“I came back for my own purposes,” said the Time Traveler, looking around my booklined study. “I chose you to talk to because it was . . . convenient. And I don’t want you to do a goddamned thing. There’s nothing you can do. But relax . . . we’re not going to be talking about personal things. Such as, say, the year, day, and hour of your death. I don’t even know that sort of trivial information, although I could look it up quickly enough. You can release that white-knuckled grip you have on the edge of your desk.” I tried to relax. “What do you want to talk about?” I said. “The Century War,” said the Time Traveler. I blinked and tried to remember some history. “You mean the Hundred Year War? Fifteenth Century? Fourteenth? Sometime around there. Between . . . France and England? Henry V? Kenneth Branagh? Or was it . . .” “I mean the Century War with Islam,” interrupted the Time Traveler. “Your future. Everyone’s.” He was no longer smiling. Without asking, or offering to pour me any, he
Actually, I thought I posted about We3 ages ago... pretty sure I did, as it combines two things that make me all quavery: The Incredible Journey-style animals in trouble fiction and killbots.
ReplyDelete- Sean
Is it extra good? To what would you compare it?
ReplyDeleteI love the hell out of it. There's really nothing to which one can compare it, as it's the culmination of a lot of experimental stuff that Morrison and Quitely have done in a very conventional story: lost animals trying to go home.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the book described as "Western Manga," which really isn't fair. It's its own thing... there's so much done to create momentum through layout and design (the animals' escape is done in about twenty small boxes on one page, none of which show a full image...), the writing's so crisp (you get a feel for character despite the fact that the animals speak entirely through odd alphanumeric shorthand) and the book's so... well, beautiful, for lack of a better word.
It's also patently manipulative, which is par for the Animals in Trouble genre. You can hear the music swell at the end of the first issue when our three heroes make their way to a huge forest, you feel for them as they try to get help from people and are denied. It's absolutely, utterly manipulative... but, then, so was The Plague Dogs and The Incredible Journey, and I didn't feel that the books were any worse for that.
The only reason I wouldn't give it to a kid is because it's violent and, in many places, scary. It doesn't matter if a rabbit's able to lay mines and poison gas... you get scared for it if it's in danger.
That being said, it's one of those things that goes beyond the medium by combining genre that one wouldn't think should go together (lost animal adventure and killbots) and makes it something worthy of wonder.
Oh, and that was me responding in case you didn't know.
ReplyDelete- Sean
Thanks! I think I will have to find the trade paperbacks forthwith.
ReplyDelete