THE GULL YETTIN

A supernatural creature takes interest in a young boy, and both suffer ordeals and wrestle with their worst instincts in this wordless, psychedelic graphic novel.

On a family outing in the city, a young boy tosses a button to a sea gull, attracting the attention of a lanky, long-nosed, humanoid creature who follows the boy and his family back to their home and perches in a tree outside. That night, an explosive fire orphans the boy and lands him in the hospital. After holding vigil from a nearby branch, the creature escorts the boy out the window of his hospital room, and they set off on a long canoe ride through a gaudy, abstract landscape. The creature provides what comfort it can as grief and hunger overwhelm the boy. Eventually a storm swamps their canoe, and the creature struggles to shore with the boy in its arms, where a woman—distressed by the sight—strikes the creature with a pitchfork and absconds with the boy. She nurses the boy back to health and grapples with the reality of raising a young child, even as the recovered creature sets up shop in a tree outside her home. After the woman and boy become close, the creature takes its gruesome revenge, which reverses the caretaking roles of boy and woman. The boy and now-disabled woman set off on a journey that tempts the boy with a new, thrilling-but-frustrating life among his peers and presents the creature with an opportunity to atone for its brutality. Kessler’s art is a striking mix of heavy, kinetic lines; simple but expressive faces and bodies; and a riot of mostly primary colors—like the trauma drawings of a child with a keen grasp of both color theory and sequential art.

Mesmerizing.