Exploring a serious issue with compassion and humor, this story should appeal to both animal lovers and Philly residents.
Russell’s graphic novel follows a dog’s harrowing journey after he is abandoned on the streets of Philadelphia and eventually taken to a crowded shelter.
Midnight’s idyllic life with his loving owner “Grandma” is turned upside down in an instant when the elderly owner’s grandchildren abandon the dog after the woman is hospitalized. Captured by an animal control officer, the terrified dog is brought to an overcrowded open-access shelter filled with “pigs, chickens, reptiles, wildlife, little critters, dogs, and cats. These shelters are where the tame and the wild things go.” The noisy, stinking place is a nightmarish hellscape for Midnight. He befriends another dog named Mister who enlightens him about the shelter’s dark realities, which include neutering and possible euthanasia if an animal isn’t adopted. The two dogs are “Phillybred” and, in addition to being hardcore Eagles fans, communicate in the city’s distinctive vernacular (“you’re gonna eat whatever jawn they hands ya”). With the goal of finding a forever family, the two dogs maneuver their way through an inefficient system marked by prejudgment and indifference. The hundreds of illustrations (which all began as etched ceramic tiles) give the work a unique, decidedly organic feel—Koszalka does an impressive job of conveying a wide scope of emotions (fear, anger, despair, joy) through her art. But the real power here is the narrative, which pulls no punches and is based on a true story. Midnight and Mister’s plights are deeply disturbing, but thanks to kind-hearted volunteers, advocates, and animal owners, their stories are ultimately hopeful rather than sad cautionary tales. As Midnight reflects, “like Grandma used to say, ‘things happen for a reason.’ Maybe cuz when somethin’ really good happens after all the bad stuff happens, there’s gotta be a reason for that. But I dunno. I ain’t no philosophizer.”
Exploring a serious issue with compassion and humor, this story should appeal to both animal lovers and Philly residents.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Archimedes' Printing Shoppe & Sundry Goodes
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A Rand primer with pictures.
A graphic novel for devotees of Ayn Rand.
With its men who have become gods through rugged individualism, the fiction of Ayn Rand has consistently had something of a comic strip spirit to it. So the mating of Rand and graphic narrative would seem to be long overdue, with her 1938 novella better suited to a quick read than later, more popular work such as The Fountainhead (1943) and the epic Atlas Shrugged (1957). As Anthem shows, well before the Cold War (or even World War II), Rand was railing against the evils of any sort of collectivism and the stifling of individualism, warning that this represented a return to the Dark Ages. Here, her allegory hammers the point home. It takes place in the indeterminate future, a period after “the Great Rebirth” marked an end of “the Unmentionable Times.” Now people have numbers as names and speak of themselves as “we,” with no concept of “I.” The hero, drawn to stereotypical, flowing-maned effect by illustrator Staton, knows himself as Equality 7-2521 and knows that “it is evil to be superior.” A street sweeper, he stumbles upon the entrance to a tunnel, where he discovers evidence of scientific advancement, from a time when “men knew secrets that we have lost.” He inevitably finds a nubile mate. He calls her “the Golden One.” She calls him “the Unconquered.” Their love, of course, is forbidden, and not just because she is 17. After his attempt to play Prometheus, bringing light to a society that prefers the dark, the two escape to the “uncharted forest,” where they are Adam and Eve. “I have my mind. I shall live my own truth,” he proclaims, having belatedly discovered the first-person singular. The straightforward script penned by Santino betrays no hint of tongue-in-cheek irony.
A Rand primer with pictures.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-451-23217-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: NAL/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2010
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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