rose wears on page, ones of anguish, fear and later disgust — are clear as day to see and show a progression of Rose’s growth as she learns to stand up for herself.
Some of my favorite pages feature young Rose sneaking into the library of the cult leader and discovering the world outside the compound: the truths hidden from her. Some of the most fantastical sequences on page feature the child’s dreams with aliens, Gandhi, and even giant talking turtles all offering guidance and advice on moving forward when she feels down and needs encouragement. Rose’s awakening is frankly thrilling, and adapted to the page with aid from Ryan Estrada’s signature storytelling. (He also co-authored with his wife, Kim Hyun Sook, on Banned Book Club, which chronicled her brushes with censorship during her college days in Korea.)
After reading Occulted, I thought of how powerful literature is in the hands of children and young adults when they learn how to identify when there is a problem. In the book, this younger version of Rose slowly comes to the realization that she, her mother, and the other members of the temple are in a cult. That the Temple Leader is doing harm and being manipulative. At the temple, Rose is kept from attending school, emotional abused by way of the Leader and constantly is kept away from her ailing mother, the other parent available to her at the time. This book is a harrowing example of how younger readers can find examples of other children experiencing child abuse and neglect.
In this age of grossly inappropriate book bans across the country, Occulted best illustrates that keeping books and the stories and information with them away from children robs them of the agency they need to become the captain of their own ships. Iron Circus Comics brings a real life story to the shelves of middle grade readers that champions a little girl gaining the courage and education to save herself while also championing literary freedom and how important access to it is.
I continue to love that I can find more and more graphic novel memoirs, especially books geared towards the younger crowd. Unconventional childhoods are sometimes seen as tropey and overused in literature geared towards children. Yet this real life tale from the perspective of a child speaks volumes of what it means to not allow yourself to be hidden and become the moving force in your life that can do the previously thought impossible.
