Visual storytelling that enhances the inner battles of its main characters.
In this graphic novel by French animator and artist Djob Nkondo, an elderly couple faces marital strain.
In the far future, Jerry and Marlene live inside an asteroid somewhere in the depths of space. An older couple, they’ve been married for 47 years. Djob Nkondo’s artwork pans through the couple’s home, carved from the inside of the asteroid but full of the mundane, everyday items expected in a contemporary house. Rumbling and shifts in gravity wake the couple from their sleep, and Marlene immediately suspects their neighbors are to blame and insists that Jerry confront them. Marlene lets out a long stream of criticisms of Jerry, complaining about a lifetime of his bad choices and not helping around the house when she works full time, all peppered with an excessive amount of cursing verging on comical. Djob Nkondo takes his time allowing the argument to unfold, with artwork that takes up entire panels, with only a few words per page. When characters leave their homes, there are long stretches with no text at all, negative space utilized to emphasize the emptiness of outer space and the emotional distance between the main characters. Jerry’s hesitation to return home is viscerally felt in several wordless pages that slow the pacing. As soon as he re-enters, speech bubbles weigh him down and take up the entire frame, with only a few words readable, leaving the rest blurred as Marlene’s tirade continues. Specific elements of the story are never described, only shown. Through a flashback nightmare of Jerry’s, readers glimpse an enormous city of large buildings and people when suddenly a rain of missiles falls from the sky. Djob Nkondo’s visual storytelling lifts most of the weight of the narrative. Race isn’t mentioned, but characters have a variety of skin tones.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781962413770
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Magnetic Press
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
PERSPECTIVES
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life.
Wondrous visitors encounter a desperate pocket of humanity.
Lori, a white orphaned teen who’s finally been adopted after bouncing around various foster homes, awakens to discover that nearly everyone has disappeared. The rapture? Maybe. She runs into her classmate Annette, who has brown skin and curly black hair, and they partner up to scavenge for food. The pair tries to evade several threats, such as the large Wolves and a gang called The Dogs. Supernatural Giants arrive, seemingly from space, speaking an impenetrable language of “musical chiming and weird bass-rhythms.” Lori and Annette then meet Beatrice, an older white woman who shares important observations about the Giants and Wolves. The tone of the story then subtly shifts from post-apocalyptic desperation to one that’s somewhat playful. After a certain point, a visual element that appears early on takes on clear significance and meaning in the context of the story at large, offering a subversively humorous twist for readers to consider and a creative element that deviates from other alien invasion narratives. Hans’ artwork and paneling fill each scene with wonders. An interaction with a giant sees the red, violet, and pink figure standing against a bright, otherworldly white-and-blue backdrop with dark contours. Elsewhere, Lori and Annette pause at night as they behold ominous shadows, their foggy breath forming clouds, and they hear a “KRRNCH” sound. The quick-moving plot wraps everything up neatly.
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life. (character designs) (Graphic science fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781534387072
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Image Comics
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
Immensely enjoyable.
The debut graphic novel from Mohamed presents a modern Egypt full of magical realism where wishes have been industrialized and heavily regulated.
The story opens with a televised public service announcement from the General Committee of Wish Supervision and Licensing about the dangers of “third-class wishes”—wishes that come in soda cans and tend to backfire on wishers who aren’t specific enough (like a wish to lose weight resulting in limbs falling from the wisher’s body). Thus begins a brilliant play among magic, the mundane, and bureaucracy that centers around a newsstand kiosk where a devout Muslim is trying to unload the three “first-class wishes” (contained in elegant glass bottles and properly licensed by the government) that have come into his possession, since he believes his religion forbids him to use them. As he gradually unloads the first-class wishes on a poor, regretful widow (who then runs afoul of authorities determined to manipulate her out of her valuable commodity) and a university student who seeks a possibly magical solution to their mental health crisis (but struggles with whether a wish to always be happy might have unintended consequences), interstitials give infographic histories of wishes, showing how the Western wish-industrial complex has exploited the countries where wishes are mined (largely in the Middle East). The book is exceptionally imaginative while also being wonderfully grounded in touching human relationships, existential quandaries, and familiar geopolitical and socio-economic dynamics. Mohamed’s art balances perfectly between cartoon and realism, powerfully conveying emotions, and her strong, clean lines gorgeously depict everything from an anguished face to an ornate bottle. Charts and graphs nicely break up the reading experience while also concisely building this larger world of everyday wishes. Mohamed has a great sense of humor, which comes out in footnotes and casual asides throughout.
Immensely enjoyable.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-524-74841-8
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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