Graphic Novel Review: ENORMOUS

 What would happen if the world was suddenly overrun by a bunch of mutated plants and giant monsters that decimate the world’s population?  This is the basis of the graphic novel Enormous from writer/designer Tim Daniel and artist Mehdi Cheggour.  Ellen is one of a few survivors of a decimated world and her job is to search the cities for other survivors and bring them back her underground lair, where it is safe from the dangers of the world above.  Just as she is heading back home with several child survivors who have hiding out, she is over taken by James and his people, another group of survivors who have more nefarious goals.  Now she must find a way to escape her captives and protect the children while traveling through a world that sees them as nothing more than the bottom of the food chain.  

 

Cheggour’s artwork is breathtaking to behold and lush with details showcasing a world in which humans are the endangered species.  It also helps that the book itself is in a larger format than normal graphic novels so the page spreads with the actual monsters puts you right into the danger of the world itself.  Daniel’s designs for all the monsters are also very original and something to behold as they jump off the pages and look like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story.  Daniel’s story works because it never forgets that it is the human interests that drive the narrative and Ellen’s story is one worth telling.  The book could have easily been one that was simply a nice showcase for all the great monsters contained within but there are large sections of the narrative that focus on Ellen and the rest of her group trying to escape the maniacal James and his people.

Giant monsters have been a mainstay of the horror genre especially when you look at the continuing success of such icons such as Godzilla, King Kong, and Gamera but more recently monsters have made a successful comeback in such films as Monsters, Super 8, and The Host, not to mention all the giant monsters that are featured in the various Syfy Channel original films.  Daniel and Cheggour’s book is is definitely a must for fans of giant monster stories that just so also happens to be a good post-apocalyptic story as well.

Graphic Novel Review: THE WALKING DEAD: SURVIVOR’S GUIDE

The popularity of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic and television show just keeps growing and growing and it’s no surprise that at 100 issues (and still growing) the comic book series as had many characters come and go and it is with this new graphic novel The Walking Dead: Survivor’s Guide that Kirkman and company set the record straight with every character that has appeared in the ongoing series thus far.  Like most “Who’s Who” tomes there is nothing here that readers will not have seen before except the fact that these types of books are usually reserved for super-hero and major comic book publishers and not a book with normal people and zombies.

Along for the ride contributing to this book are Tim Daniel (who helped with book design and assisting Kirkman on the writing of the book), Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn (on art duties), and Sina Grace (who edits).  All these peoples’ talents are tested as you may think this type of book is easy to put together but is in fact some of the hardest to do.  Fans know these characters inside and out and fact checking every little bit of info is a must because one mistake will turn away your reader. 

A lot of the entries present each character and a brief look at their history and how they have affected or been affected by events in the story.  Kirkman is smart to list everyone’s first appearance (and final appearance) as well as how they may have died or where they are in the current storyline.  Major characters are given more pages in the book but all characters are given at least one page (and there are a lot of characters as the series have no problem killing off its cast of characters).  For me, the book reminded me of characters who have long since passed but still may have an effect on characters still alive.

If there is anything missing from the book it is a table of contents and/or an appendix that lists the characters but this is a small gripe on my part.  The only other fault is that the characters are only (for the most part) listed by the first names but then again Kirkman rarely ever reveals last names of his characters but I think that characters whose name have been revealed should also be revealed here (the only way a reader will know the character’s last name is by reading the entry for the character itself which is where Kirkman sometimes lists it).

This is a must have for the fans of the series who want to know every facet of the series.