Yellow

by Jay Martin

Set in an alternate future amid a Second Civil War, wounded infantryman Nick Carson flees the battlefield and escapes across the wasteland of war-torn America.

Branded a coward and marked for death, Nick’s only hope is to get to the other side. His route takes him through a strange, ravaged country where power plants lay destroyed and once great cities have gone dark. An America at war with itself.

YELLOW explores what happens when society falls apart, when there is no law and order. Do we fall to our basic instincts, or can we rise above? As Nick travels, he encounters both good and evil and must choose which path he will follow.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Young Adult, Comic Book, Fiction, War, Dystopia

223 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2024

About the author

Jay Martin began his career as a storyboard artist on notable movies like Constantine, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and I Am Legend.. Branching into music videos, Jay directed for top artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Shawn Mendes, Tiesto & Post Malone, and others. His work on Shawn Mendes’s' In My Blood, garnered three MTV VMA nominations in 2018, including Best Direction. By 2015, he had written and directed his debut feature film, 7 Minutes, starring Jason Ritter and Kris Kristofferson.
In 2023, Dark Horse Comics published his inaugural graphic novel, Lost Boy, written and illustrated by Jay. His upcoming graphic novel, Yellow set in a dystopian America, is slated for release in spring 2024 by Dark Horse.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite lovely art, paired with immature writing about a new US civil war. Mr Martin, the artist and author, makes a point to say the book isn't political, which seems nuts to me, especially in these times (early 2025).

The main character is 'yellow', meaning he's supposedly a coward, a soldier who runs away from the war. Get ready to read the word 'yellow' over and over and over, many more times than anyone actually would use that term. The main character isn't so much a coward, as someone who barely reacts to whatever is happening around him, his indecisiveness quickly becoming an annoyance to the reader.

I regularly found myself baffled by the actions he did or did not take - thinking, this man was trained as a soldier, why doesn't he ever seem to act on that training. He does some things that make me worried about his IQ.

Sometimes Mr Martin shows us the horrors of war, but most of the times he sort of pussyfoots around it, which makes the book feel shallow and immature.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow...

This is a timely graphic novel that explores the possibility of America tearing itself apart and plunging into a new civil war. With intense themes of survival, found family, and what it truly means to be brave, YELLOW is a memorable and thought-provoking read.

[Peter Krauss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one. It felt like the A24 Civil War movie mixed with the walking dead comics. My favorite things about it are the dystopian civil war setting and the 11/10 coloring. Some of the things I didn’t like were that the eyes on some characters were off, which I get. Eyes are super hard to draw. And the ending didn’t hit as hard as I was hoping for. But I liked it and am glad I read it :)

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was fricking depressing.

[Buddy Scalera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, emotional story about the impact of war. Gut punches everywhere.

Check out this YouTube video of the artist Jay Martin drawing a page from the comic:
https://youtube.com/live/5G7NbFtLdaI

[Nicko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lots I didn’t enjoy about this. Art isn’t my style, also didn’t think Jay was skilled enough to do the art himself. His narration would say the same that the art was doing. The section with Charlie took way too long and was unnecessary/super predictable. Nick made hilarious choices throughout the book. Plot was boring as hell — Aya’s not at home? Okay cool, we’ll do without that in one page when we spent the whole book journeying there.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This is a hard hitting dystopian graphic novel playing well and true into our current political climate. The author doesn't make any political soundbites and instead focuses on the horrors of civil war, often reimagining the deprivations from the US civil war in the 1800s. The story moves well and comes with a very expected ending.

Story: Teenager Nick lives a listless life in the South, earning some extra money at the burger joint for his single mother. There's been talk about cessation in the States for awhile now but Nick hopes saner heads will prevail. Until the day he finds himself drafted as a private in a civil war dividing the United States. Forced to fight, he knows he is yellow - a coward - and his heart isn't in it. But if he can find a way, he can head north to Indianapolis and meet up with his girlfriend. But first he has to survive....

As with many dystopian, we have a road story of survival across a devastated post apocalyptic country. People are desperate, the sociopaths survive through ruthlessness, and despite all this, Nick has to protect an injured child he came across along the way. It's a gritty tale that doesn't hold back on the horror - a tale of the evils people do to others and how they justify it. Perhaps the most scary aspect of it is that it can feel very predictive at times of a scary American future.

The artwork is clean and easy to follow. The illustration work and paneling work are excellent and it is colored through the lens of military blues, greens, browns. The horrors of war are well represented without being hokey or sensationalistic.

In all, disturbing and real, this deserves a place in all modern libraries as a reminder of exactly what is at stake when we talk about secession and revolt. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[عاشور الناجي · Rating 2 out of 5]

هؤلاء القوم مغرمون بقصص الحرب الأهلية المتوقعة عندهم ، وبقصص الوباء الذي يقتل كل السكان ويترك البقية الباقية ليخرجوا ألعن مافيهم ، المشكلة أن كل تلك التخيلات - مهما كانت جودة الحكاية وتشعبها وتأملاتها أو حتي رمزياتها - أراها رومانسية حالمة لأبعد مدي ممكن تخيله ، نحن نري كل يوم مايفعلونه بباقي شعوب الأرض - أقصد تخريب معايش الناس بالاقتصاد الربوي المسيطر علي الكوكب مستخدما عملتهم - وصرنا نقرأ كل يوم عن جرائم بشعة ارتكبوها سابقا بحق أهليهم باسم القانون والدستور والعلم والتطور وخلافه وبحق باقي سكان الكوكب بدعايا نشر الحرية وحقوق الإنسان ، فعندما تقوم تلك الحرب الأهلية المتوقعة هناك - اسأل الله أن يشف صدورنا بها قبل ان نموت - ستكون حربا لا سابق ولا مثيل لها في التاريخ لن تبق منهم أحدا حتي ليحك بشاعة ما حدث ، وستدخل فرق الانقاذ لاكتشاف الأرض التي ابتلعتهم جميعا بعد أن أفنوا بعضهم البعض وأراحت أهل الكوكب من شرورهم لتحاول استنتاج طبيعة ما حدث

الرسومات هنا كانت جيدة للغاية برأيي ، رغم أنه تعمد ألا يظهر ملامح وجه الرجل الشرير الكاملة وغطاها بظلال سوداء أغلب الوقت ، كما أن النهاية لم تكن علي قدر المتوقع ، والعنوان لم يقصد به اللون الأصفر وإنما كان يرمز للخونة الهاربين من التجنيد في صفوف القوات المتقاتلة في الحرب الأهلية التي كانت دائرة في الرواية ، وهي رغم جودة الرسم متواضعة المحتوي لم تقدم جديدا لم نقرأه من قبل في هذه النوعيات أو قل إنها حكاية متوسطة تقترب من ضعيفة.

[AllyP Reads Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphic novel about a soldier on the run during a modern US Civil War. Had potential but fell flat for me. I wasn't sure who was fighting who. What states were against what other states and why exactly? It wasn't just about the president's daughter.
I also didn't get why the MC was on the run. He was left for dead and would have been reported dead to the army. Why were they even looking for him?
But he's on the run and does very unintelligent things. Why does he just stand there while Charlie terrorizes people and then when he finally decides to act, he does so with such stupidity? Maybe being drafted in the army lead to a very short training time to get soldiers out fighting but it seems anyone with an ounce of sense would have acted better especially with any kind of military training. This MC just acts like Joe Schmo off the street who has never held a gun.
Then the whole dumb issue when they finally got to their destination? Just too silly and unbelievable.

[Rox A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illustrated novel is not really my favourite type. In Yellow I find the writing quite immature. Story has some gaps, or characters make some decisions that don't really make sense.
Pictures are very expressive, compensates a lot from the story.
A hypothetical civil war is started in the USA. The story follows Nick before the war, then enrolling the army, deserting and then leaving north trying to find a girl he knew. On the way he gets some companions, and little Bob becomes his new purpose when he finds the girl was not where he thought. The way he gets to Bob's family is quite childish and the same is the way Nick dies.

[Mee Too · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the point of this story was to say that bravery has many face's, however the face of stupidity only has one. The author went out of their way to make the main protagonist a complete idiot. There are people on the severe levels of the spectrum that have more common sense. The main character was so unlikable for me. I really wanted him to die off and have the story spin another way.

Not to mention this is like the 100th America 2nd civil war story I've read. Where do new ideas even come from?
Pretty good writing though, nice art. Medium story plot.

[Aiden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was initially confused on what year this was suppose to take place. Nick is a coward but his hopefulness and idk naive wishful thinking / yearning to go back to a life before this civil war is admirable. I still rooted for him throughout the story. Could be cool to see this get picked up by HBO or something on tv.

[Jonathan Crabb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This graphic novel's story isn't all that intriguing (dystopian future with 4 portions of the US fighting each other), but the art in the GN is really well done. The colors are bold and the willingness to make whole double page spreads just art to highlight a scene makes this book rise above a lot of the other ones I have read recently.

[Patrick Coultry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Pretty stereotypical plot line but loved the setting of the book and it had tremendous artwork. Authors note is useless and unneeded. Wanted to use this book to teach in class but will not with that.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this graphic novel should have packed a stronger political punch considering the themes and subject matter. There are some nice full-page artwork moments, but the story itself is a little flat and underdeveloped.

2.5/5

[Lew · Rating 3 out of 5]

No review but a side note. I started reading Yellow the same day that I watched the 2024 movie, Civil War. I feel the two stories were taking place in the same time frame of military strife within the US.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was moody, dark and expressive, which fit the writing.

I will add more to my review later.

[Brent Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sparse. Affecting. Violent.

Highly recommended.

[zackxdig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was intense. Some of the panels didn’t flow for me at times but I’m sure it’s just the to move the story and not worry about small details.

[Debs · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Johan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Rob Hewlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably deserves a second read but decent enough

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too graphically violent for me. Story started well-developed but ended as more of an outline.

[Scott Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 🌟
Walking Dead meets The Man in the High Castle.
The idea was cool, but they tried to do too much in too few of pages.