Review by C.J. Bunce

Only twins know what it’s like to exist with someone so similar.  But when asked, “What’s it like to be a twin?” how would anyone respond?  In Leah Hayes new illustrated short story Identical, she explores ideas from living as a twin, searching for identity in a future filled with new technologies.  Following a set of twins from their inception to adulthood, she puts her characters in a classic science fiction framework.  When the twins’ mother conceived them via in vitro fertilization, she wasn’t told that it was part of an experiment in artificial technology.  When her mother is the only subject who made it to term she learns the terrifying truth: one twin will be normal, the other an artificial being.

Identical is available for pre-order now here at Amazon in a hardcover volume from publisher Fantagraphics.  Take a look inside…

Drawn in blue pen on light blue pages, the mood reflects the muted tone and simple pen strokes.  The twins are a reflection of their mother, a cloud over her head as she tries to conceive.  Their mother doesn’t share the story of their birth, about the doctor who came and tried to have the pregnancy terminated when it was discovered she would have twins, about his return to destroy the artificial twin.

But which woman is the artificial being?  Were there signs along the way?  It’s said twins may include one dominant and one submissive, so does that have anything to do with which is which?

Hayes’ story is the thinnest of tales–her scratched narration is barely visible and she draws her small cast as very plain and simple.  Some panels are devoid of imagery.  You can’t help but think this story must be the seed of something much bigger.  Like Never Let Me Go, or Gattaca, or Children of Men, or Source Code.  But here all the tropes are stripped away, so all that remains is a small thread that holds this set of twins together in light of their own individuality, their own personalities, and unexpected knowledge about their very existence.  Is it about friendship?  Dominant personalities in any close duo?  A cautionary tale?  Maybe it touches on all of these.

It’s a quiet story barely sticking its toe in a science fiction motif, but one that may set you back on your heels a bit with its eerie mood.  You can pre-order Identical now here at Amazon, or add it to your comic shop pull list at Elite Comics or your local shop.  It arrives in book shops September 15, 2026.