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Leviathan
The whale, mythical creature.
"There Leviathan, hugest of living creatures, in the deep Stretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land; and at his gills
Draws in, and at his breath spout out a sea" (Paradise Lost).
A silent ode of a graphic novel as grandiose as the creature, directly imported in limited quantities from Europe, with quotes from famous works (in English). Must be seen.
141 pages, Unknown Binding
First published April 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 16, 2015
Beautifully drawn silent comic that is framed by quotations from various literary sources such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Moby Dick about whales. Not really a story, but whales across time and literary history, with epic implications. The art is very good and sort of wild in its largely non-narrative approach, more philosophical than anything else. Reminded me of some of the beautifully crafted marine animal/fish drawings of Children of the Sea by Daisuke Igarashi, both works almost mystical.
July 8, 2010
This might be a 5-star book, but I feel weird giving yet another comic 5 stars. Especially since I've been giving so many 5-star and 4-star ratings to comics, yet regular novels have been getting 3 and 4-stars from me, even books from amazing writers.
But I'm not sure what Leviathan is. I mean, it IS a comic, but it's an allegorical comic that is deeply elliptical. It's nearly wordless, punctuated with intertitle pages with quotes from Moby Dick and The Book of Job and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, etc. The drawings are stunningly beautiful, as is the layout, as is the color scheme (blue and white and black). Jens Harder combines a realistic drawing style with numerous drawings cribbed from Medieval drawings of Leviathans and other monsters. Harder also uses extremely surprising "camera angles" and a good chunk of the book is from a whale's point of view.
The story itself isn't really a story. The story zips through antiquity and the present day; it follows the food chain, myths, historical sea tragedies, the whale in art and literature, and Apocalyptic scenarios all revolving around a marauding Leviathan. As in Moby Dick, it's hard to figure out if the whale is real, or a stand in for God. And although the book is a comic, and therefor a very quick read, I've read it over and over in a few days, and I'm still not sure what it's about. There is an underlying structure, and seems to be a philosophy of sorts, and perhaps even an argument of sorts, but I still don't know how to 'read' this book. It strikes me as high-modernism in comic book form, that is deceptively easy on the micro-scale but imposing, exasperating and intoxicating on a macro-scale. Something is being said, but it's hard to tell exactly what it is, but I, for one, want to keep exploring the depths until I figure it out, or at least get a semblance of understand that I'm comfortable with.
http://www.nbmpub.com/fantasysf/harde...
But I'm not sure what Leviathan is. I mean, it IS a comic, but it's an allegorical comic that is deeply elliptical. It's nearly wordless, punctuated with intertitle pages with quotes from Moby Dick and The Book of Job and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, etc. The drawings are stunningly beautiful, as is the layout, as is the color scheme (blue and white and black). Jens Harder combines a realistic drawing style with numerous drawings cribbed from Medieval drawings of Leviathans and other monsters. Harder also uses extremely surprising "camera angles" and a good chunk of the book is from a whale's point of view.
The story itself isn't really a story. The story zips through antiquity and the present day; it follows the food chain, myths, historical sea tragedies, the whale in art and literature, and Apocalyptic scenarios all revolving around a marauding Leviathan. As in Moby Dick, it's hard to figure out if the whale is real, or a stand in for God. And although the book is a comic, and therefor a very quick read, I've read it over and over in a few days, and I'm still not sure what it's about. There is an underlying structure, and seems to be a philosophy of sorts, and perhaps even an argument of sorts, but I still don't know how to 'read' this book. It strikes me as high-modernism in comic book form, that is deceptively easy on the micro-scale but imposing, exasperating and intoxicating on a macro-scale. Something is being said, but it's hard to tell exactly what it is, but I, for one, want to keep exploring the depths until I figure it out, or at least get a semblance of understand that I'm comfortable with.
http://www.nbmpub.com/fantasysf/harde...
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January 19, 2010this is a big comic book, hardly a "graphic novel" -- by anyone's standards. It's an essay, maybe, it has no words, except parenthetically, between the sections. And most of these are taken from Melville, and translated into three languages: German, French, Japanese. Harder has real ambition, to discuss the "whaleness " of whales, through all of history, in a simultaneous story. It's a bold plan, and just by attempting it, he achieves more than most comic artists ever will.
April 26, 2012
The monster is a witness to every catastrophe; does nothing and yet propagates the war at the same time. This was a great book.
March 10, 2013
A "silent" comic. Beautifully illustrated. Passages of ancient writings making mention of 'Leviathan' are interspersed throughout the book.
October 16, 2017
2.75 stars
This was an interesting and rather weird ‘silent’ graphic novel that I ‘read’ with my kids. Or, I suppose I should say I interpreted it with my kids. There were some stories/chapters that I really liked and others that did not have much meaning. Being that it was silent, it was oftentimes hard to interpret what was really meant to be said. That is part of the fun of the book and it was fun to try and decipher the meaning of each chapter with my kids. I don’t think this book was meant to be read with kids but it is tame enough that it was ok.
After a while, my six-year-old daughter decided she didn’t want to hear more of the book and said it was scary. Though, I really think that she was bored and wanted to do other things. My nine-year-old son enjoyed it and laughed at many parts of the book. His review follows.
Olsen’s rating: 4 stars
Olsen’s review (this is my nine-year-old):
I liked the book because the whale was so vicious.
This was an interesting and rather weird ‘silent’ graphic novel that I ‘read’ with my kids. Or, I suppose I should say I interpreted it with my kids. There were some stories/chapters that I really liked and others that did not have much meaning. Being that it was silent, it was oftentimes hard to interpret what was really meant to be said. That is part of the fun of the book and it was fun to try and decipher the meaning of each chapter with my kids. I don’t think this book was meant to be read with kids but it is tame enough that it was ok.
After a while, my six-year-old daughter decided she didn’t want to hear more of the book and said it was scary. Though, I really think that she was bored and wanted to do other things. My nine-year-old son enjoyed it and laughed at many parts of the book. His review follows.
Olsen’s rating: 4 stars
Olsen’s review (this is my nine-year-old):
I liked the book because the whale was so vicious.
January 4, 2024
even though this was so quick, i didn’t really enjoy this but i feel guilty giving it such a low rating. i don’t think this art style is for me which made it hard to enjoy because there were almost NO words!! just lil quotes from other texts about whales at the beginning of every chapter. i wasn’t really crazy about the story or even subject matter either. it was just whales fighting octopuses and other prehistoric amazing deep sea creatures and sometimes people and boats. the art style sometimes made it a bit hard to tell what was going on so i just found myself flipping through ready for it to be over
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2017
Nice art, but the narrative gets a bit weird midway through.
November 7, 2018
This is just not for me.
October 19, 2010
My, how this makes me long to finish Moby Dick some day!
October 15, 2012
BEautifully done, and interestingly executed vis a vis without words, but I can't say i really "got it".
May 5, 2020
Viñetas acuáticas y bonitas secuencias silenciosas. Fragmentos de texto, cómo cromos de un gran jarrón que lanzaron al mar.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews