Beautiful and horrific evidence of the depravity of war.
The war between the humans and the apes is coming to an apex when scientists make a terrible discovery.
The humans have been relegated to outposts along the coast, eking out a survival on the fringes of cities and in agricultural compounds. Two research centers have stayed open, studying the virus that gave apes their intellectual capacity, but after 10 years, they are no closer to a cure. Instead they have discovered that the virus is mutating. Humans exposed to the virus are losing their ability to reason and becoming no more aware than the apes formerly were. Brutal attacks from both sides have decimated the population. Apes and humans alike are divided on whether to continue fighting or lay down their arms in peace. While the message that violence begets violence is clear, there is little hope for redemption, as one after another, the heroes are killed. Human as well as simian diversity is plentiful, but the characters almost all share the same vision: Kill or be killed. Detailed and artfully rendered, this is the war between the species for true collectors. Gritty violence, animal experimentation, and human cruelty are pictured on nearly every page. This bound edition of four separate issues features a gallery of the various covers at the end.
Beautiful and horrific evidence of the depravity of war. (Graphic novel. 12-adult)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68415-213-1
Page Count: 112
Publisher: BOOM! Studios
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A gorgeous symphony.
Illustrator McGuire (What’s Wrong With This Book, 1997, etc.) once again frames a fixed space across the millennia.
McGuire’s original treatment of the concept—published in 1989 in Raw magazine as six packed pages—here gives way to a graphic novel’s worth of two-page spreads, and the work soars in the enlarged space. Pages unspool like a player-piano roll, each spread filled by a particular time, while inset, ever shifting panels cut windows to other eras, everything effervescing with staggered, interrelated vignettes and arresting images. Researchers looking for Native American artifacts in 1986 pay a visit to the house that sprouts up in 1907, where a 1609 Native American couple flirtatiously recalls the legend of a local insatiable monster, while across the room, an attendee of a 1975 costume party shuffles in their direction, dressed as a bear with arms outstretched. A 1996 fire hose gushes into a 1934 floral bouquet, its shape echoed by a billowing sheet on the following page, in 2015. There’s a hint of Terrence Malick’s beautiful malevolence as panels of nature—a wolf in 1430 clenching its prey’s bloody haunch; the sun-dappled shallows of 2113’s new sea—haunt scenes of domesticity. McGuire also plays with the very concept of panels: a boy flaunts a toy drum in small panels of 1959 while a woman in 1973 sets up a projection screen (a panel in its own right) that ultimately displays the same drummer boy from a new angle; in 2050, a pair of old men play with a set of holographic panels arranged not unlike the pages of the book itself and find a gateway to the past. Later spreads flash with terrible and ancient supremacy, impending cataclysm, and distant, verdant renaissance, then slow to inevitable, irresistible conclusion. The muted colors and soft pencils further blur individual moments into a rich, eons-spanning whole.
A gorgeous symphony.Pub Date: Dec. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-375-40650-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
Of late, there have been many unsuccessful attempts to adapt Shakespeare into the graphic-novel format; Hinds’s beautiful new offering now sets the standard that all others will strive to meet. Presenting readers with deftly drawn characters (based on live models) and easily read dialogue that modulates over the course of the work from adapted prose to the original Shakespeare, he re-works the classic Shakespeare play of deception, greed and revenge. Though located in a modern setting, readers will easily follow the premise and find themselves lost in the intricately lovely Venetian backdrop. While this adaptation may leave purists sniffing at the omission of entire scenes and characters, Hinds carefully explains to his readers in a note why and how he made those choices. A deceptively simple graphic novel on the surface, this volume begs for multiple readings on a closer level, at the same time acting as a wonderful introduction to the original. Easily on a par with his stellar adaptation of Beowulf (2007), it’s a captivating, smartly executed work. (Graphic novel. 12+)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3024-9
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2008
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