A wildly original and fearless tale about a young hero’s clash with a demon.
In this graphic novel debut, the disappearance of a high priestess’s son mars an alien festival.
On the planet Vareenya, the town of Shepherd is about to celebrate the opening of the winter solstice festival. Ettan, son of High Priestess Giulia, doesn’t want to go. He loathes his people’s reliance on telepathy and would rather enjoy the company of his close friends Yinyin, a being of liquid thought, and Eggbeam, an ahmenor larva. While in the ancient sequoia forest with Yinyin, Ettan becomes worried about Eggbeam’s whereabouts. He contacts Gen. Lilly, who tells the boy he’s paranoid. But Ettan trusts his gut and “cogiports” with Yinyin through space to visit his friend Alice in a lab on the rogue planet 666. Meanwhile, the war goddess, Killjoy, has grown bored with combat. After finishing a battle on the planet Herpetol, she meditates and consults the Divine Mother, who reduces the goddess to spirit form to clean her karma. Killjoy then receives the chance to do good. She arrives in the 666 lab, where she witnesses Eggbeam being tortured by a Soul-phage. The scene is orchestrated by Kazundal, Killjoy’s demonic half brother. Yet before she can intervene, Ettan and Yinyin enter the lab’s cavern entrance. They fight Kazundal’s henchman, Hornhole, and rescue Eggbeam from the Soul-phage. Then Kazundal summons more advanced Soul-phages, which strip Ettan’s essence and organs from his body. While Ettan is trapped in hell, Killjoy’s spirit merges with the remains of his body. Back on Vareenya, Giulia begins her vocal performance only to feel the shock of her son’s anguish. For this innovative series opener, Peabody teams up with illustrator Soriani (The Magical Tale of Birthday Dust, 2017, etc.) to combine spirituality, classic sci-fi concepts like telepathy, and cultural motifs—such as Giulia having two husbands. The creators maximize their use of the graphic novel format, presenting a visually dazzling story that takes numerous cues from sci-fi (such as spaceships that look like jellyfish) but doesn’t fret over whether or not a race of feline humanoids has a believable backstory. The author and illustrator run hard and fast with so many oddball ideas—including a molecular realm populated by beings called Ed and Fred—that comic-book readers used to superhero fare should be entranced (even the telepathic word balloons, indicated by a wi-fi symbol, are clever). The inventive sense of humor matches the characters themselves, as when Hornhole is pinned to the ground, through the hole in his head, with a sword. Colors by Soriani and debut artist Zibordi are eye-popping, with a mostly cool palette for the backgrounds, allowing the warmth of Ettan, Giulia, and Yinyin to stand out. Most of the characters have attractive, expressive faces, conveying a friendliness that will draw in younger fans. But the content is mature, with lots of nudity, occasional cursing, and gory fight scenes. Overall, the narrative’s crisp art and lean script make for a sinfully quick read. The closing chapter brings the relationship between Ettan and Killjoy to an intriguing resting point; the sequel should be eagerly anticipated by readers.
A wildly original and fearless tale about a young hero’s clash with a demon.Pub Date: June 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71910-599-6
Page Count: 200
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Large themes of loss, accountability, and redemption in a sometimes too neat package.
In rural Michigan, home to the family abuse and emotional distress Reardon captured so vividly in Billy Dead (1998), the specter of a dead child forces a woman to face herself and her demons.
At age ten, Mary Culpepper plotted to escape the strictures of her north Michigan hometown, where booze and adultery helped the populace make it though long nights. Instead of falling prey to those same sorrow-filled vices, she grows up to become a school-bus driver whose modus operandi is to absorb life’s shocks in stony silence. Her best friend Amy dubs her The Lone Rangerette. Physically impressive and earthy, a star at softball, Mary sleepwalks through life, remaining close to Amy even after she seduces away Mary’s husband, Carl. But then the discovery of little Jen Colby’s battered body in a closet in the house at the end of her bus route wreaks havoc with Mary’s carefully built defenses. Summoned to testify in the explosive case against the child’s mother, Mary suffers a breakdown. Her sleep is haunted by an oppressive granite figure she calls The Night Visitor, and her days are filled with fantasies of Number 34, the guy whose forearms catch her eye at the local tavern. The story starts slowly, and its many dangling references cause some early confusion; but effective conceits like that of “Loretta” as a personification of Mary’s feelings (her “heart”) who nevertheless acts independently of that sad—and mad—protagonist, add direction. While Mary struggles, Loretta, symbolic of Mary’s estrangement from herself, always knows what to do. Amid a surfeit of misery, the author shows the love and affection that can bind women together despite the jealousy and back-biting that grow in the fertile field of small-town life.
Large themes of loss, accountability, and redemption in a sometimes too neat package.Pub Date: May 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50405-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
And now for something completely different . . . from the acclaimed Greek author of the suavely Ovidian Eroticon, this 1974 novel (his first) employs the currently obscure form of the “spiritual biography” (roughly akin to the saint’s life) to relate the adventures of Theodore P., a teacher of humanities assigned to a remote Greek island. Addressing his tale to the women in his life (a former and current lover, plus his sister), Theodore tells of being swallowed and regurgitated by a whale, being thrust into reprises of famous battles and acquaintance with eminent military and political figures (not to mention modern poets George Seferis and Yannis Ritsos), and residing in a city totally submerged by a catastrophic flood (though his fellow residents seem unperturbed, and go about their business as usual). A knowledge of Greece’s modern and recent history would doubtless enrich the reader’s understanding. But the amusing mix of dream vision, condensed history, magical realism, and sociopolitical satire keeps us happily bedazzled, and eagerly reading all the same.
Pub Date: July 4, 2000
ISBN: 1-873982-44-5
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Dedalus
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2000
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