Sublimely illustrated and often droll tale of quirky humans and winsome monsters.
In this offbeat graphic novel, a demon who’s lost his zeal for sowing chaos among humanity seeks inspiration on Earth.
Maggor Thoom lives in a hellish dimension rife with grotesque Lovecraft-ian monsters. His job is to drive humans into “total insanity,” which is fodder for his powerful dad, Azathoth. Though he was once the best among his peers, Maggor Thoom has grown bored with his work. This lack of enthusiasm must be an infection of some sort, and the answer to reigniting his passion for driving people mad, he feels, lies on Earth. Maggor Thoom passes through a pandimensional nexus and lands in Toronto in the United States of North America. There, he hijacks the body of disillusioned priest Father Marlowe and takes a simple step toward easing his lack of zeal—seeing a shrink. But he faces a threat from the Archon Hunters, a group aiming to protect the world from eldritches like him; the New York organization is on the lookout, knowing that potential trouble has arrived on their planet. Maggor Thoom will have to steer clear of the Hunters if he hopes to find meaning somewhere on Earth. It’s an arduous undertaking, as many humans already seem insane, from the blindly faithful Cult of Thoom to the country’s two loopy presidential candidates. This story from the author of Theo Paxstone and the Dragon of Adyron(2017) satirizes everything from U.S. politics to people’s obsession with social media. Archon Hunter Siva, for example, is determined to see footage of her demon-fighting go viral. The stark black-and-white artwork—which may remind some readers of that of the late Edward Gorey—is wonderfully stylized; characters travel in steampunk cars and dirigibles, while the book’s imagery sometimes slips into the abstract, particularly in Azathoth’s world. At the same time, the art complements the narrative’s absurdist humor, which includes distributing impossible-to-open tear-open packets as a way to foster humans’ madness. Myriad otherworldly creatures are more gleefully cartoonish than scary; an organic elevator sports surprisingly inquisitive eyes, and the rather charming nexus gatekeeper calls Maggor Thoom “Lil Buddy.”
Sublimely illustrated and often droll tale of quirky humans and winsome monsters.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-59362-303-6
Page Count: 164
Publisher: SLG Publishing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
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
Using modern language, McDonald spins the well-known tale of the two young, unrequited lovers. Set against Nagar’s at-times...
A bland, uninspired graphic adaptation of the Bard’s renowned love story.
Using modern language, McDonald spins the well-known tale of the two young, unrequited lovers. Set against Nagar’s at-times oddly psychedelic-tinged backgrounds of cool blues and purples, the mood is strange, and the overall ambiance of the story markedly absent. Appealing to what could only be a high-interest/low–reading level audience, McDonald falls short of the mark. He explains a scene in an open-air tavern with a footnote—“a place where people gather to drink”—but he declines to offer definitions for more difficult words, such as “dirges.” While the adaptation does follow the foundation of the play, the contemporary language offers nothing; cringeworthy lines include Benvolio saying to Romeo at the party where he first meets Juliet, “Let’s go. It’s best to leave now, while the party’s in full swing.” Nagar’s faces swirl between dishwater and grotesque, adding another layer of lost passion in a story that should boil with romantic intensity. Each page number is enclosed in a little red heart; while the object of this little nuance is obvious, it’s also unpleasantly saccharine. Notes after the story include such edifying tidbits about Taylor Swift and “ ‘Wow’ dialogs from the play” (which culls out the famous quotes).Pub Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN: 978-93-80028-58-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Campfire
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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