fishFishFISH (Family Comic Friday)

   Lee Nordling and Meritxell Bosch, the team behind the dynamic 2014 book BirdCatDog, explore the murky deeps of the ocean in fishFishFISH! This 2015 graphic novel once again uses the revolutionary concept of BirdCatDog in which there are 4 different ways to read this book. 

    First you can travel with the little yellow fish as he swims in the deep blue sea all by his lonesome. Second, you can trail the big, bad barracuda on the hunt to fill his belly. Or thirdly you can join the school of fish as they make friends amongst the coral. Or you can read how the stories all three subjects in this book intertwine by reading the whole page from top left all the way to the bottom right. 

   Although this book took a little while for all three stories to really gel but by the halfway point Nordling and Bosch crafted a really excellent story that was exciting and fun. (Side note: just where are all fish swimming at, Atlantis? With sunken ships, broken pottery, and damaged statues either a cargo fleet for ancient Greece's version of Pottery Barn hit a massive storm or these fish are the new residents of the fabled sunken city of yore!)

   Though there are no words in this graphic novel, this is a great graphic novel for readers of all ages, especially aspiring artists and writers. With the unique format that tells each character's story individually and as a whole, this book is a great tool for teaching children about sequential art, plotting, and intermingling of storylines. The art may be cartoony, but the lessons it teaches about story structure make this (and it's sister book BirdCatDog) required reading for kids who dream.

  Worth Consuming

  Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

BirdCatDog (Family Comic Friday)

A Graphic Novel by Lee Nordling & Meritxell Bosch

 

Now I'm not a fan of graphic novels without words. I feel like I don't get my money's worth and I also feel like I've been dumbed down. However, since I do publish family friendly reviews of comics and graphic novels, I would be remiss if I vetoed reviewing books that weren't my thing.

 

'Three Heroes, Three Stories, Zero Words." That's the concept behind this all-ages graphic novel. The story reads two ways- straight across or left to right. On top of each page you’ve got a bird who wants to be free, in the middle a cat whose is need of a little adventure, and on the bottom is a loyal guard dog. Now if you only want to read about the bird, you just read the top section straight across. However, if you want to enjoy the nuances of how these intrepid animals’ stories enter twine with each other, then you read the book as you'd normally do.

 

In essence, there are 4 ways to read this book. It's a very clever concept that I expect will win this title some awards.

 

example of the 4 ways to read this book.
straight across or l-r.

The art is adorable. The stories are clever. The use of a separate color palette helps keep the action clear and flowing, though I must admit a couple of times, I got lost in the panels as the art isn't 100% sequential. Since this tells the story of 3 characters, the panels do have to go backwards a little bit at times. For example, you might see the bird escaping from a predator hawk by using the dog as cover. By the time you get to the dog walking to the middle of his yard and then you see the two birds flying past. It might seem like they looped the canine twice but in reality to explain why the dog shows up all of a sudden in the bird's story, you have to show what happens in the dog’s story.

 

I doubt children will have a problem with this. But if for some reason it becomes a concern, now you can explain these seemingly out of place time loops.

 

Again, I expect good this from this book in the near future. I really expect it to win a variety of publishing awards for its creative format. The book is intended for all ages but it could double as infant's 'first graphic novel.' But it's not a board book so pages could be damaged. But hey, let's get them started early right?

 

In paperback form, this book sells on Amazon for $6.95 or less. That's not a bad price! I found BirdCatDog at the library in hardback form, so that could be an option as well.


Worth Consuming


Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.