From studying under J.R.R. Tolkien in university to fighting the rise of fascism in the 20th century to serving as a powerful creative force behind the most famous works published by George Orwell—23rd Street Books dives into the life of Eileen O’Shaughnessy in Mrs. Orwell, written by journalist, author, and filmmaker Andrea Chalupa with art by Brahm Revel.
Mrs. Orwell opens with our introduction Eileen O’Shaughnessy (later Eileen Blair), studying at university under the esteemed Professor Tolkien, partying at night, and chafing against the strict social standards which hold women back in the name of propriety. At a party, she crosses paths with a writer named Eric Blair, who publishes under the name George Orwell.
With shared interests in art and politics, the two find a deeply passionate connection, somewhat to the dismay of Eileen’s brother with whom she lives. From marriage to traveling conflict zones in Europe in search of political movements and armed resistance to the rise of fascism and the brewing storm of what would become World War II, Eileen and her husband find themselves tested as they fight for both their ideals and their lives.
A talented writer on her own, Eileen throws herself fiercely behind supporting her husband’s work, serving as editor, typist, and muse for numerous of his publications, especially influencing his most famous titles, Animal Farm and 1984. With a world in violent chaos and a marriage fraught with turmoil and infidelity, this graphic novel shines a light on two incredibly influential writers—only one of whom remains widely known today.
As discussed in the note at the end of the book, Mrs. Orwell serves as a work of historical fiction that nevertheless draws heavily from recorded fact. It even includes a reading guide for anyone wanting to dive deeper into Eileen’s life. While never shying away from the complexities and failings of either Eileen or Eric, the main focus remains on recognizing and celebrating Eileen’s work and the vital role that art and resistance play in the face of violence. The characters are layered, revealing facets of themselves through engaging and entertaining dialogue, while Chalupa carries us through a great span of time including major historical events on the world stage. It’s a great deal of content to cover in a book of this sort, and if Mrs. Orwell has any flaw, it’s that there’s not quite enough time to unpack some of the history, particularly in the book’s later portion.
Nevertheless, in tackling themes of fascism, war, censorship, art, and media—there’s a wealth of material here that remains all too relevant today. But in addition to uncovering lesser known biography and vital discussions about the nature of creation and resistance, the book is also simply fun to read. Entertaining and often funny, it succeeds on a narrative level as much as a historical one. It’s a feat to balance all these elements, and Chalupa has written a striking story about two passionate, flawed, messy, creative, and highly influential people which brings them to vibrant life within these pages.
And speaking of vibrant pages, Revel’s shifting palate of art is a delight from start to finish. Colors and tones shift across the story, as do the layouts and structures of each page. With a careful eye for pacing and visual storytelling, Revel keeps the art grounded without being afraid to weave in flashes of stylization and dramatic representations of emotions alongside the more focused, powerful moments the book has to offer. Heightening both humor and heartache, Revel’s visuals are a vital aspect of the book’s appeal. The grit feels real, as does the threat of war and death. At the same time, we get soft romantic interludes, mixed realities where fiction intrudes on the present, and appropriate weight given to the heavier themes the book holds in store.
23rd Street Books lists this title for adult readers. There are smatterings of violence, sexuality, and language throughout, but the book never lingers on the more mature elements or presents them in graphic detail. At the same time, with a strong historical focus alongside a range of complex topics and themes, it’s likely the book will appeal most to older readers and those already familiar with Orwell’s work. It could also be a good companion read for older students studying Orwell’s life and writing. Overall, Mrs. Orwell is an excellent read in its own right, while also bringing to life a figure often lost in the obscurity of history. A woman who refused to accept the bounds society placed on her, a fighter who dreamed of a better world, a writer who left her mark for generations to come—more people should know the name Eileen O’Shaughnessy, and this graphic novel is an excellent step in ensuring that her life and accomplishments are not forgotten.
Mrs. Orwell By Andrea Chalupa Art by Brahm Revel 23rd Street Books, 2026 ISBN: 9781250877857
Company Age Rating: Adult
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Fans of Strange Tales may be familiar with Youtube personality MrBallen (real name John B. Allen). A former Navy SEAL, MrBallen doesn’t tell his stories of people’s actual accounts with the supernatural and fantastical on a set lit with black candles or a coffin sitting in the background. Instead, he wears a signature baseball cap and flannel shirt while sitting before a microphone. He doesn’t need Gothic ambience to pull his fans in; the stories themselves are enough. He, along with contributor Robert Venditti, seems to take that approach with his book MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark, & Mysterious: The Graphic Stories, illustrated by Andrea Mutti.
The nine stories within this book are from around the world. Many of them are typically spooky stories that one would tell around a campfire; hence, the book’s front cover has MrBallen sitting behind a campfire surrounded by skulls (the closest he comes to Gothic trappings) while he locks eyes with the reader as he prepares to tell these stories. His first story involves a stretch of Canada’s Northwest Territories that has made many people disappear over centuries, a story which sets the tone for the rest of the book, while other tales include a man who disappears in an abandoned Spanish village where a witch met her end, a woman who has a very strange and visceral dream while camping, a man encountering a persistent tiger, and an actual giant encountered in the mountains of Khanadar, Afghanistan.
The stories MrBallen and Venditti share are stories that he has researched, stories he’s heard from others (the story of the giant is one he’d heard from a fellow soldier), or ones he’s experienced himself. The stories are presented as nonfiction but MrBallen doesn’t spend time delving into the history of these encounters or trying to prove or disprove their veracity; he’s simply there to tell a story and entertain his audience. The way these stories are presented also bank on another part of MrBallen’s appeal: his approachability. His stories aren’t told with the dry delivery of a folklore scholar, but of someone sharing this story with a friend in a not-too-crowded local bar.
Mutti’s art style also shows a distinct lack of ostentatious ambiance, which benefits the book. Mutti forgoes detailed images of many of these terrors, particularly the supernatural ones, and shows just enough to let the reader’s unsettled mind fill in the blanks. For settings, he only places the bare minimum within a scene to create the proper atmosphere, whether that be fog winding through a dark forest, or the terrified eyes of the people experiencing these stories. Even Mutti’s watercolor style artwork, with pale colors and realistic detail for the non-supernatural elements, complements rather than distracts from the stories’ elements.
In the public library nonfiction shelves lurk books about real-life hauntings and stories meant to raise hackles on unsuspecting adult patrons. The patrons who enjoy those books will enjoy MrBallen’s tales; perhaps they are even fans of his Youtube show. If they are not fans, they might discover MrBallen through reading the solidly spooky tales he has collected.
MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark & Mysterious The Graphic Tales By John B. Allen Art by Andrea Mutti Ten Speed Press, 2024 ISBN: 9781984863430
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Horror is one of those genres that fits in everywhere. There’s horror westerns, horror romances, and even horror comedies, but perhaps the most serendipitous pairing occurs when horror and action get together in a genre mashup. Both genres, through different methods, are designed to get the readers’ hearts pumping and blending action sequences with terrifying images is sure to keep those heart rates up.
A recent example of action/horror comes from Mad Cave Studios, the publishers behind Edenfrost and Hound. Mad Cave’s latest The Devil That Wears My Face is described as Face/Off meets The Exorcist and the book, written by David Pepose and illustrated by Alex Cormack, blends the best of both of those movies.
The story takes place in 1740 (making this a historical/action/horror tale). Father Vieri is a priest who is currently having a crisis of faith, even though he is a kind-hearted man. That does not stop him, however, from accepting an assignment from the Church. He must travel to Spain to exorcise a demon that resides within a Spanish nobleman’s son. This demon has already killed others who have tried to remove it, but when Vieri encounters it, the demon named Legion does something worse to Fieri: he switches their bodies. While Vieri is imprisoned and tortured, with many believing he is the demon, Legion returns to the church in Fieri’s body to wreak havoc.
Pepose’s story borrows heavily from the movie Face/Off, a 1997 action film starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta. Cage’s and Travolta’s characters switch faces and in the ultimate case of mistaken identity leads to the hero not only trying to catch the villain but staying ahead of the police who think he’s the villain. It’s important to mention the plot of Face/Off because The Devil That Wears My Face basically borrows the entire plot of that movie. However, that doesn’t make this book a Face/Off reimagining with a possession added in. Pepose adds his own action elements that rival anything on screen, whether it’s riding a cart through a flaming city or Legion using his supernatural abilities to leap great heights and climb walls like Spider-Man.
Cormack’s art not only showcases the action in Pepose’s story, making the supernaturally powered Legion in Vieri’s body as dynamic as Batman, but he also adds the horror that goes beyond mentions of demons. Blood flows generously on Cormack’s pages and bodies are not only torn apart but showcased in a way that could turn a few stomachs. When the story begins to dig deep into the supernatural and show the mental battle between souls and demons in a visual way, Cormack gives these scenes featuring horrific demons their deserved epic scale.
Some genre mashups lean too heavily into one genre or another but The Devil That Wears My Face manages to straddle that razor’s edge, being both thrilling and disturbing. The book doesn’t shy away from gory scenes, but it’s mainly written for adult horror fans who don’t mind if the monsters are soaring over rooftops like a hero (or villain) straight out of Marvel or DC.
The Devil That Wears My Face By David Pepone Art by Alex Cormack Mad Cave Studios, 2024 ISBN: 9781952303838
Although it uses the term “child-free” late in the book and sparingly, Irene Olmo’s I Don’t Want to be a Mom captures the zeitgeist of the child-free movement throughout the volume. As younger generations question cultural norms and seek their own life paths, the question of whether to have kids arises for many people. Women experience tremendous pressure about motherhood with cultural conditioning that begins for them as children. Once expected without question, now having kids is viewed as a choice.
Born and raised with her sisters in Spain, Olmo remembers playing with dolls as a child, pretending to care for them as though they were her babies and mimicking pregnancy with pillows stuffed under her shirt. At that time, it was not a question of if she would one day have children, but how many she would have. In high school, a friend’s pregnancy and a class debate about abortion prompt further thought. In college, Olmo meets a pregnant student who ends up dropping out and abandoning her dream of becoming an airline pilot. After graduation and now with a boyfriend, her friends, family, and even acquaintances ask Olmo when she’ll have kids, at times harassing her about it. She reflects and ultimately decides that she does not want to be a mom. Rather than taking a judgemental or proscriptive tone, Olmo simply details her own experiences and celebrates that she can choose not to have children just as others can choose to have them.
Olmo’s art drew me in just as much as the topic of her book did. She uses a middle range of jewel tones—teal, gold, pink, red—and always portrays herself wearing red. The cartoony people are doll-like with their large, telling eyes and bulbous heads. Although the style is not realistic, Olmo depicts a variety of facial expressions that make the characters’ emotions immediately apparent. She uses visual metaphor to great effect. The best example of this is when she depicts her isolation as being a visitor to a hostile alien planet. Olmo is inside a bubble on the planet’s surface while the cavemen-like inhabitants threaten her with clubs and spears (p. 95). Her bubble floats up and away and connects with the other bubbles of like-minded women, literally expanding her world (p. 97).
This book will appeal to adult readers who enjoy graphic memoir and/or are interested in the topic of being child-free. Aspiring cartoonists will also benefit. The book does not discuss LGBTQIA+ points of view, but queer people who have felt pressure around procreation will likely still relate. For all the books about pregnancy and parenthood, I Don’t Want to be a Mom offers another perspective.
I Don’t Want to be a Mom By Irene Olmo Graphic Mundi, 2023 ISBN: 9781637790595
Publisher Age Rating: 16+ NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
Creator Representation: Spanish Character Representation: Spanish
A request that can’t be ignored. Three semi-estranged friends on a road trip after years apart. Though they don’t understand the reasons that brought them back together, all three know that this trip may be a turning point in all their lives—and that’s before things get weird.
Polly, Moho, and Piter, along with their friend Héctor, once bonded over their love of music and their dreams of where life might one day take them. Years later, those dreams have not come to pass and their time together has turned into memories tinged with bitterness—until a final request from Héctor draws them together to carry their friend’s remains to an X he marked on a map where each hopes to find some sort of resolution.
It sounds like a simple road trip, right? It should have been, but add in an ex-circus monkey and two mercenary brothers in cowboy hats, one of whom carries a banjo. The journey takes them away from an angry cowboy, through a ship graveyard, and into the sights of a stranger whose livelihood may be less than legal. At first, it seemed that the greatest struggle would be getting along with one another, but as each situation spirals more out of control, finding what lies at Héctor’s X may be the least of their difficulties.
From IDW and Top Shelf Productions, Ashes is the debut English-language graphic novel from acclaimed Spanish cartoonist Álvaro Ortiz. Blending dark comedy and drama with touches of absurdity, the book weaves the characters’ pasts and presents together with glimpses of broader history in a thoughtful whole that considers the way human stories play out across the years. Bold and unique, the result is a fun road-trip adventure with action and surprises that ultimately reveals itself to be a simple but moving examination of grief, growing up, and finding your own way in a world that doesn’t always go quite the way you want it to.
Ortiz’s illustrations are stylized and cartoonish, but with a seriousness to the characters that works well in capturing the blended tones of the writing. Though it occasionally takes a touch of effort to separate flashback from the present story, the art largely succeeds in bringing together the pieces of the story as it unfolds. Capturing subtle moments of humor as well as the grander moments of stillness, the art is distinctive, fun to look at, and connected tightly to the story Ortiz builds here.
IDW does not list a rating for this title. Throughout the story, there are instances of strong language, violence, nudity, and drug content—among other things—and though the visual style does lessen the impact of the content, it remains a title best suited for older readers. In the end, Ashes is a quirky book with some truly touching moments. Not every scene lands perfectly, and a brief appearance from a strongly queer-coded villain feels somewhat cheap, but overall it’s well worth the investment for readers looking for something a little different, comics in translation, or stories with some dramatic themes that still manage to have fun along the way. Additionally, fans of Kyle Starks work such as the Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton will likely appreciate both the artistic style and storytelling present here. It’s a bit of a chaotic graphic novel, but that’s clearly intentional, and Ortiz ultimately does bring it all back home again with touching sincerity.
Ashes is a wacky road trip with heart and it’s worth tagging along with these characters as they discover what lies at the X on the map that brought them back together.
Ashes By Álvaro Ortiz Top Shelf, 2023 ISBN: 9781603095174
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18) Creator Representation: Spanish Character Representation: Spanish
What if you were granted a second chance to correct past mistakes and set things right in your life? What if you could influence and reshape how events would have turned out had you made decisions to achieve a different outcome? Spanish writer and artist Guillem March (Batman, Catwoman, Harley Quinn) entertains these hypothetical questions and offers a metaphysical glimpse into the afterlife in Karmen, a story packed with philosophical musings, chance encounters, and intriguing plot twists wrapped in a blend of supernatural fantasy and dream-like narrative sequences.
The story begins at a juncture in an in-between realm between life and death when a disheartened college-aged student named Catalina, having reached the end of her line from a screwed up relationship, decides to end her life in the privacy of her bathroom. Instead of succumbing to the throes of death, she encounters a capricious, pink-haired woman dressed in a skeletal outfit who identifies herself simply as “Karmen.” Awakening in a nude astral form where none of the living can see her, Cata embarks on a journey to piece together the scattered pieces of her life while helping others in the process. Although she cannot directly intervene with passersbys and strangers on the streets, making physical contact with them will “pass on” their life’s story in a flash, flooding her mind with an incredible amount of information in mere seconds. In her newfound form, she sets out to uncover the people and events leading to her breakup with her boyfriend Xisco.
In the tradition of stories like Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, the movie Ghost, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novel series, Karmen presents a tale sprinkled with metaphysical quandaries that explore the choices we make and how they impact fate, potentially steering the course of destiny in the lives of those with whom we interact, day in day out. The plot unfolds in a visually stunning cinematic style, capturing the direct observations of Cata as she journeys on a surrealistic voyage in search of truth beyond the afterlife. Like a wraith, she glides through intricately arranged panels stitched together, some stretching across panoramic spreads.
A side plot centers on Karmen’s role, who is supposedly charged with guiding the recently deceased to their next destination, but chooses instead to help them find peace and reconcile with the consequences of their actions. Other psychopomps like herself frown upon her unorthodox methods, believing they must avoid interfering with human lives altogether. The back matter includes selected storyboarding panel sketches and a full cover gallery, illuminating the creative process of this beautifully illustrated story. With a healthy dose of supernatural intrigue underscored by philosophical musings on life, death, and the decisions we make, Karmen delivers a compelling story and an eclectic serving of food for thought suitable for adult graphic novel collections.
Note: There are graphic depictions of death, nudity, and suicide.
Karmen By Guillem March Image, 2022 ISBN: 9781534319882
Publisher Age Rating: 18+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Spanish, Character Representation: Spanish,
In A Chance, Spanish comics duo Cristina Durán and Miguel Giner Bou chronicle the experience of becoming parents to their daughters: Laia, who was born with cerebral palsy, and Selam, whom the couple adopted from Ethiopia. First published as separate volumes in 2009 and 2012, this engaging graphic memoir captures the day-to-day emotional and logistical complexities of Cris and Miguel’s parenting journey, one that calls upon the couple to embrace uncertainty and difference and lean into a network of professionals and loved ones to support their daughters’ complex needs. A Chance succeeds on many fronts, but its uncritical treatment of the international adoption process results in an uneven read.
Part One, “One Chance in a Thousand,” opens with the news that the couples’ newborn infant, Laia, is experiencing a brain hemorrhage. Cris and Miguel spend the next weeks in the neonatal unit, sitting with fear and uncertainty as they wait to learn more about their child’s prognosis. The medical details of Laia’s cerebral palsy are interwoven with the intimate experiences of bonding with a baby under medical care, an early infancy that’s nothing like the one they’d expected.
Once Laia is stable and at home, the family embarks on a tightly scheduled life of medical appointments and grueling physical therapy, punctuated by further health scares. Yet these tense first months and years are underpinned by Cris and Miguel’s love and gratitude for their daughter. Laia’s disability is a challenge, but it’s not a tragedy, and her happiness and quality of life are their focus. Cris and Miguel also emphasize that caring for Laia is a team effort; family members, doctors, and childcare workers step up to support the family, a vision of community care that’s radical and uplifting.
As Laia makes developmental progress and settles into a happy childhood, Cris and Miguel embark on the process of adopting a second child. Part Two, “Efrén’s Machine,” details this experience. While Laia’s complex needs were unexpected, their long-anticipated path to become parents to their second daughter is complex in entirely expected ways—a years-long process involving waitlists, screening processes, and finally, an international flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they meet three-year-old Selamawit at her group home and finalize the adoption.
Cris and Miguel document the emotional and practical demands of navigating the adoption process and bringing their daughter home. As with Laia, becoming parents to Selam requires a great deal of personal fortitude but gives them the opportunity to build relationships with a new community, one made up of fellow adoptive parents, adoption workers, and Efrén, the warmhearted driver in Addis Ababa who gives his name to this part of the book.
Three years before A Chancewas published in English, Ethiopia’s parliament banned international adoptions. Cris and Miguel nod to uncomfortable aspects of adopting a child from another country; they describe their feeling of being out-of-place as white people during their visit to Addis Ababa, highlight adoption myths held by other white prospective parents, and contrast their experience with that of Tigui, an Ethiopian-born woman returning from Europe to her home country to adopt a child.
Yet A Chance never acknowledges critiques of international adoption as a system, one that is characterized by power differentials between rich and poor countries and, in the view of the Ethiopian government and others, has the potential to cause harm to children and families. These are thorny issues, and to be clear, what’s in question here is not two parents’ individual motivations for adopting a much-loved daughter. It’s the structural pitfalls that are missing, from falsification of documents, to economic pressures resulting in families having to give up wanted children, to the impact of being removed from a culture of origin. In the first half of the book, the authors reflect on moments when systems of care fail their daughter Laia—nurses who discourage Cris from trying to breastfeed, a daycare unwilling to accommodate Laia’s disabilities—so the absence of a critical eye here felt jarring.
Durán and Giner Bou have produced an impressive parenting memoir. Readable and emotionally engaging, there’s much in this book to interest readers who’ve had similar parenting experiences, as well as those seeking to learn more about parenting disabled and adopted children. A preference for dialogue over exposition gives the story a novelistic feel, and blocky, stylized art matches the gentle optimism that defines Cris and Miguel’s parenting story. Crafting a coherent narrative with a strong emotional arc out of a chaotic time in the authors’ lives, this book will be accessible to a wide range of readers, from longtime comics fans to those new to the medium. But the memoir format, with its tight focus on the authors’ personal experiences, may be frustrating for readers seeking insight into Ethiopia’s now-banned international adoption industry.
A Chance By Cristina Duran, Miguel Giner Bou Graphic Mundi, 2021 ISBN: 9781637790038
Publisher Age Rating: 12+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Spanish Character Representation: Ethiopian, Spanish, Cerebral Palsy, Disability, Mobility Impairment
Canciones from NBM Graphic Novels brings to visual life selected poems from one of Spain’s outstanding literary figures, Federico García Lorca. Drawn from Lorca’s poetry collection of the same name, each piece is combined with fantastic and dreamlike illustrations, creating a striking blend of visual and poetic artforms.
Federico Garcia Lorca published his Canciones in 1927. The title simply translates to Songs in English. Widely influential in his time and beyond, Lorca’s poetry spends much of its time just outside of everyday reality. From a tree lamenting its own inability to grow fruit to a boy searching for his voice which is now with the king of the crickets, the dreamscapes of Lorca’s work nevertheless ring true with lines of striking observation and beauty.
“Day, it’s so hard for me / to let you go away! / You leave filled with me and you return without knowing me,” he writes in “Canción del día que se va” (Song of the Departing Day). Many of Lorca’s poems are filled with longing and regret, while others find their way to whimsy or celebrations of art and beauty. Abstract without being inscrutable, imaginative without losing their grounding in real life, each invites the reader to slow down, to linger, to wander with Lorca’s verses across landscapes real and imagined. They are powerful in their brevity and simple even as they peel back corners of experience and invite the reader to look at the world from a new angle.
This version of Canciones is more than just a collection of Locra’s work, however. Dutch artist Tobias Tak has crafted a visual journey to accompany each selected poem. Weaving both the original Spanish and the English translations into each page or panel of art, the result is a true fusion of writing and illustration. Tak’s style is highly reminiscent of older children’s book imagery, particularly fairy tales. Across these pages, people who look like trees move among anthropomorphic animals while sun and moon look down in pleasure or judgment. Elevating the fantastic dream elements of the poems even higher, Tak demonstrates a clear appreciation for the poetry while simultaneously crafting his own visual narratives to supplement Lorca’s words. Tak delivers us prologues and epilogues, taking these characters on wonderous journeys across land and sea. In his capable hands, each poem flowers into its own narrative while a broader sense of story arises from across progression of each piece, from the opening “Preludio” (Prelude) to the final “De Otro Modo” (In Another Manner). There is no true story here, but as Tak brings a version of Lorca’s vision to life, the collection reaches for a higher meaning than any one of these poems would achieve alone.
The publisher does not appear to assign an age rating to this volume, and there is certainly nothing troubling in the content of the poems or illustrations. That being said, the book will likely appeal most to an adult audience. Younger readers may be intrigued by the imagery, but the sometimes abstract nature of Lorca’s work will hold greatest value for older audiences willing to tease out the complexities of lyrical poetry.
Overall, Canciones is a worthwhile read for any lover of poetry, art, or more literary graphic novels. A relatively quick read, it nevertheless is worth spending time with to absorb the full detail of Tak’s illustrations and ponder the resonance of Lorca’s poetry. While either of these artists is worth appreciating on their own, Canciones is a wonderful blending of the two, finding tension, beauty, and meaning in the melding of two rich, artistic visions.
Canciones By Federico Garcia Lorca Art by Tobias Tak NBM ComicsLit, 2021 ISBN: 9781681122748
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+) Creator Representation: Spanish, Gay
Jack Boniface, aka Shadowman, is in the business of slaying demons. “The Deadside could ripple into our reality just about anywhere these days. When that happens… things crawl out… birthing themselves into this world. And it’s my job to shove back.” Jack is in Shadowman form for nearly all of this book, which means he swings a magic scythe, has hair of flickering shadow, uses supernatural vision, and wears a mask resembling a skull. As branding goes, this is as straightforward as Shadowman has ever been, using his shadow powers to wreak shadow justice. Jack is biracial, though this is not evident in the story beyond his dark skin.
He gets his powers from a shadow loa, an element of actual Haitian voodoo adapted for superheroics here, but this is no origin story. He starts out the story on the clock, so to speak, fighting one demon and on the trail of its matching partner. Each of this book’s four chapters features a showdown with a different demon that has infiltrated Earth by way of “thin spots” between here and the dark afterlife known as the Deadside. Bunn is good at twisting horror tropes, making a rampaging demon a tragic figure and a bloodthirsty hitchhiker the unsuspecting victim. Sometimes the horror is mysterious and subtle, other times violent and bloody. Negative emotions and experiences—violence, cruelty, hatred, sadness—embolden the Deadside to break through, as in the case of a toxic demon who lurks in a drug den. Baron Samedi, a teleporting skeleton who travels alongside Jack with taunts and advice, is normally a series villain but an effective foil here. The white dot in Samedi’s eye socket constantly teases mischief behind his guidance.
Jon Davis-Hunt’s illustrations bring to mind the word sharp. He uses the same amount of detail on faces and bloody violence as he does on backgrounds and outfits. The setting moves from New Orleans to an Arizona ghost town to Barcelona, Port-au-Prince, and London. Each location looks distinct, adding to each chapter’s distinctive feel. I want to look at everything on the page, from Baron Samedi’s flamboyant outfit to Jack’s smile right before he checks a mansion guard who lays a hand on him. Jordie Bellaire’s colors play a large role in the book’s appeal too, as the palette routinely morphs from natural and sickly colors in the normal world to heightened warm colors and glowing magical hues when the Deadside arrives. There are plenty of devils and antiheroes atoning for their sins in comics, but the art team here makes this a unique pleasure to read. Clayton Cowles’s lettering suits the mood too, with Jack’s uniform, white-on-black dialog and monologue bubbles contrasting against Samedi’s creeping, uneven bubbles.
A lot of Shadowman’s appeal is similar to that of a procedural TV show: hero shows up, turns over some clues, takes on a baddie, builds a little intrigue, and moves on to the next location. There’s no shame in that formula here, as it makes for efficient storytelling and it’s easy to imagine that Vol. 2 will have more Deadside demons, Samedi tomfoolery, growing threats from beyond, and look beautiful the whole time. There is a reference to a character from another comic Cullen Bunn wrote for Valiant, Punk Mambo, but the background knowledge isn’t necessary to understand this story. This collection represents a fresh take on the character, stemming from Valiant’s linewide 2012 reboot of their original 90s comics, but this isn’t a bad jumping-on point. Back matter includes some monster and setting commentary, as well as variant covers and a few black and white pages. Give this to fans of Hellboy, The Witcher, and Spawn.
Shadowman, Book One By Cullen Bunn Art by Jon Davis-Hunt Valiant, 2021 ISBN: 9781682153741
Publisher Age Rating: 12+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Older Teen (16-18), Teen (13-16) Character Representation: African-American,
The house has been vacant for over a year, nestled in the Spanish countryside within view of the ocean. Three adult siblings, José, Carla, and Vicente, have decided they’re going to fix up the house and sell it. The house is a family project through and through—their grandfather bought the land, but that’s all he could afford to do. Their father commissioned the outside structure of the house to be built and, since then, every weekend and vacation has been spent pouring time and love into the house. The children have been helping since they were barely old enough to help, and many of their childhood memories, for better and for worse, are deeply connected to the house. As they grew up, they visited less frequently. Now as adults, a year after their father’s death, they must reunite and step back into their father’s world and process their relationship with the house, their emotionally distant father, and each other.
The book has a color palette of earthy tones and muted shades of green, brown, peach, and turquoise that tie well into the themes of the book. The dusty shades seem to directly tie into the house as a site of abandonment and neglect. Green features fairly heavily in the book; José’s first task when he arrives is focused on trying to revitalize the garden and literally bring life back to the house.The need for healing and growth is strongly evident.
There’s no consistent visual pattern for when a shift is made from present to memory. Sometimes memories are shaded in stark contrasting colors—dusty rose, warm sand—and once bleeding into an ombre when the past and present blur together. Sometimes the color change is a subtle shift, a dull yellow growing a shade brighter and sunnier. Sometimes memories are the same color as the present, and you have to reconsider the dialogue to remember what is taking place when. Sometimes memories take place within the same panel, with the same characters from two timelines experiencing the past and present simultaneously.
Ultimately, Roca shows that memory is a complicated thing.
Distance also helps us understand things differently. As the children recount bitter anecdotes about their father to their spouses and children, their family members reinterpret the memories, unclouded by resentment. Vicente’s son offers clarity to how their father handled the death of their mother; it wasn’t that he didn’t care, it’s that he was lonely, and he handled this loneliness by working on the house rather than opening up to his children.
There’s a shift in the writing in about the last quarter of the story. The storyline of the siblings seems to be wrapping up in a fairly tidy matter, but these scenes are interspersed with the last days of their father, and we learn more about his sudden decline in health. The two storylines are paced differently, showing the children speeding up and moving on after his death, while their father slowly breaks down, his whole world coming slowly to a halt. Though the siblings seemed to have resolved their feelings of guilt and bitterness around their relationship with their father, the story ends on a heavy note, resting solemnly with the reader. Roca’s divergence into parallel storylines reminds us that there is often more to people than what appears on the surface, and how heartbreaking it is to lose that perspective without ever truly understanding it.
The House would be an excellent addition for any library looking to expand their selection of comics for adults, particularly if they are looking to expand their selection of graphic novels in translation.
The House By Paco Roca ISBN: 9781683962632 Fantagraphics, 2019 NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
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