The Wild Kingdom

December 13, 2010
This brilliantly conceived pocket book casually expresses a crystalline analysis of our own imprecise and muddled thinking. Formatted like a textbook from an alternate world where comics are the standard mode of discourse, it references general interest pop-science television programs like the titular "Wild Kingdom," complete with commercial breaks which punctuate the book's more overtly narrative passages. Sequences featuring Huizenga's everyman character Glenn Ganges depict the minor catastrophes that inevitably result from industrialized humanity's coexistence with the animal world, from an unwelcome insect at home to an ill-fated pigeon on a four-lane highway. The book's "commercial" sequences echo with the quasi-religious recurring phrase "I was saved from my own life," a slogan that points to the paradox at the heart of "man versus nature"—a perceived alienation from the natural world from which man springs; this schism is effectively leveraged to sell products promising transcendence from man's earthly origins. Huizenga's lyrical storytelling highlights the ways in which science, education, entertainment, and commerce have been hopelessly comingled, and the book's absurdist climax suggests that this state of affairs can't continue forever. Huizenga continues to forge a path as one of the most important graphic novelists working today.

May 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-This strange, abstract graphic novel defies easy categorization. Through the day-to-day life of a vaguely disaffected young man, Glenn Ganges, readers witness the uneasy relationship between humanity and the broader world of nature. For example, in the opening sections, the smear of a crushed insect takes on the form of the Nike "swoosh" while a pigeon, disoriented from eating fast food, wanders fatally into the path of a car. In the final scene, an eagle crashes into a power line and creates a domino effect that results in a worldwide apocalypse. The middle chapters are more opaque; scenes of contemporary angst and ennui overlap with snippets from bizarre advertisements and nonsensical animal facts. Beautifully packaged and intriguing, this book is unlikely to find a broad audience among high school students, but it will appeal most to those looking for a thought-provoking, modern, and unusual take on the human condition.-Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Library, Ontario, Canada

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