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Black River
La civiltà è stata spazzata via fa una serie di imprecisate catastrofi. Il gruppo guidato da Seka, composto quasi esclusivamente da donne, vaga in un nordamerica desolato tra villaggi distrutti, cabaret deliranti e branchi di maschi torturatori. Sono sole, armate e decise a sopravvivere ad ogni costo. E' una lotta priva di ogni prospettiva di salvezza, ma pur sempre un'avventura, dove la tensione rimane costante, scossa da esplosioni di violenza e sprazzi di cupo umorismo. Più che le ragioni per cui il mondo sia andato in rovina, a Josh Simmons interessano le rovine della mente, ed è brutale nella descrizione del suo scenario post-apocalittico, quanto sensibile nel raccontare le relazioni tra le sue protagoniste, sempre solidali di fronte all'orrore che le circonda.
Questo suo primo libro tradotto in italiano, originale variazione sul tema della distopia catastrofista, ricorda La Strada di Cormac McCarthy, ma deviato da un talento per il grottesco che sembra divertirsi a spiazzare il lettore. o si potrebbe forse descriverlo come una sorta di The Walking Dead, sublimato dal crudo, malsano lirismo del disegno.
Questo suo primo libro tradotto in italiano, originale variazione sul tema della distopia catastrofista, ricorda La Strada di Cormac McCarthy, ma deviato da un talento per il grottesco che sembra divertirsi a spiazzare il lettore. o si potrebbe forse descriverlo come una sorta di The Walking Dead, sublimato dal crudo, malsano lirismo del disegno.
108 pages, Paperback
First published April 16, 2015
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358 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
February 25, 2016
Now here’s an apocalypse for ya that will never be adapted into a Disney movie. It's far too bleak, grim, manic, ugly, desperate, disgusting, cynical, crass, bonkers, brutal, ruthless, sadistic, pointless - and there aren’t even any zombies around to turn the whole mess into a marketable spectacle. Where’s the fun in that, you ask? Well, I guess that’s the point: the so-called apocalypse probably won’t be a very entertaining, satisfying, crowd-pleasing affair. In fact, it may look quite a bit like the boring old world we already live in today... minus that pacifying, apathy-inducing bubble of promotional culture. Come to think of it, the apocalypse may already have started. And it isn’t fun at all.
PS: Glancing over all those negative reviews, I get the impression that for many, the story hits too close to home for comfort. We are all used to the apocalypse as entertaining spectacle to the point that most of us aren't all that shocked by zombies etc. anymore, but I don't think we have a realistic notion of what the breakdown of whatever's left of civilization would actually mean for us. It is a disturbing thought, and Black River dares think this disturbing thought... instead of providing yet another post-apocalyptic zombie spectacle. Make no mistake, this book hits you in the gut, and that isn't fun at all. Still, I feel that this punch to the gut makes for an effective antidote to the old "Apocalypse, Inc." that has been clouding our minds for decades.
PPS: The pitch-blackness of the appropriately titled Black River reminds me of that in the movie Killing Them Softly, one of my all-time favorites... and, not surprisingly, the LEAST commercially successful movie in Brad Pitt's career (not that he will mind much).
PPPS: Check out Robert's excellent interview with author Josh Simmons in the Comics Journal:
http://www.tcj.com/one-more-lens-thro...
PS: Glancing over all those negative reviews, I get the impression that for many, the story hits too close to home for comfort. We are all used to the apocalypse as entertaining spectacle to the point that most of us aren't all that shocked by zombies etc. anymore, but I don't think we have a realistic notion of what the breakdown of whatever's left of civilization would actually mean for us. It is a disturbing thought, and Black River dares think this disturbing thought... instead of providing yet another post-apocalyptic zombie spectacle. Make no mistake, this book hits you in the gut, and that isn't fun at all. Still, I feel that this punch to the gut makes for an effective antidote to the old "Apocalypse, Inc." that has been clouding our minds for decades.
PPS: The pitch-blackness of the appropriately titled Black River reminds me of that in the movie Killing Them Softly, one of my all-time favorites... and, not surprisingly, the LEAST commercially successful movie in Brad Pitt's career (not that he will mind much).
PPPS: Check out Robert's excellent interview with author Josh Simmons in the Comics Journal:
http://www.tcj.com/one-more-lens-thro...
June 16, 2015
Erk – you know a comic’s grim when it makes Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead look family-friendly!
So it’s another post-apocalyptic-set story and things are miserable as usual! Civilisation is decimated, most of humanity is dead, and roving gangs of people struggle to survive amidst rapist biker gangs bombing about in Mad Max parody. Our protagonists are one such group of mostly females. They rove. They fight. They look for a fabled city that still has all the luxuries of the pre-apocalyptic world. And everything remains dark and miserable!
Josh Simmons’ Black River is a gratuitously nihilistic comic about human suffering. I don’t mind dark stories; I can read very gory, horrific tales of bleakness and enjoy them – but they have to have a point. They can’t just be horrible things for the sake of it. But that’s what Black River is.
For example (and spoilers from here on out): the group go to a wrecked comedy club and there’s an old guy on stage talking – not telling jokes, just mumbling nonsense. Some crazy hunters wander in, take a seat, and listen to the old man’s gibberish. The head crazy hunter goes on stage and machetes the old man in half. Then he turns around and screams while everyone shoots him dead.
What was the point of that scene? Was it supposed to be funny? Tragic? Horrific? What was Simmons hoping the reader’s reaction to be? It was slightly interesting for its randomness but came out of nowhere and meant absolutely nothing. Was it intended to show us how far civilisation has fallen (as if we didn’t already know that given the rest of the book)?
The women are raped (which we’re thankfully spared the visuals of - gosh, there’s a lot of rape in comics these days!) and one loses her mind. Cuts her hair, cuts her face, gets stoned out of her skull and eventually commits suicide. Realistic reactions to immense trauma – but what was Simmons going for? All this abundant misery and for what? To tell a story about how the post-apocalypse is not a nice place to live in? That, stripped of civilisation, humanity devolves into base appetites? I just don’t see any originality or anything meaningful in all of this to make the comic worthwhile.
I can’t fault the storytelling – if nothing else, Simmons knows how to tell a story well in comics form – and, despite its subject matter, I did find the black and white art interesting. But the story itself is simply unpleasant without any redeeming qualities. Maybe if you’re a fan of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows’ Crossed you’ll like this but at least that comic had a virus that caused the extreme behaviour – Black River is just shitty people being shitty to one another. Yuck.
So it’s another post-apocalyptic-set story and things are miserable as usual! Civilisation is decimated, most of humanity is dead, and roving gangs of people struggle to survive amidst rapist biker gangs bombing about in Mad Max parody. Our protagonists are one such group of mostly females. They rove. They fight. They look for a fabled city that still has all the luxuries of the pre-apocalyptic world. And everything remains dark and miserable!
Josh Simmons’ Black River is a gratuitously nihilistic comic about human suffering. I don’t mind dark stories; I can read very gory, horrific tales of bleakness and enjoy them – but they have to have a point. They can’t just be horrible things for the sake of it. But that’s what Black River is.
For example (and spoilers from here on out): the group go to a wrecked comedy club and there’s an old guy on stage talking – not telling jokes, just mumbling nonsense. Some crazy hunters wander in, take a seat, and listen to the old man’s gibberish. The head crazy hunter goes on stage and machetes the old man in half. Then he turns around and screams while everyone shoots him dead.
What was the point of that scene? Was it supposed to be funny? Tragic? Horrific? What was Simmons hoping the reader’s reaction to be? It was slightly interesting for its randomness but came out of nowhere and meant absolutely nothing. Was it intended to show us how far civilisation has fallen (as if we didn’t already know that given the rest of the book)?
The women are raped (which we’re thankfully spared the visuals of - gosh, there’s a lot of rape in comics these days!) and one loses her mind. Cuts her hair, cuts her face, gets stoned out of her skull and eventually commits suicide. Realistic reactions to immense trauma – but what was Simmons going for? All this abundant misery and for what? To tell a story about how the post-apocalypse is not a nice place to live in? That, stripped of civilisation, humanity devolves into base appetites? I just don’t see any originality or anything meaningful in all of this to make the comic worthwhile.
I can’t fault the storytelling – if nothing else, Simmons knows how to tell a story well in comics form – and, despite its subject matter, I did find the black and white art interesting. But the story itself is simply unpleasant without any redeeming qualities. Maybe if you’re a fan of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows’ Crossed you’ll like this but at least that comic had a virus that caused the extreme behaviour – Black River is just shitty people being shitty to one another. Yuck.
July 17, 2015
It's not often that I regret reading something, but I regret reading this. I'm not squeamish about violence or dark, brutal stories, but this ... I don't get this. The violence and especially the rape feel very gratuitous and there is no story to support it. It also feels especially gross when male authors use sexual violence against women for absolutely no purpose other than that they can.
June 21, 2015
Josh Simmons: The Johnny Ryan (Prison Pit) of the Apocalypse. Meh. So you will either love the shock and disgust of this or not. For me, not. I kept thinking Simmons looks at the relatively hopeful post-apocalytic visions of Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth and Cormac McCarthy's The Road and gags at all the hopeful human possibilities, the embrace against all odds of the human spirit. BS, Simmons says; I'l one up that Road horror porn aspect and go all out, with worse drawing than Lemire (gotcha, Jeff, you comics sell-out!) and adding blackest of black humor and drugs and grotesque gratuitous sexual and other violence just for yuks. And psychotic trauma-induced delirium! Cool! Hehehe. Some of you love this, I know. Crosses the line for me. Feels angry, which could be politically useful, I suppose, but Simmons isn't political, he's just in it for the shock, and again, if that's what yr into it, feel free, have at it.
The basic idea is that we have a group of women, two dogs and a guy (for the graphic, gross-out sex, duh!) in extreme circumstances, the apocalypse, as you have become familiar with. No food, water, etc. and they are captured and terrible things happen that will disturb your dreams. Did mine, anyway. Okay, the art is borderline surrealist and better than his previous work, maybe. Maybe it's a successful horror/sci fi comic, in some sense that I don't fully appreciate. Or about the limits of "art." There. I said something nice, just for balance.
The basic idea is that we have a group of women, two dogs and a guy (for the graphic, gross-out sex, duh!) in extreme circumstances, the apocalypse, as you have become familiar with. No food, water, etc. and they are captured and terrible things happen that will disturb your dreams. Did mine, anyway. Okay, the art is borderline surrealist and better than his previous work, maybe. Maybe it's a successful horror/sci fi comic, in some sense that I don't fully appreciate. Or about the limits of "art." There. I said something nice, just for balance.
October 6, 2015
Bullet Review:
It's the end of the world, and golly gee is it a sh!tstorm of catastrophe! Murder, graphic violence, drugs, and let's not forget the time-honored favorite of rape, rape, and even MOAR rape!
Anyone excited to dig into this bleak, depressing world at the end of the world? No?
It's the end of the world, and golly gee is it a sh!tstorm of catastrophe! Murder, graphic violence, drugs, and let's not forget the time-honored favorite of rape, rape, and even MOAR rape!
Anyone excited to dig into this bleak, depressing world at the end of the world? No?
October 9, 2015
My interview with author Josh Simmons is now online at the Comics Journal:
http://bit.ly/1JVuPfS
http://bit.ly/1JVuPfS
July 18, 2015
I kept hearing that this book makes The Road and The Walking Dead look like child's play, but it really wasn't any bleaker...and certainly, those two items contain more plot development, back story, and character development. Turn to Beautiful Darkness for depravity and social commentary.
May 17, 2016
Book blurb: A group of women, one man, and two dogs are making their way through a post-apocalyptic world in search of a city that supposedly still has electricity and some sort of civilization.
This graphic novel did not work for me on any level. I've often said that the scary thing about any apocalypse scenario is not the zombies, or vampires, or what-have-you, but people. People can be the scariest thing on the planet. This story happens to agree with me, and there are horrible things that happen in this one, but ultimately, I did not think that it added anything new to the genre, and I did not like the sketchy art either. Not for me.
This graphic novel did not work for me on any level. I've often said that the scary thing about any apocalypse scenario is not the zombies, or vampires, or what-have-you, but people. People can be the scariest thing on the planet. This story happens to agree with me, and there are horrible things that happen in this one, but ultimately, I did not think that it added anything new to the genre, and I did not like the sketchy art either. Not for me.
July 14, 2015
Neither the art nor the writing can support the story this book wants to tell.
August 22, 2015
Dickpussy , thats all i can think of when i finished this.
December 27, 2019
This post-apocalyptic view of the world is totally ridiculous. I kept looking for some redeeming values without success. At least it was a very fast read.
July 19, 2023
Honestly I'm not sure why I was interested in reading this.
Imagine Johnny Ryan drawing Garth Ennis's Crossed and you get a sense of what this book is. Crude and rude drawings depicting a post-apocalyptic world.
Imagine Johnny Ryan drawing Garth Ennis's Crossed and you get a sense of what this book is. Crude and rude drawings depicting a post-apocalyptic world.
October 10, 2016
It's weird or sad, but I've slowly gotten used to some of these "nihilistic comics" that come out from time to time from Fantagraphics or similar publishers. A suppose I'm getting little desensitize by them though that is not to say I'm liking them any better or seeing them more than what they are. I didn't dislike "Black River" It reminded me of the works by Johnny Ryan (Prison Pitt) in the kind of drawing action/humor. The detached horror. I'm not a big fan of this sort of style of storytelling. It removes itself from any kind of honesty or responsibility to the audience. Like a haunted house. Guys like John Simmons and Johny Ryan just want to create "shit" to "fuck with us." Similar to the movies by Lars von Trier. They have no regard for the feelings of the audience or in some cases they try to spit or stab at our feelings in the pursuit of trying to desensitize us. In a kind of way it's very modern art, but in other way it feels less honest and a lot of times comes of juvenile. Either way I didn't hate it. The storytelling wasn't bad and the story itself wasn't bad either, but I think it just takes a lot more effort to try to get in the heads and hearts of these people instead of merely tagging along for the grotesque and sad ride. That being said I can't say I hated it, but it didn't move me one way or another.
March 1, 2016
Do not be deceived by the purple flowerly flowy cover on this baby.
This is a GRIM story.
Or do. It'll be more shocking that way.
We find ourselves plopped down in the middle of the post-apocalypse. No context, just a band of survivors making their way across a snowy wilderness. Basically, Mad Max: Fury Road, but cold. And less styled.
This particular band of travelers happens to be made up mostly of female-presenting individuals. Badass ladies, as it were.
This is a gritty, violent, graphic, sexually explicit story. All told in Simmons partly gorgeous, partly abrasive illustrations. Our characters run into some nasty post-civilizations -- and I would never call our protagonists heroes, themselves.
Read this with The Road, The Eleventh Plague, and myriad other postapocalypic tales you've been meaning to get to.
This is a GRIM story.
Or do. It'll be more shocking that way.
We find ourselves plopped down in the middle of the post-apocalypse. No context, just a band of survivors making their way across a snowy wilderness. Basically, Mad Max: Fury Road, but cold. And less styled.
This particular band of travelers happens to be made up mostly of female-presenting individuals. Badass ladies, as it were.
This is a gritty, violent, graphic, sexually explicit story. All told in Simmons partly gorgeous, partly abrasive illustrations. Our characters run into some nasty post-civilizations -- and I would never call our protagonists heroes, themselves.
Read this with The Road, The Eleventh Plague, and myriad other postapocalypic tales you've been meaning to get to.
October 1, 2015
The bleakest, most desolate comic I've ever read. The art and the storytelling is the best Josh Simmons has archived, but I don't think I'll re-read it in quite some time. Definitely NOT for weak stomachs, and strong stomachs should take some precautions before reading this one. It's not as graphic as Furry Trap, but there is some stuff in here that it's more fucked up on a visceral, lizard brain level.
November 13, 2016
This is a post apocalyptic story about a group of women and one man who are trying to survive.
I found a lot of things problematic with this. It's overly violent, graphically sexual, the art is a little intense, and the lettering is strange and jarring. One character for some reason can only say the word "dickpussy" which I didn't really find funny or understand why she only said that.
This just made me uncomfortable than anything.
I found a lot of things problematic with this. It's overly violent, graphically sexual, the art is a little intense, and the lettering is strange and jarring. One character for some reason can only say the word "dickpussy" which I didn't really find funny or understand why she only said that.
This just made me uncomfortable than anything.
December 26, 2018
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MAJOR PLOT AND CHARACTER RELATED STUFF
I don't I've ever read a book that made me physically repulsed before, and I've read some pretty messed up stuff. However, this book has succeeded in being the most repugnant and disgusting thing that I've ever read. I don't mind sensitive topics being covered in a post apocalyptic settings (like rape or extreme violence). However, this story uses these things purposelessly not to show how hopeless the world of this universe is, but for the hell of it. Or that is at least how it feels due to the poor quality of the writing. I could understand that perhaps Simmons was trying to show how utterly hopeless and pointless these particular characters need for survival ultimately is as all these bad things happened to them, but non of it had a rhythm or even a clear motivation to it. I get that it might being going for the angle that the apocalypse if it ever happens is going to suck, but it doesn't even successfully achieve that, as we don't spend enough time in the world to understand what happens, why it sucks, or why any of it even matters. Not that there has to be an inherent meaning in everything. Simmons could be going some cold nihilistic existential bleak outlook on existence (which I believe he is), but I have Camus and Sarte for that (they're better at writing about that stuff anyway). This authors nihilistic approach feels more like that one emo kid who thinks he's super deep, philosophical and subversive for putting a bunch of heavy subject-matter in his short story for creative writing, coming off as a desperate ploy for attention as he isn't creative enough to actually try writing an actual story. I read a book the other day called Laid Waste (Julia Gfrörer) which handles its grim and hard subject-matter leaps and bounds better than this book ever could hope to, and it does it 80 pages. Though it isn't post-apocalyptic, it does have that overhanging sense of grim existentialism and deals with themes of entropy (something I believe Black River also attempts and fails miserably on).
The story is violent act after violent act without any context or even a shred of character to it. Not to mention that all the characters in the story ranged from one-dimensional to no-dimensional as they had no defining traits or characteristics that made them seem even a little like they had a personality. There were hints to some possibly having personalities (if you consider a character who's only lines of dialogue is repeating the word "dickpussy" over and over again to be a character trait). There is one battle-hardened character named Seka who has at least that going for her, but there is nothing else to her other than that she is tough. No other personality traits. She instead becomes that one cliche tough-no-nonsense female character that is often seen in these types of media al-la Furiosa (Mad Max Fury Road), Michone (Walking Dead), Vic McQueen (NOS4A2, not a post-apocalyptic novel but uses the same general archetype) and Ellen Ripley (Alien), but without any of the charm or distinguishing personality that sets these characters apart from one another. Because this story refuses to have any actual characters, instead opting for cardboard-cut-outs of characters that are there solely to have bad things happen to them, the story lacks any tension or stakes. We don't care what happens and are instead disgusted with the fact that someone would even write this stuff the way they did in the first place.
This of course brings us to the long and drawn out section of this short book involving the rape and murder of a lot of the main cast. I have never seen a story handle this subject matter worse than this book, and I've read a couple books that deal with this stuff. The rape is done to characters we don't care about for shock value and nothing more (which is not how rape should ever be treated in any story what-so-ever). It is a disgusting and reprehensible thing to write about. It is clear that the author either doesn't understand the gravity of what he is writing about or doesn't care. There is also this stereotypical post-apocalyptic bad guy (Benji) who spouts of things like "I hurt people who are close to me" and "I did things to other human beings I never could have imagined." Like thanks for the info Mr. Walking-Cliche-Villain. Benji's lines are tired and don't have much of any bearing on the themes of the overall story, not that the story is actually any good. There is also a scene where one of the "characters" we meet at the half-way point of the story (Caramel) who is barley even discussed that much after her introduction is senselessly raped and then killed. She doesn't have any purpose in the narrative and is just there for her death to be trauma-fuel and shocking. Caramel's death is used as a gimick in this scene in order to push the characters into acting, and its horrible. Her's is of course not the only death in this book or scene that is pointless and hollow.
Now, I want to mention the pacing, which is the worst that I've ever seen in any book thus far. The book takes place over the course of a couple weeks (maybe, it's not clear) and then jumps forward twelve years at the end of the book, however due to its length of 109 pages (thank god it didn't go on longer) the book has to be condensed. This makes it so you don't know how much time is passing and it can be confusing. For example when characters like Daisy, Seka, Shaunna, etc, got upset over Caramel's death enough to go after the men who had captured them, I was confused. I guess you could say the very acts these men committed were horrific and thus Caramel's death was the breaking point, but I didn't understand why characters were crying over her since it seemed that they had just met her two days ago. The pacing is poor and doesn't allow for character growth and development to occur naturally. There even has to be an offhand comment near the end of the book saying "it's been twelve years" in order to establish that time has passed instead of showing us that the time has passed.
The final thing I am going to touch on briefly is how bad the artwork is. It's not the worst I've seen, but it's still ugly and sometimes makes it hard to distinguish who certain characters are due to the poor rendering. There is a scene near the end of the book where it looks like a bunch of characters are in a war-zone eating human flesh or bleeding from the mouth (either could be viable) and it's so unclear because of how badly the story is structured and how poor the art is done what the heck is going on.
All in all, this book was a massive piece of garbage. Not hot garbage like How We Live Now or trashy fun like A Court Of Thorns And Roses (Sarah J. Maas). This book is actual trash. Don't buy it as a gift for a friend unless you hate them, and definitely don't buy it for yourself. If you want to read a good graphic novel set in a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world, check out the following: The Walking Dead (Robert Kirkman), The Wrenchies (Farel Dalrymple), Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo), Y: The Last Man (Brian K. Vaughn), or V For Vendetta (Alan Moore). Literally anything is better to spend your money and time on than this novel. $20 dollars is not worth the amount of hateful and poorly written tripe that is found in this book.
I don't I've ever read a book that made me physically repulsed before, and I've read some pretty messed up stuff. However, this book has succeeded in being the most repugnant and disgusting thing that I've ever read. I don't mind sensitive topics being covered in a post apocalyptic settings (like rape or extreme violence). However, this story uses these things purposelessly not to show how hopeless the world of this universe is, but for the hell of it. Or that is at least how it feels due to the poor quality of the writing. I could understand that perhaps Simmons was trying to show how utterly hopeless and pointless these particular characters need for survival ultimately is as all these bad things happened to them, but non of it had a rhythm or even a clear motivation to it. I get that it might being going for the angle that the apocalypse if it ever happens is going to suck, but it doesn't even successfully achieve that, as we don't spend enough time in the world to understand what happens, why it sucks, or why any of it even matters. Not that there has to be an inherent meaning in everything. Simmons could be going some cold nihilistic existential bleak outlook on existence (which I believe he is), but I have Camus and Sarte for that (they're better at writing about that stuff anyway). This authors nihilistic approach feels more like that one emo kid who thinks he's super deep, philosophical and subversive for putting a bunch of heavy subject-matter in his short story for creative writing, coming off as a desperate ploy for attention as he isn't creative enough to actually try writing an actual story. I read a book the other day called Laid Waste (Julia Gfrörer) which handles its grim and hard subject-matter leaps and bounds better than this book ever could hope to, and it does it 80 pages. Though it isn't post-apocalyptic, it does have that overhanging sense of grim existentialism and deals with themes of entropy (something I believe Black River also attempts and fails miserably on).
The story is violent act after violent act without any context or even a shred of character to it. Not to mention that all the characters in the story ranged from one-dimensional to no-dimensional as they had no defining traits or characteristics that made them seem even a little like they had a personality. There were hints to some possibly having personalities (if you consider a character who's only lines of dialogue is repeating the word "dickpussy" over and over again to be a character trait). There is one battle-hardened character named Seka who has at least that going for her, but there is nothing else to her other than that she is tough. No other personality traits. She instead becomes that one cliche tough-no-nonsense female character that is often seen in these types of media al-la Furiosa (Mad Max Fury Road), Michone (Walking Dead), Vic McQueen (NOS4A2, not a post-apocalyptic novel but uses the same general archetype) and Ellen Ripley (Alien), but without any of the charm or distinguishing personality that sets these characters apart from one another. Because this story refuses to have any actual characters, instead opting for cardboard-cut-outs of characters that are there solely to have bad things happen to them, the story lacks any tension or stakes. We don't care what happens and are instead disgusted with the fact that someone would even write this stuff the way they did in the first place.
This of course brings us to the long and drawn out section of this short book involving the rape and murder of a lot of the main cast. I have never seen a story handle this subject matter worse than this book, and I've read a couple books that deal with this stuff. The rape is done to characters we don't care about for shock value and nothing more (which is not how rape should ever be treated in any story what-so-ever). It is a disgusting and reprehensible thing to write about. It is clear that the author either doesn't understand the gravity of what he is writing about or doesn't care. There is also this stereotypical post-apocalyptic bad guy (Benji) who spouts of things like "I hurt people who are close to me" and "I did things to other human beings I never could have imagined." Like thanks for the info Mr. Walking-Cliche-Villain. Benji's lines are tired and don't have much of any bearing on the themes of the overall story, not that the story is actually any good. There is also a scene where one of the "characters" we meet at the half-way point of the story (Caramel) who is barley even discussed that much after her introduction is senselessly raped and then killed. She doesn't have any purpose in the narrative and is just there for her death to be trauma-fuel and shocking. Caramel's death is used as a gimick in this scene in order to push the characters into acting, and its horrible. Her's is of course not the only death in this book or scene that is pointless and hollow.
Now, I want to mention the pacing, which is the worst that I've ever seen in any book thus far. The book takes place over the course of a couple weeks (maybe, it's not clear) and then jumps forward twelve years at the end of the book, however due to its length of 109 pages (thank god it didn't go on longer) the book has to be condensed. This makes it so you don't know how much time is passing and it can be confusing. For example when characters like Daisy, Seka, Shaunna, etc, got upset over Caramel's death enough to go after the men who had captured them, I was confused. I guess you could say the very acts these men committed were horrific and thus Caramel's death was the breaking point, but I didn't understand why characters were crying over her since it seemed that they had just met her two days ago. The pacing is poor and doesn't allow for character growth and development to occur naturally. There even has to be an offhand comment near the end of the book saying "it's been twelve years" in order to establish that time has passed instead of showing us that the time has passed.
The final thing I am going to touch on briefly is how bad the artwork is. It's not the worst I've seen, but it's still ugly and sometimes makes it hard to distinguish who certain characters are due to the poor rendering. There is a scene near the end of the book where it looks like a bunch of characters are in a war-zone eating human flesh or bleeding from the mouth (either could be viable) and it's so unclear because of how badly the story is structured and how poor the art is done what the heck is going on.
All in all, this book was a massive piece of garbage. Not hot garbage like How We Live Now or trashy fun like A Court Of Thorns And Roses (Sarah J. Maas). This book is actual trash. Don't buy it as a gift for a friend unless you hate them, and definitely don't buy it for yourself. If you want to read a good graphic novel set in a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world, check out the following: The Walking Dead (Robert Kirkman), The Wrenchies (Farel Dalrymple), Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo), Y: The Last Man (Brian K. Vaughn), or V For Vendetta (Alan Moore). Literally anything is better to spend your money and time on than this novel. $20 dollars is not worth the amount of hateful and poorly written tripe that is found in this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 9, 2020
Very weird and confusing and somehow it skipped years with nothing shown.
November 26, 2019
So many questions. It scared me, probably because the fall of humanity and the resulting apocalypse will be more like this than The Walking Dead.
Rape, abuse, drug use, ultra violence, nonsense. It starts so hopeful.
I won't read it again, but within this undefined genre (the weird, the unsettling, the bizarre) it absolutely shines.
Sometimes Simmons teases us with an amazing panel. Showing us that yes, he's very much capable to make something beautiful. Something more relenting. But he refuses to entertain and pokes us in the soft underbelly instead. This will haunt me.
Rape, abuse, drug use, ultra violence, nonsense. It starts so hopeful.
I won't read it again, but within this undefined genre (the weird, the unsettling, the bizarre) it absolutely shines.
Sometimes Simmons teases us with an amazing panel. Showing us that yes, he's very much capable to make something beautiful. Something more relenting. But he refuses to entertain and pokes us in the soft underbelly instead. This will haunt me.
January 10, 2016
Black River is as bleak as you can possibly imagine. With a group of women as the main cast of characters the graphic novel is set on post apocalyptic earth. Inked in black and white the illustrations mirror the starkness and darkness of the storyline perfectly.
May 31, 2016
An empty post-apocalyptic horror show.
Artwork rather lame compared to 'House'
Artwork rather lame compared to 'House'
December 12, 2018
If the author set out to write a short, meaningless, forgettable but effective bummer, he succeeded. But there are better things to write and certainly better things to read.
January 17, 2021
I just couldn't get into this, and I thought maybe it was just me, but after the reviews I see it wasn't just me. The art didn't really fit the story, but that wasn't the real issue. This was just too confusing. It starts out well enough. A group of humans in a post apocalyptic world are searching for a fabled city. But then things just went nuts. And from what I understand there's a twelve year jump that just went over my head.
This was in the vein of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but seems to have gotten lost along the way.
This was in the vein of The Road by Cormac McCarthy, but seems to have gotten lost along the way.
Read
June 4, 2025very beautiful art, incredibly hopeless story.
I dont think male writers using female sexual abuse and violence as story feels good, especially with how graphic it is in here. You barely know the characters before the assualt happens, it feels like shock value for the sake of shock value.
i understand its probably unfortunately realistic that crimes like that would go rampant in a post apocalyptic society, but it still leaves a very bad taste in my mouth with how its portrayed here
I dont think male writers using female sexual abuse and violence as story feels good, especially with how graphic it is in here. You barely know the characters before the assualt happens, it feels like shock value for the sake of shock value.
i understand its probably unfortunately realistic that crimes like that would go rampant in a post apocalyptic society, but it still leaves a very bad taste in my mouth with how its portrayed here
April 9, 2020
A highly bizarre, open-ended psychological horror story (not unlike the graphic French horror films of the 2000s) about a roving band of women “soldiers” in the apocalypse. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and the imagery is bleak and beautiful. The story plods along and is littered with grisly action. Black River is dark and depressing - I give it three stars because I would’ve liked a lot more context (that’s just me) and a stronger sense of the characters backstories. An entertaining and gloomy read for apocalyptic days.
March 29, 2018
This was a dark, bleak read. The plot and style was interesting enough to keep me reading although once again I failed to sense the meaning in Josh's work. His art is great and portrays the end of the world in a unique and effective way but he tries to be very art-house with his storytelling and for me it just didn't really work.
April 12, 2021
we love subjecting women to sexual violence with no aid to the plot... thanks for this crap
October 18, 2024
I don't know why anyone would want to read this.
February 23, 2017
Okay I'm not gonna sugar coat it for you, this book is FUCKED UP. As with most of Josh Simmons work- if not all of it- this book is not for the faint of heart. Scratch that it's not for the NORMAL of heart. It's a black hearted graphic novel with very little optimism in site and therein lies its brilliance.
Most "dark" comics that the average person is accustomed to are things like "dark knight returns" or "the flash runs into TROUBLE" or any other number of audience pleasing fodder where the protagonists have a song in their heart and an overwhelming feeling that it'll all work out fine. And if that's your thing DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.
In Black River, Simmons has decided to do that which is lacking from most "end of the world" stories. HE ENDS THE DAMN WORLD! Any one who is accustomed to his work would expect no less from the man who brought you "Bonecock" and he doesn't disappoint here.
Simmons makes a bold choice by making the protagonists females. For in showing the horrors that women would most likely face at the end of the world he shows very blatantly the horrors that they face every day. But these females are no pushovers. They are very capable and prove again and again that the lack of hope doesn't make you entirely hopeless.
There is some fun to the affair overall as he toys with genre staples (DICKPUSSY) and allows a juicy revenge scene in the fashion of a feminist Wild Bunch.
Sure not a lot of people will understand or even be able to handle this book. But if you can take your punishment this book has an embarrassment of riches waiting for you and responds well to repeated readings.
Josh Simmons is at the top of his game here and proves once again that he is one of the great hidden treasures of the medium.
Most "dark" comics that the average person is accustomed to are things like "dark knight returns" or "the flash runs into TROUBLE" or any other number of audience pleasing fodder where the protagonists have a song in their heart and an overwhelming feeling that it'll all work out fine. And if that's your thing DO NOT READ THIS BOOK.
In Black River, Simmons has decided to do that which is lacking from most "end of the world" stories. HE ENDS THE DAMN WORLD! Any one who is accustomed to his work would expect no less from the man who brought you "Bonecock" and he doesn't disappoint here.
Simmons makes a bold choice by making the protagonists females. For in showing the horrors that women would most likely face at the end of the world he shows very blatantly the horrors that they face every day. But these females are no pushovers. They are very capable and prove again and again that the lack of hope doesn't make you entirely hopeless.
There is some fun to the affair overall as he toys with genre staples (DICKPUSSY) and allows a juicy revenge scene in the fashion of a feminist Wild Bunch.
Sure not a lot of people will understand or even be able to handle this book. But if you can take your punishment this book has an embarrassment of riches waiting for you and responds well to repeated readings.
Josh Simmons is at the top of his game here and proves once again that he is one of the great hidden treasures of the medium.
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