Undergrowth

by Ricky Lima, Daniele Aquilani (Illustrator), Yuliia Shevtsova (Colorist)

After Red and her friends are killed by invaders from beyond, they’re revived inside massive organic battle-mechs. Time to take their planet back! It’s a truly epic graphic novel about global crisis, mental health, and giant robots.

The world is being ravaged by four terrifying robotic monsters. One fateful night, four friends venture out to watch a meteor shower and come face-to-face with doom…only to find that their story is just beginning.

Returned to life by a mysterious natural power, these young adults are chosen to bear the only weapons that might turn the tide against the invaders: ancient, towering forest entities which they can pilot from within! They’re enormously powerful… but when you’re struggling with the trauma of your own death, is that really the best time to become a living weapon of mass destruction?

Writer Ricky Lima joins artist Daniele Aquilani for a jaw-dropping graphic novel about planetary crisis, mental health, and giant robots. Packed with captivating character designs, epic-scale battle scenes, and thorny questions, Undergrowth is a book about kids trying to do the impossible…and they just might pull it off.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Dystopia

304 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2024

Reviews

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5! This was an amazing graphic novel with a unique premise and art. The story is interesting and fittingly moody and tense in the unique dystopia Ricky Lima wrote up. I do think the ending is a bit too explosive with a bunch of action that was hard to read but it was a fitting ending.
The message itself is interesting dealing with trusted responsibility and the inevitable fight for resources to sustain life that occurs due to their limited nature as well as a bit about the lengths we'll go to preserve life and when to accept death.
Daniele Aqualani's art straddles the line and then viscerally oscillates between good, not my taste, to really off few panels. It's got heavy Genndy Tarkovsky influence (not only in art but story as well) who I feel similarly about. It's got clear merit but it might not be for me when it comes to drawing humans.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this after seeing it on the "new and recommended" shelf at Hollywood Public Library in Portland, OR. I have only this year started reading more graphic novels as an adult.

I thought this had a lot of strengths to it. The lighting is very intense with full panels bathed in yellow and orange, and sections with a sense of heaviness on the page as it gets darker and darker until the bottom of the panels is total black. The use of curved sets of lines to accentuate motion and delineate between organic and non-organic figures was lovely. The facial expressions were good at conveying stress and distress, and overall the drawing of humanoid characters found a good notch to fit in between caricature and realism that matched the subject matter. Finally, I would say the timeline hangs together well- there are many flashbacks and they are marked with very general terms, but scenes are placed well such that I wasn't ever confused in a meaningful sense by what order events are in.

SPOILERS for the plot of the book including towards the end

I did struggle a bit with the relationship between the characters and death. What exactly being dead, and being back in the 'living' world meant wasn't always super clear. I'd also say that when this afterlife side dimension pops back up at the end of the book, I couldn't tell if I'd been told things a long while ago as it is not a very frequent setting after the first couple of dozen pages. I was unsure about the character of Ash and their status was, given while there are a lot of flashbacks, whether things are visions or hallucinations did not seem super common.

I would add that the use of darkness and shadow was very effective especially in the first third of the book, but the lack of landmarks during action scenes did mean placing the combatants was pretty tricky, since it's very dark and only certain parts of the fighters are illuminated at all.



This was very distinctive and I recommend it especially as a primer for the use of color in an action format.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't care for the art, which apparently puts me in the minority. I did like the design of the plant mechs, though. The mech action is fun, but the plot felt a little rushed. That's partly because we go from near total annihilation of the human race to complete victory in a single volume, which made that complete victory feel a little too easy.

[Queensupercat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read a handful of graphic novels every year but this book locks you in with the first 8 panels. Moving without manipulating the reader, prescient, funny, and playfyl, I can't recommend this enough. Fav panel is on page 232. Colouring is incredible!!!

[Annalise Kraines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning visuals and an AMAZING concept. Like, giant Transformer-plant-robots?? Amazing. The plot moves pretty fast, and so did the characters-- I wish I had spent more time with them. I did also find some of the action sequences confusing, but this book asks interesting questions about AI, what it means to be good, and the way we treat the earth.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extra star for the beautiful art

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the artwork more than the story, words felt rushed and sometimes felt like there needed to be more to make a more cohesive story