Rewild

by Devin Grayson, Jana Adamović (Illustrator), Sal Cipriano (Illustrator)

Fables meets The Fisher King in this dark, magical realist tale about a mysterious young homeless woman, an enterprising engineer with a troubled past, and a dangerous new breed of Fae, ravaged by climate change and furious with the human race.


A motley collection of disturbing mythological creatures have started to stake out the land of those who damaged them—and the planet—and they aren’t backing down. When Poe, an entrancing drifter and self-proclaimed changeling demands that Demond build a park to appease them, he first worries about her grasp on reality, and then, along with his family, his own. Soon, he—and the reader—must question the rationality of our entire species as Demond struggles to save his city… and maybe even the world. But are we past the point of no return?

“Far-out fantasy and brutal environmental reality collide in the finest work yet from Devin Grayson, whose sophisticated storytelling is perfectly paired with the outrageously lovely visuals of Yana Adamovic. Very highly recommended.”- Brian K. Vaughan ( Saga, Y, the Last Man )


“ Rewild is a profound look at what humanity has lost in the name of progress. It's beautiful, powerful, and through some magic trick simultaneously grim and hopeful.” - Mark Waid ( Kingdom Come )

“ ...a timely examination of humanity’s relationship with the natural world, woven into a glorious fantasy adventure pitting man against Faerie.” - Mark Buckingham ( Fables )

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, LGBT

120 pages, Paperback

Published January 11, 2022

About the author

Devin Grayson is an avid gamer, former acting student, and enthusiastic reader fortunate enough to have turned a lifelong obsession with fictional characters into a dynamic writing career. She has a B.A. from Bard College, where she studied creative writing with novelist Mona Simpson. Best known for her work on the Batman titles for DC Comics, Devin has been a regular writer on Catwoman, Nightwing, and The Titans, and contributed to the award-winning No Man’s Land story arc. With the publication of Batman: Gotham Knights in March of 2000, she became the first (and, sadly, only as of 2020) female to create, launch and write an ongoing Batman title.

Additional career highlights include the launch of the critically acclaimed series Omni for Humanoids, Doctor Strange: The Fate of Dreams, an original novel featuring Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, and USER—a highly personal three-part, creator-owned miniseries about gender identity and online role-playing, originally published by Vertigo and newly available as a collected edition hardcover through Image. Devin is also the creator of Yelena Belova, a Marvel character staring in the upcoming MCU Black Widow movie (played by Florence Pugh), Damien Darhk, a DC character now appearing regularly in CW’s Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow (played by Neal McDonough), and Catalina Flores, a DC character recently featured as the super-villain Tarantula in The Lego Batman Movie.

Frequently cited for compelling character development and nuanced exploration of complex themes, Devin’s work has been showcased in mainstream media such as USA Today and Working Woman as well as in alternative press such as The Village Voice, The Advocate, and Curve magazine. Over the years, she has written in several different media and genres, from comic books and novels to video game scripts and short essays. She is currently working on an original graphic novel for Berger Books.

Devin lives in Northern California with her husband, step-son, devoted Early Alert Canines Diabetic Alert Dog, and somewhat less devoted cat. Openly bisexual, she is a passionate advocate for the GLBTQ community, as well as being a committed environmentalist, and a public speaker for T1 Diabetes awareness and Diabetic Alert Dogs. She is always happy to take on a new challenge, especially if it involves making some new fictional friends.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rewild feels almost old fashioned, like a lost book from the Vertigo days. It is a bit preachy in places, but a lot is made up by the art, which is quite charming.

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

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

A modern day eco-fairytale that smacks you right in the face with "Humans bad. Need to get back to nature." Poe is a human who grew up in fairie. She's hear to warn us that Fairyland is pissed with what humans have done with the planet and Titania's armies will kill us all. Enter Demond a city planner with an ecological bent and I guess some history of mental illness. This thing is filled with half-formed plots and ideas that never come to fruition. The ending was a big cop out and so freaking vague. This is the kind of story where the main characters accomplish absolutely nothing. If they weren't in the story, the exact some thing would happen. The art is solid though.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wake-up call for environmentalism that is either a man undergoing a mental health crisis accompanied by a manic pixie girl or a fairy-driven apocalypse for mankind for our abuse of the Earth.

Nice art and sympathetic characters help wash the lesson medicine down smoothly.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um. I would say this feels like an early work of a writer, but Devin Grayson has been writing for years. There are a bunch of weird logic-flaw moments which take me out of a story whose concept I kind of agree with.

The Faerie have always been creatures of nature. But all of the destruction humanity has caused to nature is at a tipping point and the fae are returning to fight back. We follow Demond Davis, a city planner (or something) and Poe, who was stolen by faerires as a child. Poe is trying to convince Demond that his next project should be a park in order to show Titania that humans do care about nature and Demond is just trying to convince himself he's not crazy.

The art is good. The characters are distinct and easy to follow. There are a lot of backgrounds and the colors support the figures. Some of the faerie designs are interesting.

My biggest problem is the story presents an all-or-nothing scenario. The Fae are going to wipe out humanity to save nature. The story never presents a middle ground. In her afterward, Grayson talks about "rational hope". If you look at the final two-page image, it looks a bit like hope. But, in context of the story, it's not actually there.

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rewild, ili možda "Povratak divljine" u prevodu zanimljivo je delo scenariste Devina Grejsona i naše crtačice Jane Adamović. Tema sama po sebi daleko da je originalna, a izvedba je donekle i dosadna, ako ćemo pošteno. Iz malo truda, moglo bi se izvući iz malog mozga bar deset što stripova što romana koji za temu imaju povratak magije/prirode/onostranog/nestanak tehnologije itd. To samo po sebi nije problem; prvi volim da se kaškam kao svinja u blatu u temama i motivima koji su mi bliski i dragi; no, muka je u tome što Grejson nekako uspeva da sve to izgleda kao popovanje i one osobe koje vas hvataju na ulici da vam uvale neki letak, koji samo što nije rešio sve svetske probleme.

Adamović crtežom vadi stvar (nisam siguran da li je ona zaslužna i za kolor) i inače dosadnjikav strip diže iznad proseka - ili makar mu omogućuje da dobaci do proseka. Da mi scenario i dijalozi nisu bitnija stavka od crteža, moguće da bi moja ocena bila viša. Ovako,

3*

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Eco-fairytale of the most ham-handed type. Think Sandman meets Captain Planet. And the whole thing apes plot elements that Alan Moore did SO MUCH BETTER in the pages of Swamp thing.

The art is competent enough, and the story has its moments, but all in all, this little book had herky-jerky character development, a message delivered with all the subtlety of a New Year's Eve fireworks display, weird deus ex machina moments, and a total cop-out ending.

The worst moment came when the protagonist (an ostensibly selfless and heroic young black man), knowing that mankind was on the hook for the destruction of the world, blamed white people. I feel like a hero would have tried to stand tall, and take responsibility for humanity's crimes.

The best moment came a page later, when a familiar character delivered some excellent rhyming dialogue. That was cute, so 2 stars instead of 1.

Oh, and spoiler alert:















Nothing either of the main characters did mattered to the overall plot AT ALL.

[angelofmine1974 · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/Nl6WM2s1l7Y

Enjoy!

[Bel · Rating 1 out of 5]

idek what was going on

[Caitlyn Ladd · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars! i love the environmental message of the book, but it feels underdeveloped in a way? wish there could have been more interaction between the faeries and humans

[Emily Rainsford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desmond is an urban planner who needs to impress his stepdad with a big commercial project. But his presentation is crashed by a literal manic fae dream girl who insists that the Fae are all turning into monsters because of the human relationship with the earth and the Fae queen is coming and she's pissed, and the land Demond is building on really needs to be a park instead.

Demond starts to believe her but is he going crazy or is the Queen of the Fae really coming to destroy the parasitic humans?

This short graphic novel is a kind of urban fantasy cautionary tale about the way we live on and interact with nature. It's fairly overt with its messaging but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I thought the take on the Fae and their relationship to humans was quite interesting, and enjoyed the introspective, fairytale style narration in points. The idea that the fantasy creatures were kind of physical manifestations of the human relationship with the environment, and that they were turning from something whimsical to something wicked, was a unique and interesting concept.

The art is amazing and the amount of detail put into every image is mind-blowing.

Overall it may not be an overly complex, nuanced or groundbreaking story but I thought it was a fairly unique take and I enjoyed reading it.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is a 2, the art a 4 or 5. I’m a sucker for fairy tale and Shakespeare adaptations/appropriations, but this only engages those to a certain extent. I also love cli fi, no matter how dark. This was just fine. It comes really close to making the point about social systems being to blame for inaction on climate change, but ends up making it an individual problem to solve. If the art weren’t so gorgeous, I probably wouldn’t have finished it.

[Adrienne Kern McClintock · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fey are angry that humans are destroying the planet. A young man whose family is into politics is trying to help, but not only does his family oppose building parks, they assume the man has the same "mental illness" that his father had. He meets a girl who appears mentally ill and homeless, but is really a human changeling from the fey world. She remembers what he did as a child, and is trying to help, or at least warn, that her queen is coming to invade and destroy humanity.

[Anastasia MacKenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an environmentalist I wanted to like this more than I did, but the lesson was pontificated in a very preachy way and could have used more subtlety. The main characters also failed to do anything. I don't believe you always need a character that succeeds or a happy ending but they didn't add anything meaningful to the story or plot. You could remove them from the book entirely and it would be pretty much the same.

The art is great though.

[Jen Hossack · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eco-groovy graphic novel that brings together Shakespearean Fae, the modern world, and the ecosystem. While the Lorax speaks for the trees, Titania speaks for the entire ecosystem, but she's intent on making humans pay for the damage they have done. While this graphic novel takes a minute to find its' footing, if you like Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night's Dream", you will be drawn in. This will be best read in high school and up due to Shakespearean references and higher level concepts.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful art and an easy to follow along with cautionary tale. I say this because I feel that some writers feel the need to tell a big convoluted story to tell a story that could be expressed much more succinctly and simply. The ability to do that is much more indicative of a talented writer than anything else.

[Bojan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Angažovana priča o očuvanju životne sredine, gde se vilin svet vraća da kazni čovečanstvo zbog uništenja iste. Nažalost, izlizana i ne toliko inovativna. Crtež je najsjajniji aspekt ove novele, ali je scenario poprilično tanak.
I, zaista smeta štampa domaće verzije, gde se tekst u nekim oblačićima preklapa jedan preko drugog.

[Darian Lorrain]

The cover was giving big magical sci-fi energy so I was a little disappointed when I realized it was set in the modern day and our main character is a business boy, guess you really shouldn't judge these things by the covers, whoops 🤷‍♀️

[Melissa Helton · Rating 3 out of 5]

It jumps into our environmental crisis with both feet, and tries to address some of the nuances, such as industry/capitalism's influence, as well as white exploitation of the environment. I didn't have enough grounding to care too much about the characters though.

[Amanda Majasaari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the story to be much better. And the conclusion of the story is a flop.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit heavy-handed, but it's a weighty theme.

[ChelsMoClark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an important message, told as a contemporary fable, through beautiful artwork and captivating words.

[Fernanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art style was gorgeous, the story fell flat

[Jdetrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an incredibly powerful work regarding the dangers of climate change. I found the characters interesting and compelling and the artwork is gorgeous.

[B.J. Fantine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thematically muddled and confused in plot, ReWild is what happens when a story simultaneously takes itself too seriously and not seriously enough. From a storytelling standpoint, Grayson left much to be desired: on more than one occasion I had to turn the page not because I wanted to see what happened next, but because I needed vindication in selecting this graphic novel. From an environmental standpoint, ReWild is all over the place with mixed messaging. Ecoterrorism is a net positive, yet mother nature is vilified; fighting for the environment is equivalent to being clinically insane, yet it is our duty to combat the powers-that-be; the natural world is a magical gateway, yet so is smoking meth? I mean, come on.

Do yourself a favor and skip this one.