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Basewood
La pluie battante réveille un jeune homme blessé à la tête. Il est seul dans la forêt, il fait nuit, il a perdu la mémoire, il lui manque une chaussure. Cherchant refuge dans la plaine verdoyante, il est attaqué par un monstre ailé, et est sauvé de justesse par Argus, un vieil homme borgne et solitaire. Dans la forêt de Basewood, les deux hommes apprendront au fil des saisons à se connaître et s’apprécier. Mais si le vieil Argus semble finalement préférer son destin brisé et sa solitude au monde des hommes, le jeune homme une fois guéri semble bien décidé quant lui, à renouer avec son passé.
Basewood est une excursion dans l’Amérique des pionniers. Alec Longstreth, originaire de Seattle, y campe planche après planche un pays vaste, vert, rocheux et rural. Les hommes y sont fragiles dans une nature indomptée et hostile, qui impose ses saisons comme autant de lois. Cet hommage au paysage américain s’accompagne d’un hommage à la fois candide et sombre aux petites gens qui par leur courage et leur détermination ont fait l’histoire de son pays.
Basewood est un grand livre cartonné, le deuxième ouvrage d’Alec Longstreth à l’employé du Moi. Il a été dessiné en grand format (40X60cm), avec un sens du détail étonnant. Arbres, feuilles, pluie et neige, chaque détail de la planche y est traité avec un trait sûr et une attention égale, donnant au livre un style particulier, proche de l’enluminure. L’auteur a travaillé 7 années sur ce livre, auto-publié chapitre par chapitre en parallèle avec son comics "Phase 7".
Basewood est un livre tous publics.
Basewood est une excursion dans l’Amérique des pionniers. Alec Longstreth, originaire de Seattle, y campe planche après planche un pays vaste, vert, rocheux et rural. Les hommes y sont fragiles dans une nature indomptée et hostile, qui impose ses saisons comme autant de lois. Cet hommage au paysage américain s’accompagne d’un hommage à la fois candide et sombre aux petites gens qui par leur courage et leur détermination ont fait l’histoire de son pays.
Basewood est un grand livre cartonné, le deuxième ouvrage d’Alec Longstreth à l’employé du Moi. Il a été dessiné en grand format (40X60cm), avec un sens du détail étonnant. Arbres, feuilles, pluie et neige, chaque détail de la planche y est traité avec un trait sûr et une attention égale, donnant au livre un style particulier, proche de l’enluminure. L’auteur a travaillé 7 années sur ce livre, auto-publié chapitre par chapitre en parallèle avec son comics "Phase 7".
Basewood est un livre tous publics.
216 pages, Hardcover
First published April 8, 2014
66 people want to read
About the author
Alec Longstreth
24 books68 followersAlec is a cartoonist who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has been self-publishing his Ignatz Award winning comic book PHASE 7 since 2002, and his Eisner-nominated webcomic Isle of Elsi since 2016. To pay the bills, Alec works as a freelance illustrator and a comics educator.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 15, 2018
My colleague brought the author to the Lab to speak for a brown bag panel of local illustrators -- I missed the event, but borrowed the book. I love graphic novels and this is a simple and lovely one. Great line art illustrations in black and a compelling little tale in a fictitious land. I read it in one decadent sitting.
March 17, 2018
This was really quite marvelous.
March 27, 2022
This giant 12 inch by 9 inch comic book is a work of art. It tells the simple but intriguing story of a man who finds himself in the middle of a forest with no idea how he got there. He soon befriends a dog and the local hermit, who takes him in as a guest and friend in his treehouse of sorts. Oh, and there happens to be a giant wolf dragon on the prowl. I will leave the rest for you to explore…
The art is so beautiful and lovely. I found myself mesmerized by the panels and at times I would just gawk at all the little details. I used to be the type that wanted color in my comics and graphic novels, but Basewood was made for the black and white medium. It really added another layer to this story. The rainy and snowy scenes and sometimes whole page panels are striking and stunning! There is a lot of emotion and heart to Basewood. It reads fast too because there isn’t an extravagant amount of text. But what’s there is very effective. Definitely a reread. A wonderful gem!
The art is so beautiful and lovely. I found myself mesmerized by the panels and at times I would just gawk at all the little details. I used to be the type that wanted color in my comics and graphic novels, but Basewood was made for the black and white medium. It really added another layer to this story. The rainy and snowy scenes and sometimes whole page panels are striking and stunning! There is a lot of emotion and heart to Basewood. It reads fast too because there isn’t an extravagant amount of text. But what’s there is very effective. Definitely a reread. A wonderful gem!
June 22, 2020
A beautiful story, with even more beautiful illustrations. Lovely and enjoyable read.
June 19, 2023
Alec-longstreth dot com to read 1-4 and 9+
February 22, 2025
Argus you marvelous hero.
August 12, 2014
"Basewood" was my first experience with backing a Kickstarter project and I haven't regretted it once. The book is artfully crafted, the story and art are meticulous, and the experience was thoroughly rewarding.
I can't say enough good things about Alec Longstreth and his "Basewood" saga. His art is so detailed and his world so intricate, reading this book is truly like visiting another world. Not a single square inch is wasted and his characters are absolutely delightful. My 8-year-old son loves this book even more than I do and Alec went out of his way to answer his questions on Twitter and personalize my son's very own copy at TCAF this year. I wish everyone in comics was as passionate, talented, and generous as Longstreth.
This is a FANTASTIC book, lovingly created both creatively and physically, and it deserves a place on every comic-lovers bookshelf. Bravo!
NOTE: I also HIGHLY recommend picking up Issue #20 of Longstreth's mini-comic series "Phase 7" as it acts as a companion piece to the graphic novel. In addition to all the lyrics from the "Songs From The Basewood" album (check the Phase 7 Bandcamp site), it has a wealth of behind-the-scenes sketches and other stuff. It's a fascinating look at the making of a long form work.
I can't say enough good things about Alec Longstreth and his "Basewood" saga. His art is so detailed and his world so intricate, reading this book is truly like visiting another world. Not a single square inch is wasted and his characters are absolutely delightful. My 8-year-old son loves this book even more than I do and Alec went out of his way to answer his questions on Twitter and personalize my son's very own copy at TCAF this year. I wish everyone in comics was as passionate, talented, and generous as Longstreth.
This is a FANTASTIC book, lovingly created both creatively and physically, and it deserves a place on every comic-lovers bookshelf. Bravo!
NOTE: I also HIGHLY recommend picking up Issue #20 of Longstreth's mini-comic series "Phase 7" as it acts as a companion piece to the graphic novel. In addition to all the lyrics from the "Songs From The Basewood" album (check the Phase 7 Bandcamp site), it has a wealth of behind-the-scenes sketches and other stuff. It's a fascinating look at the making of a long form work.
April 28, 2014
The Best Dragon Comic Book I've Read In A Long Time
There just aren't enough comic books with dragons. I backed this randomly on Kickstarter (side note - this was the most well run and entertaining Kickstarter campaign I have ever seen). When I got the book, it kind of blew my mind. It just looks really nice. A beautiful hardcover, and for a lower price than most publishers charge for a softcover of the same size. It's a relatively quiet comic. The characters don't have a lot to say, so there's no need to take away from the awesome artwork with unnecessary word bubbles. At the heart of the book is a story about family, those expected and those brought together by necessity. Can't go wrong with this one.
There just aren't enough comic books with dragons. I backed this randomly on Kickstarter (side note - this was the most well run and entertaining Kickstarter campaign I have ever seen). When I got the book, it kind of blew my mind. It just looks really nice. A beautiful hardcover, and for a lower price than most publishers charge for a softcover of the same size. It's a relatively quiet comic. The characters don't have a lot to say, so there's no need to take away from the awesome artwork with unnecessary word bubbles. At the heart of the book is a story about family, those expected and those brought together by necessity. Can't go wrong with this one.
September 8, 2016
Cannot recommend this book enough. Gorgeous, gorgeous hardcover graphic novel. Large format (9x12). All black and white ink line illustrations - deceptively simple in style, and yet so, so intricate in execution. Every page so carefully crafted, any one at random would make an amazing poster. The forest at night behind thousands of snowflakes. A cliff a mile high with the deep dark wood at its base. A tree house roof thatched with leaves. A hill of skulls in a torchlit cave. Simple story, well told, nothing groundbreaking in the plot, but inhabited by believable characters. Good for my kids of 8 and 9 - couple of scary scenes of injury, but the babymaking is handled tastefully. Go get it.
May 12, 2016
Basewood is beautifully drawn. The amount of texture that Alec Longstreth puts in each page teleports you to his carefully crafted world. I read this as it was originally serialized in Longstreth's minicomic series, Phase 7, and this hefty hardcover improves the presentation. Longstreth's dedication to getting the details right is reflected in the construction of this graphic novel and in the storylines, where we watch the characters carefully build up and fix their world, battling against the destructive forces of nature and time, personified by a dragon.
February 11, 2014
A nice simple fantasy story in a very handsome package. Mr Longstreth has a very clean, emotionally open cartooning style that is perfect for this kind of almost YA type material. He also clearly delights in depicting the natural world. The setup for the story hinted at a deeper allegorical dimension that never really materialized, which is why I didn't give it my highest rating. I Backed this on Kickstarter, and I am happy with the results.
May 29, 2014
Gorgeous drawings - very detailed and imaginative - that imbue a warm, safe feeling throughout the story. The tinkerings of the old man, and the tree house, cliff, and forests are richly illustrated. It was a cool world to hang out in.
The story includes some adult themes (danger, mortality), but isn't overly violent and isn't at all offensive. You can tell that a lot of care was put into the story and the drawings. I really enjoyed it!
The story includes some adult themes (danger, mortality), but isn't overly violent and isn't at all offensive. You can tell that a lot of care was put into the story and the drawings. I really enjoyed it!
March 30, 2015
Long-time comic artist Alec Longstreth once shaved his face and vowed not to shave again until his graphic novel was completed. There is a time-lapse video of the growth of his beard into epic mountain man proportions as he hammered away at this fantastical story about a man, a dragon, a little amnesia, another man, a pregnant woman, and a diy flying machine. Very well done. Worth all the accolades.
October 20, 2015
A simple but moving story of survival and family. The black and white art looks simple but is meticulously drawn with endless amounts of detail.
The entire comic is available online in five separate chapters (scroll to the middle of the page). The hardcover version is gorgeous with heavy paper and a textured cover. The book is also huge (9"x12") which really showcases the details.
The entire comic is available online in five separate chapters (scroll to the middle of the page). The hardcover version is gorgeous with heavy paper and a textured cover. The book is also huge (9"x12") which really showcases the details.
March 4, 2014
A fun story and incredible art. This book can be enjoyed by both adults and kids, which is becoming a rare thing in comics. The larger format of the book really lets you take in all the massive amounts of detail that Alec put into every page. This book took 10 years to produce and when you read it you can see why! A very good edition to any library.
January 12, 2015
This book is one of the best reasons to go to comic book conventions for me. I picked this up in the small press area at Comic Con & it's really a great book. The art is fantastic, simple but great story (found myself talking to the book at certain parts, cheering & booing- a very good good sign!), totally enjoyable.
January 31, 2015
Beautifully drawn and wonderfully written but it just made me so sad. SPOILERS: I hated that the two best characters (IMO anyway) lost their lives either directly or indirectly due to the main character's foolishness or selfishness. :(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2014
An unusual fantasy that has the feel of a folk tale or legend. Longstreth's art work has a deceptively simplifying effect.
March 11, 2015
histoire trop simple raconte en trop de page , mais le visuel est intéressant au moins.
October 25, 2014
My favorite graphic novel- coffee table book 2014
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews