AFTER THE FALL - graphic novel


 Maybe, if I start checking reviews on Goodreads before requesting a book, I might have saved myself a little time by NOT reading this graphic novel.

It's been over a century since the fall of civilization as we currently know it and now different gang factions inhabit the great metropolises. Giala and her tribe live in the ruins of the metropolis when they are attacked by a group of slave traders. The men in Gaia's tribe are killed, the women taken captive, and the children quickly hidden in dangerous, abandoned buildings. Giala manages to escape. While dealing with grief at the loss of friends, she also plots to help those who were taken and may still be alive.

There's a bunch of fighting.

One of the many sad aspects to this books is that there is absolutely nothing new here.  Every pastiche you've read before about a post-apocalyptic future with men turned barbarian.   It's Mad Max in Manhattan and it's a mess. While we start out with some intriguing possibilities (despite rather hackneyed characters) the story doesn't go anywhere.

The art looks like computer game animation from about five years ago.  It's slick and colorful but it's also quite stiff. There was no sense of motion or action. You can draw people jumping or punching or kicking all you want, but no one here looks like they've been captured in the middle of a jump or punch or kick.  Instead they look like they're posing for a drawing.

And of course there's the needed anatomy lesson....  Like a teen-boy fantasy, the women wear strips of clothing (sometimes) and are all Barbie doll shaped with the form-fitting strips of cloth moving as if it were nothing more than paint.  The men are all bulky with muscles.

I don't feel like the art fits the modern day graphic novel reader (unless you're a 13 year old boy) and the story barely engages the reader.

Looking for a good book? Pass on the graphic novel After the Fall.

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

1-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

After the Fall

author: Laurent Queyssi

artist: Juzhen

publisher: Magnetic Press

ISBN: 9781951719203

paperback, 96 pages

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