DISASTER, INC. - graphic novel

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK



Some people prefer to take the 'off the beaten path' tours and see some unconventional sites. That's what happens here in the graphic novel Disaster, Inc., written by Joe Harris and illustrated by Sebastián Píriz.

In 2011 one of the worst earthquakes in Japan history caused three of the four nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to melt down, releasing enough radioactive material into the air and ground that the area may be a hot zone for the rest of time. So a tour to the area is not officially authorized or sanctioned, but a daring few can't resist the lure of visiting the place.

What they didn't realize until it was too late was that the Fukushima Daiichi area was once home to the samurai, who patrolled and protected the region.  The leaked radiation has awakened the long-dead samurai who are still looking to protect their territory. This doesn't bode well for those who've intruded in the area.

Ghost/zombie samurai? A radioactive hot zone? Heck yeah!  What a great place for a horror story. And the story...?  It's not very good.

Ghost/zombie samurai make a great character to build a story around, but in the 120 pages here, we don't really get a lot of story. 

There's something going on with our leading (living) character, Abby. She may be running from something, or to something. What's important, I guess, is that she's got a secret and we want to keep reading in order to find out more. And the samurai are killing people around her, now that they've been awakened.  But at the moment she appears to be a survivor. Is there a connection? Who knows? Keep reading, I guess.

I understand the nature of comic books and how a storyline is drawn out over the course of many months (or years) in the books.  But typically (I think) a graphic novel pulls together a set of comic books that provides one complete story - there may still be a larger story arc that would include more than one graphic novel. This graphic novel has no end.  The book closes just as any comic book issue might finish ... with a little bit of a cliff-hanger to get you interested in buying the next issue.

That's not likely to happen here, for me.

The art is fine.  It's nothing extraordinary and it didn't make me cringe. It served the purpose of helping to tell the story.

Looking for a good book? Disaster, Inc is a graphic novel by Joe Harris and Sebastián Píriz that is left unfinished and because of the slow pace at revealing any details about what is happening isn't something that I can recommend.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

* * * * * *

Disaster, Inc.

author: Joe Harris

artist: Sebastián Píriz

publisher: Aftershock Comics

ISBN: 1949028534

paperback, 120 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MURDLE VOLUME 1 - G. T. Karber

Image
 I enjoy puzzles of many different varieties. I had not heard of 'Murdle' before this but essentially this is a combination of the game of Clue and a Sherlock Holmes micro story. With suspects, possible murder weapons, potential locations, and/or motives plus some very brief hints, readers are meant to combine the logic of what's know with deductive reasoning to identify the killer (or killers?) in 100 different mystery word puzzles. I will admit right off the bat that I did not do all 100.  I didn't even do half of these, but I did so some random sampling through all the categories (Elementary, Occult Medium, Hard Boiled, and Impossible). I did not get any correct in the Impossible category (of course not ... they were impossible!) and only one correct in the Hard Boiled (of five). The Elementary puzzles were, as expected, pretty easy and the Hard Boiled only a little bit more difficult. Each mini mystery comes with a grid printed in the book to help the reader-detecti
Read more

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - wherein he acq
Read more