Map of Days

by Robert Frank Hunter (Illustrator)

Richard can’t stop thinking about the clock. He lies in bed each night listening to its tick-tocking, to the pendulum’s heavy swing. Why does his granddad open its old doors in secret and walk into the darkness beyond? One night, too inquisitive to sleep, Richard tiptoes from his bed, opens the cherry wood doors, and steps inside . . . Robert Hunter 's first comic was The New Ghost . He has contributed editorial illustration work to The New York Times Sunday Review .

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Art, Picture Books

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Robert Frank Hunter is a London based illustrator. Working on a range of projects in both print and moving image, he is keen to keep applying his work to new disciplines. Robert currently works from Lighthouse Studios in east London and is represented by Everyone Agency and Fillin Global.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous art object; by that I mean the book itself, designed and produced by Nobrow Press, showcasing the considerable talent of Hunter. There's a boy in the story, Richard, who is obsessed with clocks, and the environment, and the art that is obsessively meticulous. At one point he enters another sort of parallel world through his grandfather's clock, where he discovers the face of the Earth and develops a relationship with it. This fantasy element is sort of magical and ethereal. It sort of reminds me of a fantasy as drawn by Chris Ware. It gets crazy, this story, which is heavily mythological, and it's not easy to get into the story, but it fits with the artwork very well, I think.

What's it about? Rethinking the nature of time and our relationship to the planet, but not in any easy sort of way. Reviewer Kim gets at the feel of it well when she calls it a "graphic novel with picture-book sensitivity," and since it features a young boy you think of The Little Prince or A Wrinkle in Time. I think it is sort of an all ages book, as those books clearly are, with large purposes and a kind of innocence and earnestness at the heart of it.

[Rosemary Standeven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange but rather lovely graphic novel, that may be a new mythological tale about the sun and moon, and how the moon ever tracks the sun in a daily cycle. Somehow it is all determined by the regular winding up and synching of grandfather clocks, by a curious young boy’s grandfather.
The boy climbs into one of the clocks, that opens up Narnia-like into a hidden world. Once inside, the boy comes close to inadvertently destroying both the interior and exterior worlds.
The art work – as mentioned by all the reviews I’ve read – is superb. But, I also liked the story. It is weird, but then myths usually are.
I bought a second-hand copy of this book, that just might have been signed by the author – certainly some ‘R Hunter’.

[Katariina Kottonen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a singularly beautiful book with a robotic voice.

The visuals are stunning in themselves, but the way they combine on a page or on a spread brings Watchmen to my mind. High praise, I know. It is especially the colour change, depending whether it is day time or night (which is also crucial for the plot), that is drawn with great care and skill.

The images being the strong part of the book, the text narrative feels much weaker. It works well enough for the prologue, where unorthodox expressions prepare you for an uncommon story. It hardly works for the central tale that is, we're led to believe, from a child's point of view. Where the illustrations are charming and exciting (that little branch stuck in the protagonist's hair, making his head into an apple with a stem; the dangerously (un)changing drawn faces of the sun on the grandfather's clock), the language is clinical to the extreme. What that accomplishes is lack of immediacy.

Ultimately though, this is a love story and, as most good love stories go, not a very happy one.

[Veena Ganesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bad story, beautifully drawn. Honestly, if you could just delete all the words and reprint, I might like that version.

[catreadsabunch · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like clocks and creation myths this book is for you. Pretty rad art.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting! If you are looking for a linear story though, this will not be the book for you. Overall, I'd call the story a myth. One of creation and the other of the tides. Meanwhile, in between, there is the story of a boy who visits his eccentric grandfather who lives with many Grandfather clocks and sneaks away inside one of them every now and then. The art is fantastic! It's full of patterns both geometric and floral and has many mandella-like designs. The colour schemes follow the suggestive moods. The book is a feast for the eyes with an intriguing plot. The frames have been used as part of the design and some often contain only narrative. There are no speech bubbles rather the story is told through small blocks of narrative. A wonderful book for those looking for an abstract story that causes one to think.

[Cintia Andrade · Rating 3 out of 5]

O livro é lindo, o Hunter faz um uso espetacular das cores. É uma história sobre a origem do mundo, mas também sobre o mundo que reside dentro de um dos relógios de corda do avô do protagonista da história. É uma fábula surrealista que poderia ser bem interessante, mas alguma coisa falta na história para que você adentre aquele universo (lindamente desenhado, por sinal). Achei particularmente curioso que a história é quase toda contada com pouquíssimo texto, com cenas gráficas bem detalhadas (do homem se vestindo para sair de casa, por exemplo) e aí, em um momento específico, temos quase uma página toda de texto, e acaba ficando bem corrido, em contraste com o estilo narrativo do início da história. Achei que pareceu que faltou verba e/ou tempo pra desenhar essa parte (ou foi uma escolha estilística que acho equivocada) e me incomodou um pouco.

[Jacob Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork - which was clearly the focus, as the story takes a backseat and is not nearly as engaging as the drawings.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art was nice, the story was just weird and meh. Always down to try and read something new and different though...

[Jurnee Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird story with very beautiful artwork

[Samara :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 Found this difficult to connect to but the artwork was gorg.

[Elliott Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very enjoyable book with a nice mythology. Certainly short, I read it in under 20 minutes and that was taking time to look at the stylised illustrations which really captures the light and movement of characters in a scene. Almost hypnotic concepts and very cinematic, could make a fantastic animated film with the same tone of The Snowman or The Boxtrolls.

Worth a read if you come across it and want a new contemporary myth told in an interesting and quick way.

[Kim]

Most graphic novels with picture-book sensitivity make a mistake to explain everything in words & to merely illustrate the words. This work does not.
The Guardian's review of the work is well written. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013...

[MissFede · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't love the story but the art is beautiful.

[M]

You’ll find superb, sprawling illustrations of a geometric, magical world in the mythical “Map of Days” by Robert Hunter. Starting from the beginning of everything, Hunter tells the story of a friendship, a betrayal, and its connection to the natural world, using a poetic rhythm to both the textual narrative and the frames. Water and time stand at the center of the story, as well as unrequited love and a child’s curiosity - all make up the ingredients to a dreamy, visual adventure with a distinct style and color palette. Some of the full-page illustrations would look wonderful as paintings or posters with their vivid depictions of the sun, the planets or imagined flowers.

[Damian Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A modern take on origin stories. In a newly formed universe nine siblings called forth from the void cocoon themselves against the chaos of a newborn creation. One sibling proves to be more curious and sets the stage for life and humanity.

The artwork is simple in the best sense of the word. It adds to the story in ways that will make it hard to treat this book as a purely verbal experience. You need to look at the images, from which much of the meaning and impact of the story emerges. As an adult I appreciated the story. As an uncle, I have added this to a dedicated shelf in my bookcase.

[Daisy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

This graphic novel as a lovely story, blending fairy tale and myth with modernistic illustrations and the tone of The Invention of Hugo Cabret meets something like Northern Lights and The Truman Show. But the writing is dense and hard to follow, you get lost in its maze as much as the characters' motivations seem to. While using the mythic style for its structure, it ends up painting one dimensional people as well, which leaves what could be a legend to fall flat into an anecdote.

[Sarahmarie Specht-Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely beautiful book. I stumbled upon it while I was browsing at Vault of Midnight, a comic book store in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I bought it because of the art and the fact that I love a good “discovery of another world” story. I found some of the writing to be a bit flat. I like the pacing until one page where there are suddenly two large paragraphs instead of the small bite-sized squares of text that characterize the rest of the book. I almost wanted it to be longer, more drawn out. Ultimately, though, this is a unique story and a lovely work of art.

[Jos M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange, surreal, obsessive graphic novel, about the love story between two created deities (I guess) in a grandfather clock and an ordinary boy who intervenes and basically turns into the cosmology of the tides. The illustrations are just beautiful, and the colouring is particularly masterful. I found the story itself a bit slight, although overall I enjoyed this reading experience.

[Helen Leigh-Phippard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a work of art and is worth having for that reason alone. It is beautiful and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at it. The story is less interesting- it’s a creation myth which has some charm but if you've read Isabella Greenberg's Encyclopaedia of Early Earth this one just doesn’t hold up when compared with that. But the artwork, and the very idea of a face in the centre of the earth, is enough to earn 4 stars from me.

[Marfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'étais partie sans convictions sur ce récit et j'ai été complètement séduite par ce conte. Le dessin sert avec douceur les étapes de l'histoire qui se découpe en cases bien découpées, au graphisme soigné et au trait appliqué. Les couleurs en aplats et le trait fin viennent narrer le nécessaire pour nous laisser seul-e avec la poésie qui s'en dégage.

On y retrouve d'ailleurs un découpage et une singularité propres aux éditions Nobrow.

[Bia Bolacha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite scrumptious visual storytelling in bite size . A sweet story told through a cornucopia of hues and shapes that made me happy. Read it on my balcony on a warm March day as the sun was going down. A reference for narrative building and for beautiful elements. Felt super inspired to draw after reading, which is always a sign of a great little graphic novel. I am yet to read a Nobrow publication that isn’t a feast for the senses.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young man visits his grandfather every Summer and one season his curiosity leads him to steal the key to his grandfather's clocks, which he synchronizes each night. The boy discovers the face of the Earth. While observing the world inside the clocks, he discovers that the Face of the Earth control the water as well as land. An I interesting journey best taken through the book's artwork.

[Grace B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely fantastical! The illustrations are so aesthetically pleasing I could look at them for hours. I'm sure I'll read the book again and again and again and reach for it when I need inspiration for drawing, compositions, and most importantly - colour combinations.
I think artists and designers will highly appreciate this graphic novel.
Reverence to the artist.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holding this book in my hands feels like something special. The art is spellbinding, masterful use of colour and some page layouts that literally made me say ‘oh wow!’ out loud. Were it not for the page of exposition, which felt like a shortcut after 50 pages of incredible building, would have been an easy 5 stars. Gorgeous.

[brightredglow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't honestly say that I understand this book. I've viewed it so many times since receiving it and it is still an enigma to me. That said, it is so beautiful to look that I can forgive its inscrutability.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel is pure magic.I loved everything about it. The story, the colors, the end! Oh the colors, such beautiful pallet. Instantly one of my favorites. i think i love everything Rob Hunter does!

[Kayla Zabcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

65%

Just treat this story as a creation myth-type story about how the Earth was created and why the ocean has waves. If you think any deeper your head will hurt - I'm not sure there was meant to be a deeper meaning to it anyways. Beautiful colours and artwork, though!

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful, lush and colorful! The story is somewhat lacking though... It starts off very intriguing, with a sort of alternate creation myth for our solar system. But when the present time narrative is introduced it loses some of its magic. Worth it for the art though

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphic novel with a strange, hard-to-follow story about a guy who's grandfather is obsessed with clocks and a mystical story about what lies inside them. Interesting drawings, but too odd for me.