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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth.
Superman confronts racism and learns to accept himself with the help of new friends.
In this graphic-novel adaptation of the 1940s storyline entitled “The Clan of the Fiery Cross” from The Adventures of Superman radio show, readers are reintroduced to the hero who regularly saves the day but is unsure of himself and his origins. The story also focuses on Roberta Lee, a young Chinese girl. She and her family have just moved from Chinatown to Metropolis proper, and mixed feelings abound. Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane’s colleague from the Daily Planet, takes a larger role here, befriending his new neighbors, the Lees. An altercation following racial slurs directed at Roberta’s brother after he joins the local baseball team escalates into an act of terrorism by the Klan of the Fiery Kross. What starts off as a run-of-the-mill superhero story then becomes a nuanced and personal exploration of the immigrant experience and blatant and internalized racism. Other main characters are White, but Black police inspector William Henderson fights his own battles against prejudice. Clean lines, less-saturated coloring, and character designs reminiscent of vintage comics help set the tone of this period piece while the varied panel cuts and action scenes give it a more modern sensibility. Cantonese dialogue is indicated through red speech bubbles; alien speech is in green.
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth. (author’s note, bibliography) (Graphic fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77950-421-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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