A Warm Reception For Glacial Period

Glacial Period by Nicolas De Crécy, was the first book in the Louvre Editions series.

A group of archaeologists in the next Ice Age, or Glacial Period, stumble upon the Louvre while searching for an ancient civilization under the barren wasteland.

At a time when all human history has been forgotten, they come to their own “scientific” conclusions about Western culture based on the images, especially the nudes, in the museum paintings, thinking they were a record of daily life and human history up to the twenty-first century.

An interesting premise for a story, but this is Nicolas De Crécy: illogical assumptions lead to absurd conclusions in this farce. It is up to the artwork to set the archaeologists straight. Oh, and the dogs can talk.

The illustrations of the artwork vary from recognizable representations to renderings in the same classic-styled sketch with watercolor shading as the narrative.

Glacial Period takes a satirical look at what our art says about us and leaves the reader wondering what conclusions we have jumped to with regards to ancient cultures.

An Amusing Ride with Salvatore: Transports of Love

Fitting in with this month’s “dog days of summer” theme, I am pleased to review a book by one of my favorite French comic book creators, Salvatore, Volume 1: Transports of Love by Nicolas De Crécy.

Salvatore is a mechanic, he is also on a mission to build a vehicle to get him from France to South America where Julia, the love of his life, is.

In classic De Crécy-esque satire, Salvatore is a dog, accompanied by his very small pet human that he refers to as “Little Thing.”

Intertwined in Salvatore’s story are that of a myopic, recently widowed sow giving birth to 13 piglets (one of which goes missing and ends up being adopted by a goth cat) and a bovine couple splitting-up, each of which has a part Salvatore needs for his “love transport.”

Although terrified by everything, especially the cow, Little Thing repeatedly comes through for Salvatore, not only helping him to procure said parts, but also to find his way.

Monsieur De Crécy knows when to throw in backstory at just the right time. His illustrations, loose-line drawings, provide the right amount of detail and absurdity to bring the tale to life.

Salvatore is a commentary on love: the good, the bad, and the loss of; and the lengths to which one man, er dog, will go to to get to his.

An Onslaught of Brilliant Satire

Our literary journey around the world continues with
Onslaught written and illustrated by New Zealander Greg Broadmore.

This compilation contains the three previous released books in the Dr. Grordort universe: Dr. Grordbort’s Contrapuntal Dingus Directory, Victory, and Triumph.

Subtitled, “Excessive Space Violence for Girls & Boys,” I was a little leery of what I would find. Turns out, it is an absolute hoot!

Lord Cockswain is a stereotypical “great white hunter” on Venus, and as much of a blunderbuss as his favorite weapon, blowing up a base of Moon Men in this hilarious satire of British imperialism and colonialization.

Presented as a spoof on early twentieth-century pulp comics, in addition to the comic adventures of Lord Cockswain, it includes catalog pages of and adverts for Dr. Grordbort’s Infallible Aether Oscillators, bestiary of Venus, genre movie posters, and more.

The extensive raygun collection that graces the pages comes from Greg Broadmore’s work as an artist and concept designer for Weta Workshop. Creating a backstory of each weapon’s origin led to the Dr. Grordbort universe.

Call it steampunk, call it retro sci-fi, Onslaught is a brilliant piece of satire, beautifully illustrated and cleverly constructed.

High Adventure with The Arctic Marauder

 

I decided to close out “Europe” month with an early work by French master, Jacques Tardi.

A satirical take on a Jules Verne-type story, it’s the sort of thing readers will either comprendre and enjoy, or they won’t and think it’s silly.

Raising Hands In Praise of “Clockwork Angels”

Rush is my all-time favorite band. When I had heard about “Neil Peart’s graphic novel,” I had to read it. While looking for it, which was slowly coming out as 6 serials, I discovered the illustrated novel.

Much to my delight, the graphic novel version, illustrated by Nick Robles, will be available on April 7th. Stay tuned for an update.

Note: I failed to mention in the review that award-winning rock album cover artist Hugh Syme created the cover art and chapter illustrations.