Iron: Or, the War After by S.M. Vidaurri
My rating: 4/5 cats
this is another somber tale told with animals. it is not whimsical and lighthearted; it is more like Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One and Each Day a Small Victory, where the animals are as far from disney as you could imagine.
this story is not as mindblowingly good as duncan, but the artwork is similar, in that is is black and white and pretty badass, and to someone who has been told they have a shitty eye for art, that is enough to meld them together in my mind. but i know a LOT about art—i can tell that duncan is more roundy almost-cartoony, and this one is more blurry-shady.
is how the Great Masters talk about art.
the plot itself is a little murky, i’m not gonna lie. there is espionage and there are rebels and seeecret stolen documents and essplosions, but i’m not really clear on what the resistance is for, or more specifically against or who is the ruling power. it is clear in the book which characters are on which side, but it might help to have a clearer idea of the big picture.
or maybe not. because enough hints are dropped that you get the general sense of the conflict, but the focus is more on the effects of conflict on individuals—the orphaned children who don’t understand what is happening (like the reader) but still want to contribute to the cause, or who don’t understand the animosity towards the children of soldiers. and the frustration of aging revolutionaries towards a futile resistance that seems to be winding down without any of its goals realized. (whatever those goals may be.)
even without fully understanding the specifics, the story is interesting and tragic enough and the artwork is lovely enough to keep me turning the pages, and i read it two times, which has got to count for something…
this seems to be the first part of a story which will hopefully continue and maybe the next part will be more rich in backstory, but even if this is the only glimpse into this world, it is sad and lovely, and i don’t need much more than that.
and also, for greg, a fox-lady!
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