Original title: Tekton

Writer: Gaston N. Flores

Illustrator: Lisandro Estherren

Original Publication: Términus Libros (2017, Argentina)

Format: 60 pages, black and white. 24 cm x 17 cm.

Rights details: Worldwide rights available (except in Argentina an Italy)

About the book:

Tekton

A graphic novel by Gastón N. Flores (script) and Lisandro Estherren (pencils and inks)

Original publication: Términus Libros (2017, Argentina)

Other editions: Green Moon Comics (2021, Italy)

Awards: Nominated and Winner of the Carlos Trillo Award for Best Cover (Crack Bang Boom 9, 2018, Rosario, Argentina) for Lisandro Estherren.

Format: 60 pages, black and white. 24 cm x 17 cm.

Rights details: Worldwide rights available (except in Argentina an Italy)

Story line: three people are trying to build their lives from scratch, but they are confronted by two mysterious secret societies that are trying to create a utopian society using them as pawns.

Synopsis

Anton returns to Circa, the city where he was born, suffering from amnesia. He only remembers blurry images of his childhood; the only person that he remembers is a woman. In order to recover the rest of his life he hires Parker, a retired cop with a dark past. Now a private investigator, he knows every corner of the city, so he rapidly gathers the necessary clues.

Parker finds out that the woman Anton remembers is Anton's mother, who recently died after spending many years living at an asylum in Circa. She and Anton where part, twenty years ago, of a big mystery. In that year many people disappeared without a trace. Anton's mother reappeared after some time, but completely insane. Anton and the children and adults where never found. That damaged the career of many politicians and policemen, Parker being one of them.

While they talk about this, they are attacked by a biker gang that tries to kidnap Anton. He escapes and is helped by Ilena, a young woman that says she has been send by Allard, Anton's father, to protect and rescue him. However, Anton, Parker and Ilena are captured by the gang and taken to one of Circa's most dangerous neighborhoods. By means Anton and Parker don't understand, the group is transported to Imperia, a completely different city, with a massive and cold architecture and a very bad economical situation. There they're confronted with Matheus, a rich and powerful man that pressures Anton to betray his father and steal the control of Arcadia to give it to him. Anton, however, doesn't remember Arcadia or his father. The three are then imprisoned in an abandoned factory to be interrogated later; Matheus has an important meeting.

He arrives just in time to a gathering of the secret council that runs Imperia. This council includes the richest and most powerful business men of the city, people that controls everything that happens on Imperia. The city is facing a severe economical crisis, so Matheus plans to turn Anton against his father and invade Arcadia, a city governed by a similar secret council, headed by Allard. This way he thinks he can improve Imperia's economic situation, unifying the two cities and creating jobs and business opportunities. On the other hand, part of the group wants to simply destroy Arcadia, so Imperia's council decides to vote.

Meanwhile, Anton, Parker and Ilena escapes from the factory. They capture a member of the biker gang and Ilena guides the group back to Circa, using the mysterious portal they used before. Parker, with the information obtained in Imperia, begins to investigate once more the whereabouts of the people that went missing twenty years ago, taking the prisoner with him.

Confused, Anton demands answers from Ilena. She tells him that Allard and Matheus were rival architects that wanted to rebuild Circa, devastated by a war, each in his unique way. A big hostility grew between them and their students. Both groups believed that a perfectly designed city should create a perfect society, with harmony and prosperity, but their visions were almost opposites. They focused so much in the plans for this new “perfect city” that their ideas started to grow in a different plane of reality, creating two parallel cities: Arcadia and Imperia. At first, they were accessible only in dreams, but then each group found portals to enter these creations of their minds, that exists only through their will.

As Circa was socially and economically broken, Allard convinced many people to move to Arcadia, his project, in order to give them a better life. Meanwhile Matheus decided to kidnap many of Circa's citizens. Ilena tells Anton that the portals that both groups use are still open, hidden in unpopulated places of Circa; that's how she and Matheus goons reached the main city.

Then Parker returns and brings more information about their prisoner, that confirms what Ilena was saying. The gangsters that kidnapped them were some of the kids that disappeared on Circa twenty years ago. They lost their memory: they think they were born in Imperia and doesn't remember anything about their past. Anton decides to believe in Ilena and follows her back to Arcadia to reunite with his father and keep gathering the pieces of his early life.

Arcadia is the exact opposite of Imperia: a vibrant city, with many examples of classical architecture (19^th and early 20^th century) where people seems to be happy. Anton begins to remember more about his past and Ilena reveals to him that his father is very sick; he can die any minute. That's why is important that Anton gets back soon: Allard wants to name him his successor at the head of the secret council that runs the city, formed by all the architects that helped imagine and create Arcadia. If that council looses even one of its members, the whole city will disappear, because is their will that keeps creating it constantly.

However, like in Imperia, the council is divided. Part of the architects supports Allard, but the other doesn't want Anton because they are tired of the way Allard runs the city. During the debate, Arcadia is suddenly attacked by Imperia's soldiers, guided by Matheus. Against his will, he has to follow the decision of Imperia's council: to kill Allard and destroy Arcadia. Meanwhile they kidnapped most of their population, to wipe their minds and use them as cheap workforce in order to reactivate Imperia's economy. Anton, Ilena and Parker try to defend the city, but are forced to return to Arcadia's council: defeat is imminent.

Anton's memory keeps coming back, and suddenly he remembers his whole life. He escaped Arcadia when he discovered that his father experimented with him and his mother, after the two were forced to leave Circa twenty years ago. When people change from one city to another, they begin to lose their memories. Allard tried to find a cure to keep his family together, but after the experiments failed, he returned his wife to Circa and abandoned her completely insane. Remembering that Allard was a violent and selfish father, Anton loses his mind and kills him, so Arcadia begins to vanish. Ilena tries to kill Anton, but Parker stops her and explains to her that she was a missing children too. Ilena's father, another of Allard's colleagues, has done to her the same thing. She also disappeared with her mother: Parker was one of the cops assigned to find her.

While the city collapses, Parker convince them to escape to Circa, arguing that there they can begin a new life. He throws Anton into a portal to Circa, but Ilena doesn't want to go. She dedicated her whole life to defend Arcadia and now everything seems meaningless to her. Parker says he understand her; Arcadia was the last chance to forget about his mistakes, because everything in Circa reminds him the death of his wife. The city disappears with them and with some of Imperia's soldiers, Matheus included.

In Circa, Anton rushes to the cementery to say goodbye to his mother, deciding to follow Parker's advice and start a new life. He takes a train to a nearby city, but the train returns to Circa and he loses his memory again. Nobody can leave Circa: it’s a city contained on itself.