A spellbinding, dark fantasy adventure set amid the anarchy of the Black Death.
A dishonored knight makes a deal with Death to save his plague-stricken son in Milligan’s graphic novel.
England, 1349. Sir Hugh de Grey, known as the Pale Knight, has just arrived home from his battles in France. He left behind a continent ravaged not only by war, but by plague, and he’s disheartened to find that the deadly pestilence has reached England ahead of his ship. At his estate, he finds his young son, John, dying of the disease and knows he’s being punished by God for the atrocities he has committed in France. He prays to God to spare his boy—but it’s not God that answers. Rather, Death himself appears, a shrouded skeleton with his massive scythe, to present Sir Hugh with an offer: If Hugh will enter Death’s service and kill the valiant knight Gilbert the Pure, Death will spare young John. With his acerbic squire, Crispin, Sir Hugh sets off to kill the good knight—a much better man than himself—through a landscape rapidly descending into madness. Hugh is not the only one with a moral test before him: The Jewish refugee Aaron of Albi enjoys the protection of the evil Sir Maurice Beauchamp, but only because Sir Maurice believes his Jewish magic will protect his household from the plague. Maurice’s daughter, Joan, wants Aaron to kill her father so they can run away together, but will his attempt to wield the plague for his own purposes backfire? Milligan renders 14th-century England as a disease-ravaged wasteland, brought to phantasmagoric life by the striking full-color artwork of artist Val Rodrigues. Sir Hugh and Crispin must contend with zombie-like plague victims, flagellants driven mad with zealotry, and vigilante mobs happy to burn as a witch any woman who crosses their path. Readers will find some ominous echoes of the Covid-19 pandemic, but mostly, the book serves as a wonderful piece of historical escapism, presenting the Middle Ages in all its barbarous, bubonic glory.
A spellbinding, dark fantasy adventure set amid the anarchy of the Black Death.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781545812600
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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