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Beast
The first full-length solo work of Marian Churchland, artist of Conan: Trophy. Colette, a young sculptor looking for work, finds a job with a mysterious client who wants her to carve his portrait out of marble. The client turns out to be a shadowy creature, and the block of marble, she discovers, has a long history that threatens to engulf her entirely
152 pages, Paperback
First published November 24, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
February 7, 2017
The first solo long-form graphic novel from Churchland, published in 2009, black and white, pen and ink, gray-washed, based in part on the Beauty and Beast, about a young woman sculptor who has broken up with her boyfriend, who is having trouble getting her artwork going, but suddenly gets this opportunity to sculpt in a large block of Carrera marble, a portrait of a. . . Beast, but she has to agree to move into his house. She doesn't talk much, the Beast doesn't talk much, so much of what happens is communicated in the visuals, in the sculpting, in bodies and objects. We get some backstory about the Beast from centuries ago, but not much, it's more evocative than it is strictly narrative.
The moment of revelation she has about how to solve the problem in the sculpture happens in the tub, whereafter she bursts out and races to do what she knows she has to do. When she finishes the sculpture she returns to her apartment to find messages from the ex, they meet, and it's apparent she has to choose, and (spoiler alert), she does choose, and the choice is to return to the Beast, where there appear to be plenty of blocks of marble available to create a career from. To my mind, she chooses a life of art over this wishy-washy guy. There's a lot of depth to this one, I found it beautiful and haunting and recommend it. A twist on the Beauty and the Beast story where the Beast is the Beauty of Art, as I see it. I really like it.
The moment of revelation she has about how to solve the problem in the sculpture happens in the tub, whereafter she bursts out and races to do what she knows she has to do. When she finishes the sculpture she returns to her apartment to find messages from the ex, they meet, and it's apparent she has to choose, and (spoiler alert), she does choose, and the choice is to return to the Beast, where there appear to be plenty of blocks of marble available to create a career from. To my mind, she chooses a life of art over this wishy-washy guy. There's a lot of depth to this one, I found it beautiful and haunting and recommend it. A twist on the Beauty and the Beast story where the Beast is the Beauty of Art, as I see it. I really like it.
February 18, 2017
The first time I read this book I was most captivated by the older woman in the run-down gothic but once dignified house, and her labrador retriever, Bodi. The panels in which the protagonist Colette watched the old woman, trying to figure out how to communicate with her. Colette's visits to the park with Bodi (memorable in that this mundane, easygoing, outdoor activity contrasted with the tense, claustrophobic, Hitchcockian feeling in the house.)
The mysterious Beast just seemed like a guy added into the story for drama (two cups Beast, stir until gothic and/or haunted). Or added in so that the book could ask its central question: "If you have to choose between a 28-year-old immature, self-absorbed hipster or a 400-year-old cultured and well-traveled mystery man, part Renaissance artist and part E.T...which would you choose?"
I found the book to be quietly enjoyable with fine art and an interesting premise, but uneven in its writing and often with a patched-together feel. Reading the afterward really helped me dig deeper into this book. Churchland writes about her process--the various influences including her beloved dog Buddy (name changed to Bodi in the novel), Angela Carter (I can't help wondering if the old lady in the book is some commemoration of Carter--a host who is willing to bring us into a disturbing oddly-realistic fairy-tale world but refuses to hold our hand once there), Beauty and the Beast. It was wonderful to reread the book with Churchland's process in mind and to think of the strange ways the pieces of a story can puzzle themselves together.
The book is set in Vancouver and the story begins when aspiring sculptor Colette is struggling in love, trying to hold onto her hopes of being a sculptor despite the challenges, and muddling through problematic family relationships. Basically, she has just broken up with her boyfriend and doesn't have the resources to practice her beloved craft of stone-carving, but her shyster father finds her a dodgy commission: to sculpt a portrait of a wealthy client, a shadowy figure who requires that Colette stay on premises until she finishes the portrait. Colette's father delivers her to the client's home and leaves her to enter this gothic haunted house kind of situation. And this is where Colette meets Beast, a four-hundred-ish-year-old guy who has a long, checkered history with sculpture and also with a troubled 17th-century sculptress.
I like this quiet exploration of what it means to be an artist--a young female artist's relationships to art history and materials, her economic and emotional challenges, and some mythological intersections between art and intimacy.
The mysterious Beast just seemed like a guy added into the story for drama (two cups Beast, stir until gothic and/or haunted). Or added in so that the book could ask its central question: "If you have to choose between a 28-year-old immature, self-absorbed hipster or a 400-year-old cultured and well-traveled mystery man, part Renaissance artist and part E.T...which would you choose?"
I found the book to be quietly enjoyable with fine art and an interesting premise, but uneven in its writing and often with a patched-together feel. Reading the afterward really helped me dig deeper into this book. Churchland writes about her process--the various influences including her beloved dog Buddy (name changed to Bodi in the novel), Angela Carter (I can't help wondering if the old lady in the book is some commemoration of Carter--a host who is willing to bring us into a disturbing oddly-realistic fairy-tale world but refuses to hold our hand once there), Beauty and the Beast. It was wonderful to reread the book with Churchland's process in mind and to think of the strange ways the pieces of a story can puzzle themselves together.
The book is set in Vancouver and the story begins when aspiring sculptor Colette is struggling in love, trying to hold onto her hopes of being a sculptor despite the challenges, and muddling through problematic family relationships. Basically, she has just broken up with her boyfriend and doesn't have the resources to practice her beloved craft of stone-carving, but her shyster father finds her a dodgy commission: to sculpt a portrait of a wealthy client, a shadowy figure who requires that Colette stay on premises until she finishes the portrait. Colette's father delivers her to the client's home and leaves her to enter this gothic haunted house kind of situation. And this is where Colette meets Beast, a four-hundred-ish-year-old guy who has a long, checkered history with sculpture and also with a troubled 17th-century sculptress.
I like this quiet exploration of what it means to be an artist--a young female artist's relationships to art history and materials, her economic and emotional challenges, and some mythological intersections between art and intimacy.
September 24, 2018
Well that was fucking stupid and pointless....
Read
March 3, 2015I really liked the amorphous depiction of the beast in this twenty-something magical realistic tale. The scratchy artwork that makes him up works as a real counterpoint to the realism in the rest of the lines.
This book is really lovely!
This book is really lovely!
December 14, 2014
[I recently re-read Beast because I taught it in a class on the graphic novel. It more than stands up both to re-reading and to classroom discussion. I post below my review from the Summer 2010 issue of Rain Taxi, with a few minor emendations.]
Marian Churchland’s debut graphic novel turns what could be a hackneyed subject—the more-than-twice-told tale of Beauty and the Beast—into a stunning work of art.
Set in Vancouver, Beast begins at a bad time in the life of Colette, an aspiring sculptor in her mid-twenties who has just broken up with her boyfriend and who can’t find a way to pay for the expenses of her stone-carving craft. He ne’er-do-well father, however, has found her a commission: to sculpt a full-length portrait of wealthy client. The job’s menacing condition is that Colette must live in the client’s house for the duration of the work. Beast mostly unfolds in that house, a grand but run-down old domicile presided over by a curmudgeonly old woman and located in a shabby neighborhood with “an ex-gentry association that won’t quite rub off.” The book’s atmosphere is thus suffused with a sense of faded glory, like ghostly echoes on the site of ancient ruins. This emotional ambiance is vindicated by the plot when Colette encounters her client—the titular Beast—and his mysterious, even supernatural past. From that point, Churchland’s tale accelerates to a fateful, if thoroughly ambiguous conclusion. By the end, we are unsure whether Colette has tragically fallen prey to the Beast or triumphantly renounced the indignities of her everyday life for love of him. The question is left to the sympathies and sensibilities of the reader.
In an afterword, Churchland cites the feminist fairy tales of Angela Carter as an inspiration, but Beast differs in its aesthetic priorities from Carter’s stories. Whereas Carter achieves her distinctive effects by texturing post-modern didacticism with neo-Decadent verbal extravagance, Churchland works with a quiet style of accumulated quotidian detail. Beast is narrated, for instance, as a first-person account that foregrounds understatement instead of verbal play. In terms of visuals, Churchland rejects the cartoonishness of so many graphic novels that aspire to literary status in favor of a realist mode of drawing. She thus emphasizes objects and bodies in their three-dimensional solidity. But Churchland's autumnal gray and sepia two-tone coloring, along with the occasional sketchiness of her lines, lend an insubstantial, almost smoke-like quality to the world she so carefully depicts, as if contemporary Vancouver were about to dissolve into the misty eternity of Beast himself. Taken as a whole, Churchland’s approach demonstrates that magic in a narrative works in proportion to the artist’s investment in reality.
Most importantly, Beast asserts the unique emotional expressiveness of the comics medium. Churchland’s marvelously observed drawings of subtle facial expressions and small gestures immerse the reader in an affective reality that prose fiction can only intimate and that film might over-literalize. Colette’s sculpture—as befits the fairy-tale origin of her story—becomes a work of love, but Churchland also imbues her own art with an evident passion for the visible that renders her courageously ambivalent account of the longing, wistfulness, and myth we cannot see all the more convincing. Beast signals the arrival of a serious talent on the comics scene.
Marian Churchland’s debut graphic novel turns what could be a hackneyed subject—the more-than-twice-told tale of Beauty and the Beast—into a stunning work of art.
Set in Vancouver, Beast begins at a bad time in the life of Colette, an aspiring sculptor in her mid-twenties who has just broken up with her boyfriend and who can’t find a way to pay for the expenses of her stone-carving craft. He ne’er-do-well father, however, has found her a commission: to sculpt a full-length portrait of wealthy client. The job’s menacing condition is that Colette must live in the client’s house for the duration of the work. Beast mostly unfolds in that house, a grand but run-down old domicile presided over by a curmudgeonly old woman and located in a shabby neighborhood with “an ex-gentry association that won’t quite rub off.” The book’s atmosphere is thus suffused with a sense of faded glory, like ghostly echoes on the site of ancient ruins. This emotional ambiance is vindicated by the plot when Colette encounters her client—the titular Beast—and his mysterious, even supernatural past. From that point, Churchland’s tale accelerates to a fateful, if thoroughly ambiguous conclusion. By the end, we are unsure whether Colette has tragically fallen prey to the Beast or triumphantly renounced the indignities of her everyday life for love of him. The question is left to the sympathies and sensibilities of the reader.
In an afterword, Churchland cites the feminist fairy tales of Angela Carter as an inspiration, but Beast differs in its aesthetic priorities from Carter’s stories. Whereas Carter achieves her distinctive effects by texturing post-modern didacticism with neo-Decadent verbal extravagance, Churchland works with a quiet style of accumulated quotidian detail. Beast is narrated, for instance, as a first-person account that foregrounds understatement instead of verbal play. In terms of visuals, Churchland rejects the cartoonishness of so many graphic novels that aspire to literary status in favor of a realist mode of drawing. She thus emphasizes objects and bodies in their three-dimensional solidity. But Churchland's autumnal gray and sepia two-tone coloring, along with the occasional sketchiness of her lines, lend an insubstantial, almost smoke-like quality to the world she so carefully depicts, as if contemporary Vancouver were about to dissolve into the misty eternity of Beast himself. Taken as a whole, Churchland’s approach demonstrates that magic in a narrative works in proportion to the artist’s investment in reality.
Most importantly, Beast asserts the unique emotional expressiveness of the comics medium. Churchland’s marvelously observed drawings of subtle facial expressions and small gestures immerse the reader in an affective reality that prose fiction can only intimate and that film might over-literalize. Colette’s sculpture—as befits the fairy-tale origin of her story—becomes a work of love, but Churchland also imbues her own art with an evident passion for the visible that renders her courageously ambivalent account of the longing, wistfulness, and myth we cannot see all the more convincing. Beast signals the arrival of a serious talent on the comics scene.
July 10, 2013
The story was fine, though predictable. The art was great, no real qualms with the drawings. The dialogue (both internal and external): stilted at best, kind of clichèd at worst.
This is not how people speak. For a story that doesn't happen in the UK, people say "phone me" a lot more than I'd expect. "Your toast has grown cold" is also a little weird, even coming from a guy that has been around since the 16th century. (I mean, there was no toast to speak of then, so you'd think he'd learn how to talk about it while it was coming into fashion.)
Her internal dialogue was hard to place. Is she telling us this story from sometime after it occurred, or is it running dialogue during the events? And the whole bath scene was strange, almost as if it were an excuse to draw a full frontal nude woman. Her internal monologue is talking about baths, how Tom had a bathtub, how she likes baths, how she only had a shower at home—and then she says "but I wasn't thinking of that." Well, that seems like a lie to me. And what she was thinking of, while getting dried off and being nude, had nothing to do with the advancement of the plot or the development of her character (which I suppose was the purpose of the whole thing).
Now please don't go calling me a prude that can't handle some nudity in a graphic novel, because I can. But it seems to me that it should have some semblance of purpose other than just being there. Right?
In general, I found Colette's character uninteresting. She was obviously angst-y and depressed, with dashed dreams and some daddy issues, but being depressed and having daddy issues while being angst-y just isn't.....I don't know......cool. It's been done.
Also, I'm not sure how my internal feminist likes this anyhow. A strong woman has her hopes dashed after college, can't make it without the support of her distant father (who takes her money without her doing anything about it), and falls in love with a guy that is the first to recognize her talent, even though he's mysterious and won't tell her everything (maybe....like her father?). She gives up on her other life to follow this guy. Sure, that's her choice and she can make it, but it doesn't smack of "strong female lead" to me.
This is not how people speak. For a story that doesn't happen in the UK, people say "phone me" a lot more than I'd expect. "Your toast has grown cold" is also a little weird, even coming from a guy that has been around since the 16th century. (I mean, there was no toast to speak of then, so you'd think he'd learn how to talk about it while it was coming into fashion.)
Her internal dialogue was hard to place. Is she telling us this story from sometime after it occurred, or is it running dialogue during the events? And the whole bath scene was strange, almost as if it were an excuse to draw a full frontal nude woman. Her internal monologue is talking about baths, how Tom had a bathtub, how she likes baths, how she only had a shower at home—and then she says "but I wasn't thinking of that." Well, that seems like a lie to me. And what she was thinking of, while getting dried off and being nude, had nothing to do with the advancement of the plot or the development of her character (which I suppose was the purpose of the whole thing).
Now please don't go calling me a prude that can't handle some nudity in a graphic novel, because I can. But it seems to me that it should have some semblance of purpose other than just being there. Right?
In general, I found Colette's character uninteresting. She was obviously angst-y and depressed, with dashed dreams and some daddy issues, but being depressed and having daddy issues while being angst-y just isn't.....I don't know......cool. It's been done.
Also, I'm not sure how my internal feminist likes this anyhow. A strong woman has her hopes dashed after college, can't make it without the support of her distant father (who takes her money without her doing anything about it), and falls in love with a guy that is the first to recognize her talent, even though he's mysterious and won't tell her everything (maybe....like her father?). She gives up on her other life to follow this guy. Sure, that's her choice and she can make it, but it doesn't smack of "strong female lead" to me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 15, 2022
i absolutely loved this graphic novel. highly recommend
April 25, 2019
Mainly, I was interested in reading this graphic novel because I had recently read Marian Churchland's other work,
From Under Mountains
, and wanted to see how the two compared. This one is entirely different. It follows Colette, an artist, who has been commissioned to finish a slab of carrara marble for a mysterious benefactor known as the Beast. Her task is simple: create a portrait of the Beast but this proves to be quite challenging. Not only is she expected to live in the house until the work is completed, but the owner, Roz, and the benefactor, don't really offer an explanation for anything.
Every night, Colette works on the marble and the Beast visits. On the first night, he tells her the story behind the marble and doesn't beat around the bush. The marble belonged to his master, who lived in the 16th-century, and lost a bid to win the slab of marble that would become David. Obsessed with carrara, he spends his life trying to find his own and when he finally acquires one, his sister begins to work on it instead. He dies unaccomplished and unknown. The beast somehow gains possession of the marble and has been looking for an artist to finish it. It's also hinted that he had a relationship with the sister at one point. So, Colette finishes the marble, goes home, sees her ex boyfriend and then decides that she needs to return to the Beast.
The graphic novel ends here and while it's more polished than From Under the Mountains, I still feel that the story ends on a cliffhanger and doesn't offer an explanation for anything. However, the artwork is wonderful. The panels alternate between sepia and indigo tones to indicate night and day, which is a nice choice. I also just love her art style overall, which is naturalistic in a simple way.
Every night, Colette works on the marble and the Beast visits. On the first night, he tells her the story behind the marble and doesn't beat around the bush. The marble belonged to his master, who lived in the 16th-century, and lost a bid to win the slab of marble that would become David. Obsessed with carrara, he spends his life trying to find his own and when he finally acquires one, his sister begins to work on it instead. He dies unaccomplished and unknown. The beast somehow gains possession of the marble and has been looking for an artist to finish it. It's also hinted that he had a relationship with the sister at one point. So, Colette finishes the marble, goes home, sees her ex boyfriend and then decides that she needs to return to the Beast.
The graphic novel ends here and while it's more polished than From Under the Mountains, I still feel that the story ends on a cliffhanger and doesn't offer an explanation for anything. However, the artwork is wonderful. The panels alternate between sepia and indigo tones to indicate night and day, which is a nice choice. I also just love her art style overall, which is naturalistic in a simple way.
October 19, 2017
This is really really lovely. And while it isn't the best thing I've ever read ever (she kind of admits herself that the dog, Bodi, is the center for this work and she's right and he's perfect), I can't give it any less than five stars because Marian Churchland and Hchom are so dear to my heart. Her work puts me in a tender, taking-care-of-my-deepest-nerdiest-self place and I love her for that.
October 25, 2020
A quiet, moody, and mysterious riff on Beauty and the Beast. I love the art, love the tone. This is a good book, and a great debut gn
August 8, 2015
Why does Collette fall in love with Beast?
Why does Beast live in a rundown town building when he used to live as a wealthy Italian?
Why does he have so much marble?
Why does Collette only have one facial expression?
Why do we only get to see Beast about six times?
Why is Roz (the "housekeeper") a character that even needs to exist?
Why did I read this?
I love Beauty and the Beast. I read retellings of it sometimes. This graphic novel is Beauty and the Beast's distant cousin. They bear sort of a resemblance if you squint hard enough. The main essence of the Beauty and the Beast fable (in my opinion) is that Beauty saves the Beast by looking past his outward appearance. She falls in love with him because he is good, not because he has a castle or is attractive or woos her or anything. They just fall in love.
In THIS version of the fable, Beauty (here named Collette) just makes a marble carving for the Beast and sorta maybe falls in love with him in the end. They don't really talk to each other so the ending comes out of the blue really. The Beast is a shadow squiggle with elf ears and wears a suit. He doesn't really need saving and never is saved. There is this half-assed explanation that he is reincarnating Collette (I think. It's so vague I'm not really sure what the hell was going on). They were Italian artists or something and then somehow he turned into shadow squiggles and somehow she is reincarnated and then he finds her reincarnation and wants her to make a marble statue of him because the old her liked marble. Like I said, It was confusing so I'm not sure.
Why does Beast live in a rundown town building when he used to live as a wealthy Italian?
Why does he have so much marble?
Why does Collette only have one facial expression?
Why do we only get to see Beast about six times?
Why is Roz (the "housekeeper") a character that even needs to exist?
Why did I read this?
I love Beauty and the Beast. I read retellings of it sometimes. This graphic novel is Beauty and the Beast's distant cousin. They bear sort of a resemblance if you squint hard enough. The main essence of the Beauty and the Beast fable (in my opinion) is that Beauty saves the Beast by looking past his outward appearance. She falls in love with him because he is good, not because he has a castle or is attractive or woos her or anything. They just fall in love.
In THIS version of the fable, Beauty (here named Collette) just makes a marble carving for the Beast and sorta maybe falls in love with him in the end. They don't really talk to each other so the ending comes out of the blue really. The Beast is a shadow squiggle with elf ears and wears a suit. He doesn't really need saving and never is saved. There is this half-assed explanation that he is reincarnating Collette (I think. It's so vague I'm not really sure what the hell was going on). They were Italian artists or something and then somehow he turned into shadow squiggles and somehow she is reincarnated and then he finds her reincarnation and wants her to make a marble statue of him because the old her liked marble. Like I said, It was confusing so I'm not sure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2010
Visually I am in love with it, I love the exterior and interiors of the houses, the rendering of the people, the actions of the animals, all of it rendered with such sensitive emotion. I especially love the page when she has her artistic revelation in the bathtub and immediately steps out of the bath, giving the reader a moment of full frontal. First, kudos for deciding not to cover her up. Encore, as I so rarely see a woman portrayed full frontal caught in such a moment of determination. She is not arching her body in desire, or lying supine in bed, she is naturally rushing as she realizes what to do next. This moment really struck me, perhaps because it was not exploiting her body for the reader's titillation
As for the story, I am continually re-reading this novel and getting something new out of it. It is based on the tale of Beauty and the Beast, but it's more about finding beauty in the beast and vice versa.
As for the story, I am continually re-reading this novel and getting something new out of it. It is based on the tale of Beauty and the Beast, but it's more about finding beauty in the beast and vice versa.
October 7, 2016
A young sculptor is hired to carve a block of marble and finds herself fascinated by the strange beast who owns the stone.
Good thing: The dramatic black and white drawings, with soft grey in spots, captured the changing dramatic then languorous story. The images of Bodhi perfectly captured expressions and movements of a dog.
Bad thing: It didn't quite convince me that a woman would go through with the carving, even if the artist in her demanded it.
You need to sink into this graphic novel and read it all at one setting - the slow pace and uncertainty grow on you. I wouldn't seek out more of the artist/author's work (yet), but I have a favorable opinion based on this.
Good thing: The dramatic black and white drawings, with soft grey in spots, captured the changing dramatic then languorous story. The images of Bodhi perfectly captured expressions and movements of a dog.
Bad thing: It didn't quite convince me that a woman would go through with the carving, even if the artist in her demanded it.
You need to sink into this graphic novel and read it all at one setting - the slow pace and uncertainty grow on you. I wouldn't seek out more of the artist/author's work (yet), but I have a favorable opinion based on this.
February 17, 2011
3.5 I really enjoyed the art. Didn't care for the .
March 28, 2012
Really pretty and excellent artwork is no replacement for a vague and uninteresting plot. :/
January 9, 2019
If you enjoy mulling over good art work or fairy tale retellings, this is definitely worth a read. Beast has fantastic artwork, with muted colours, an enjoyable style, and creative ideas. The design for Beast himself was outstanding, it really allows the artist to show off her talent with lines; he's a manifestation of shadows, with elvish ears and a suit almost unbecoming of someone with a strong build such as himself.
That being said, this book is not without its problems. A lot of questions I had about the plot were never answered, such as, "How did the Beast become the creature of shadow that he is?" "What exactly happened to Andrea? Did she die, or was she cursed by something magical?" There has to be some element of the supernatural in the story for Beast to be what he is, but that is never addressed at any point in the story. Its frustrating, because the mystery of Beast and the overall plot actually is intriguing, but its never truly resolved in a satisfying way.
The romance between our protagonist, Collette, and Beast, suffers from a few of the same issues, but it wasn't outright awful, either. They do have some meaningful conversations throughout the story, but not enough to fully convince the reader that they have true romantic chemistry. I could understand why someone like Collette would fall for Beast, who is nothing but a gentleman the entire book and treats her with complete and utter respect, (Don't let others tell you otherwise, Stockholm Syndrome is absolutely irrelevant to this book. Collette is free to come and go as she pleases during her stay at Beast's house) but there needed to be something more than that. An endearing trait unique to the Beast's personality, and the same goes for Collette. I always got the feeling that Beast only liked her for her artistic abilities, not for who she was as a person.
This book could easily be a masterpiece if it had more time to flesh out the romance, fully explain the backstory and resolve all of the plot threads it introduces, but as is, its still an enjoyable read.
That being said, this book is not without its problems. A lot of questions I had about the plot were never answered, such as, "How did the Beast become the creature of shadow that he is?" "What exactly happened to Andrea? Did she die, or was she cursed by something magical?" There has to be some element of the supernatural in the story for Beast to be what he is, but that is never addressed at any point in the story. Its frustrating, because the mystery of Beast and the overall plot actually is intriguing, but its never truly resolved in a satisfying way.
The romance between our protagonist, Collette, and Beast, suffers from a few of the same issues, but it wasn't outright awful, either. They do have some meaningful conversations throughout the story, but not enough to fully convince the reader that they have true romantic chemistry. I could understand why someone like Collette would fall for Beast, who is nothing but a gentleman the entire book and treats her with complete and utter respect, (Don't let others tell you otherwise, Stockholm Syndrome is absolutely irrelevant to this book. Collette is free to come and go as she pleases during her stay at Beast's house) but there needed to be something more than that. An endearing trait unique to the Beast's personality, and the same goes for Collette. I always got the feeling that Beast only liked her for her artistic abilities, not for who she was as a person.
This book could easily be a masterpiece if it had more time to flesh out the romance, fully explain the backstory and resolve all of the plot threads it introduces, but as is, its still an enjoyable read.
March 10, 2021
Not necessarily a bad comic...but I felt like the ending was a little lack-luster. Like the author didn't know how to end the story and just kind of half-handedly left it open ended. That's really what brought my rating down from a good 3 stars to a 2 star read.
Not to mention that the romance felt a little...non-existent? I felt as if it should have been explored more, especially given how long Colette has supposedly been staying in this house to finish this sculpture for Beast. There were some scenes of them interacting, but almost every single one was kind of a lore dump about the background of how he came to have this marble and the girl in his past. I wish we had seen them talk about anything else, got to see their relationship DEVELOP until it actually became as ride-or-die as it seemed at the end of the book.
I don't know...other than that I don't really have many complains. I loved the premise, just not the execution. I'd still die for Bodi the dog though!
Not to mention that the romance felt a little...non-existent? I felt as if it should have been explored more, especially given how long Colette has supposedly been staying in this house to finish this sculpture for Beast. There were some scenes of them interacting, but almost every single one was kind of a lore dump about the background of how he came to have this marble and the girl in his past. I wish we had seen them talk about anything else, got to see their relationship DEVELOP until it actually became as ride-or-die as it seemed at the end of the book.
I don't know...other than that I don't really have many complains. I loved the premise, just not the execution. I'd still die for Bodi the dog though!
November 5, 2017
The first full length graphic novel by Marian Churchland, BEAST is the story of an aspiring sculptor, Collette, who gets hired by a shadowy benefactor to carve a centuries-old piece of marble. As the figure in the stone becomes apparent, I couldn’t help but think of Michelangelo’s famous statement that every block of stone has a statue inside of it, and it’s the sculptor’s job to find it.
This is an entertaining mystery, with nice illustrations by Churchland. I’m eager to see what else she has created.
This is an entertaining mystery, with nice illustrations by Churchland. I’m eager to see what else she has created.
February 20, 2020
Gorgeous storytelling with such evocative images. The story is such a thoughtful and revealing twist on Beauty and the Beast, bringing all the elements of that tale that stay in our imagination while creating something entirely new. The characters are nuanced and circle one another with masterful precision and tension, and the story progresses with such wonderful moments of intimacy, like with the dog, the takeout, etc. I love how Churchland has mapped this story onto Vancouver and ground the fabulous speculative elements with a setting so textured. Looking forward to whatever she does next.
June 15, 2021
I thought this was pretty fantastic. It’s absolutely shrouded in mystery, up until and including the end. It’s a loose retelling of beauty and the beast but there’s more to it than that. There’s a lot of subtext. There’s a lot of real life and the human condition submerged in the fantastical elements. This is a story without explanation that is very thought-provoking but not plunged fully into the avant-garde. Beautiful art. Bodi the dog seems to jump off the page, fully alive and right in front of you. Blah blah blah. No ones gonna read this but if you do, give this graphic novel a shot.
June 21, 2018
I feel like this would warrant rereading, like there's more in the art and the text than I picked up the first time through. It's strangely neither as dark a story nor as happy an ending as I would've guessed. I love how the (visual) darkness creeps around and through some of the panels, like every shadow could come to life full of nightmares, and yet the daytime scenes are perfectly mundane.
October 24, 2017
totally loved this book both the artwork and the story.
Underneath this story i found a story of dedication to purpose. There is a story there under that piece o marble you just have to be willing to see it through not matter what your fears.
Underneath this story i found a story of dedication to purpose. There is a story there under that piece o marble you just have to be willing to see it through not matter what your fears.
January 1, 2026
There was a lot of things I wanted from this comic and honestly the execution wasn’t as good as I had expected but I still did enjoy the main character and was intrigued. There’s only so much you can really do with a story like this but it was enjoyable
February 6, 2018
The plotting structure was a little weak, but Churchland's exceptional art is completely absorbing.
February 26, 2018
Interesting, love the illustrations and day-to-day life depicted. Slow moving and simple in the best of ways; really enjoyed this.
October 15, 2020
3/3.5 - I need more from this story!!! The ending was such a cliffhanger.
January 22, 2021
WHAT WAS THAT ENDING???
April 30, 2021
different, kinda sensual.
November 25, 2021
Uhh ... what?
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