Entropy

by Aaron Costain

Outrun giants, doppelgängers, angels and a slave-driving cat on an adventure through time to the origin of humanity in Entropy . Aaron Costain’s Entropy follows a golem with a surprisingly modern sensibility, and an even more modern sense of style, as he backtracks through millennia to understand his own creation. Entropy takes place at the intersection of the world’s cultures. Mythologies and religions cross-pollinate, bleed into one another, and form a new soul from synthesis – or they will if our epic hero can outrun man-eating giants, a vicious army of crows, and one very manipulative cat. Entropy delivers an all-time adventure.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Religion, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy, Philosophy, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

Published June 27, 2017

Reviews

[Shai · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this graphic novel a little bit odd. While reading this, I thought that this could be religious in theme because of some of the dialogues about God and His creations.


After I'm through reading this, I don't really know what the message it wants to impart. It just end abruptly and I don't know exactly what is it about or what happened in the ending signifies.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This begins and ends abruptly, without any introduction or resolution. I was lost for quite a while but then the art and strangeness began to grow on me some. It's the story of a golem wandering around the Earth after humans have been wiped out. Animals can talk now and some gods and angels have returned. Our golem just kind of meanders around and encounters random strangeness.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at random from my city’s library because the title caught my eye. I’d never heard of the book or its author before but it ended up being really beautiful, mysterious, and fascinating. I liked how it wove a bunch of different mythologies and religions together, the way all these different explanations of life and consciousness can conflict with each other while also co-existing in the world. It left a lot unanswered, but that seems fitting and right, considering the characters are trying to figure out big unknowable subjects that we’ll probably never really have the answers for.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't mind abstract storytelling if I can follow along and connect to various characters throughout, and the main character here is very relatable in my opinion. The story doesn't make a lot of sense, but then it kinda does. It's somewhat dreamlike and there's a whole lot of stuff going on that we never learn about. I dunno; I just connected to it. I was genuinely surprised that there were as many low ratings as there are. Maybe it just went over people's heads. I'm not saying *I* understood it, but some part of me did.

[Maureen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why does this exist

[Raven Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the kind of book you want to read, probably should read, but when you do you have NO idea what is going on. Yet, since you want to be "part of the cool crowd" you will say how wonderful and marvelous it is. I am not ashamed to say, "I don't get it." I understand the different creation myths, the need for man to understand "where he came from" but it all gets twisted together, mixed up and (which is probably the point in the very end) nothing is answered. The art is bland and crude. Perhaps breaking it up into smaller chapters, or naming the chapters that are there might put the point the author wants across more easily. This is the type of book the book trolls will be saying "Oh My God! How can you NOT get it? It's so simple!" Without knowing what it means either, they are just afraid of seeming "foolish" and "uneducated." Aaron Costain, please contact me so we can talk about it. Because I'm willing to try and understand, but sorry, you missed the boat for me on this one.

[Moon Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was beautifully executed, minimal, and intelligent. If you haven't read a lot of weird shit and don't know your mythos you might not fully appreciate this.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a glimmer of a really interesting story here. It gestures at big questions - the individual's quest for meaning and connection in an echoingly lonely world; what we owe our progenitors; what our progenitors owe us; a father's deep grief at a child's death; being conscripted into other people's designs; betrayal; being made wrong; being made right; being swallowed by something bigger than ourselves; being rejected; dying at the edge of the deep.

While it gestures at much that is profound, it doesn't really seem to wrestle with those angels. (I mean, there is an angel. They do wrestle. I don't think anyone got blessed).

It reads easy and I don't regret the time, but kinda wish the author had gotten some notes from Alan Moore.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually try to write a few paragraphs about a book or graphic novel after I finish it, but, man, this one is hard to describe or even process. Inscrutable is an understatement. All I could think about while reading Aaron Costain’s “Entropy” was the running gag in the (Best Picture Oscar-winning) movie, “Parasite,” where the one character keeps describing things as “SO metaphorical.” “Entropy” is a densely packed riot of metaphors, myths, and allusions. It’s beautifully and cleanly illustrated, which draws even more attention to just how nutso the story is. Don’t get me wrong; I liked it, I’m just not going to pretend I understood any of it.

[Lenny Denny · Rating 5 out of 5]

some might say the book is strange, and difficult to interpret, but that is precisely what makes it great: the story so well crafted, that it draws you in and it makes you really want to find meaning to it, and clearly you get a lot of ropes you can pull, but figuring out how it all makes sense is difficult - and i think that is precisely the point: it asks deep questions, an it forces you to approach from new angles. i really liked how it works and how it send you down avenues you would not pursue by reading regular philosophy. great and unique graphic novel

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one strange-ass book.
Imagine Robot Man from Doom Patrol arguing the nature of creation and mythology with talking animals and battling a cat who might also be an angel while avoiding multiple dangers like crows who hate him and Golem-eating giants.

It's weird, man. But also pretty cool.

[claire :) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 maybe?

I really enjoyed the art style, but the meaning kind of fell flat for me. It seems like either it's all metaphor that went over my head, or it's just a lot of nothing. I'm struggling to even develop any thoughts about it, which I guess is all I need to say. Very much "that was a thing I read" but I definitely didn't hate it.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Puzzling but cleverly illustrated. Is the story analogous to samsara, life and death cycles? Yin Yang? Transformation?
Don’t expect a comprehensive exposition on philosophy here. Seems to be muddled to me. Still, I wish there were more graphic novels out there. It’s a genre ripe for development.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book both fascinating and off-putting. While I enjoyed the bit of a romp through philosophy and religion, I also felt that it was mostly ground that had already been covered many times. The penguin was great.

[Kelly Wagner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Presents no reason for our existence, no reason for why some myths are depicted and not others. Cats are evil, for no reason. No reason for this book's existence, apparently, except that the author likes to draw crows/ravens.

[Rae (Rachel) Lipkin-Bajor · Rating 5 out of 5]

So weird it was perfect !

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected to enjoy this based on the back cover copy, but I didn't at all. What did I just read?

[Joshua Sloan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master-craft line work on every page, and a consistently engaging, challenging story.

[Birch · Rating 2 out of 5]

?

[Bailey Hulsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting philosophies explored like nihilism and absurdism in the same spirit as Waiting for Godot but much less to think/talk about.

[Beth G · Rating 3 out of 5]

On page 1, Costain throws you head-first into an unusual world: a meandering golem, a talking animal, and ancient myths come to life. No humans in sight.

Transitions between the golem's loosely-connected adventures are abrupt. I guess that's the author's abstract take on entropy. (quantization?)

I had trouble getting into this book. It might've just been too strange for me. However the mythological/religious aspects were interesting.