Nightscrawlers

I just discovered the incredible comic book and graphic novel selection at my local library the other day. They have a few superhero titles, but mainly they have a large collection of groundbreaking and innovative comic titles from creators like Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman (Maus), Jamie Hernandez (Love and Rockets), David Clowes (Ghost World), Edward Gorey, Jim Woodring, Chris Ware and ... I could go on and on. Basically all the artists/writers who are really pushing comics into the realm of literature and serious art. I was like "Wow!"

One of the books I took out was a graphic novel called "Pride of Baghdad", written by Brian K. Vaughn (one of the best writers today IMHO). It's about a pride of lions in the Baghdad zoo and their lives after the bombing of Iraq. It's unbelievable. The script is awesome and the art work is just amazing. Nico Henrichon somehow managed to give lions (and other animals) a full range of emotion and expression without resorting to "cartoony" antropomorphized animals.

I totally recommend it.

Here's a wikipedia article about it, but beware spoilers.

-e

Wow, sounds good! Eh, I'm just a sucker for lions. XD

My library mostly has Crossgen trades.

I heard about Pride of Baghdad but not if it was any good. I'll have to check it out sometime.

Pride was so good.

Simply put, Vaughan "gets" war.

And it was beautifully written, with the main story playing metaphor for its own setting.

I could go on, but it's better to just read it. So just read it!

[Edited on 9-1-2007 by Crash Tofu]