By: Jessica Aiken
Canto: If I Only Had a Heart is an epic fantasy born through the integration of the classic novel The Wizard of Oz, the epic poem Dante’s Inferno, and the timeless fable of the brave knight. This steampunk fantasy, written by David M. Booher, weaves together the whispered history of a Knight who battled dragons and climbed mountains to save a stolen princess, with the harrowing tale of a small, enslaved tin man named Canto who goes on a quest to save the one who named him.
Canto is one of the thousands of tiny Tin people whose hearts have been removed and replaced with clocks, presumably by the slavers— hybrid creatures resembling the Minotaur of Greek myth. Canto’s people are not allowed to have names, they are not allowed to love, and they have no freedoms in Arcana, where they mine for stones that gleam like gold in the flames of the furnace. Yet, Canto has a name, and when the slavers discover who named him, they injure her beyond repair. Determined to save his love, Canto goes on a hero’s journey to bring back her beating heart.
On his journey, Canto is accompanied by an unlikely ally, a Malorex, one of the creatures that live in the Black Forest and eats Canto’s people when they stray too far from the furnace and mines of Arcana. The trope of unlikely allies resurfaces in multiple characters who reveal harsh truths to Canto, but he never falters from his quest. Traveling a road made of yellow bricks, he ventures into unknown lands where he finds assistance from strangers who wish for freedom and fight for justice.
Canto’s story, and that of the Knight, collide in the final chapters of Canto: If I Only Had a Heart when Canto enters the Emerald Tower in the City of Dis. He nearly loses his life to a creature who has lost himself to grief. A victim of broken dreams, The Shrouded Man reveals he replaced their hearts with clocks to remove their hope. Hope to him is a curse of the heart, and freedom is a chain tied like a noose around every living soul’s neck. Failure obscured The Shrouded Man’s mind, and he became determined to drive hope out of the world forever.
What the Shrouded Man failed to grasp is a clock that holds the place of a heart can still learn to love, to hope, and each tick is a promise for tomorrow. Love is not the product of their physical heart but the soul within. Hope can still be found, even when all seems lost to the fiery depths of the furnace in Arcana.
At the very end, when Canto whispered into the dark, a metaphor for the emptiness he feels and the hope he too is struggling to hold on to, he looks to the stars and tells his love that the story of the knight has not yet been written. He arrived too late to say goodbye before her clock gave out, but he stands at the top of a mountain now and realizes he must be a leader for those who hope for a better tomorrow.
Canto’s tale is brought to life through the art of Drew Zucker who drew Canto as a tiny knight that turns out to be the true knight who will rewrite the history of his people. Zucker Captured Canto’s determination and grief at every stage, giving the metal knight life, especially in his all too human eyes. The glow of the clock in his chest is a constant reminder that time is precious.
The epic of Canto: If I Only Had a Heart is all too relatable to anyone who has ever lost a loved one or the ability to see the light at the end of the cavernous tunnel. Like Dorothy and Dante, we will find our way out and witness the stars against the blanketed canvas of the universe as we shake off the shackles that once held us back.
The final chapter in Canto II: The Hollow Man releases 02/03/21, and a new journey, Canto and the City of Giants, is in production. IDWPUBLISHING