Dear Creature [Paperback]

Jonathan Case (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 11, 2011

Deep beneath the waves, a creature named Grue broods. He no longer wants to eat lusty beachgoers, no matter how their hormones call to him. A chorus of crabs urges him to reconsider. After all, people are delicious! But this monster has changed. Grue found Shakespeare's plays in cola bottles and, through them, a new heart. Now he yearns to join the world above.

When his first attempt ends... poorly, Grue searches for the person who cast the plays into the sea. What he finds is love in the arms of Giulietta—a woman trapped in her own world. When she and Grue meet, Giulietta believes her prayers are answered. But people have gone missing and Giulietta's nephew is the prime suspect. With his past catching up to him, Grue must decide if becoming a new man means ignoring the monster he was.

Rising from a brine of drive-in pulp and gentle poetry, Jonathan Case's debut graphic novel Dear Creature is the love story you never imagined!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Marvelously entertaining...A funny, bizarre, unexpected pleasure that gives a creature from the depths heart and soul."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Exuberantly weird...Startlingly assured for a debut effort."
--Publisher's Weekly

"...Pretty much perfect."
--Comics Alliance

"...A perfect marriage of storytelling and art...A stunning debut graphic novel mixing an inventive mutant creature story with retro comic realism."
--Shelf Awareness

"...An excellent book, far better than an author/artist's debut graphic novel has any right to be."
--BrodartVibe

“Dear Creature is sure to be one of the quirkiest and most surprising love stories you will ever read.” —Gene Yang, Eisner Award–winner for American Born Chinese
“Every panel is beautifully composed….Case mastered it on his first project.”  —Steve Lieber, Eisner Award–winner for Whiteout: Melt
“An impressive debut. I dream of a world where every cartoonist’s first graphic novel is this accomplished.”  —Derek Kirk Kim, Eisner Award–winner for The Eternal Smile

About the Author

JONATHAN CASE writes and draws books in Portland, Oregon, as a member of Periscope Studio, the largest cooperative of comics creators in America. His work is featured in the Eisner award–winning Comic Book Tattoo, and has been lauded as some of the best show of new talent in comics. Dear Creature is Jonathan Case’s first book.

jonathancase.net

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (October 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076533111X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765331113
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #437,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and poignant November 9, 2011

By Justin Landon

Format:Paperback

I don't read a lot of graphic novels, not so much because I don't like them, but because I have no earthly idea how to pick them. I mean just because I like the art doesn't mean the writing is any good, and I'm really not that much for art. So when I won Tor's New York (Not at) Comic Con Giveaway I was excited to see several graphic novels included. The first one I noticed in the bunch was Dear Creature and boy am I glad I did.

Drawn entirely in black and white, Jonathan Case's graphic novel tells the story of Grue - a sea mutant with a predilection for human flesh. He's awkward, gangly, and carries three crabs around with him who act more like devils-on-his-shoulder than parasitic companions. Surprisingly he also possesses a poet's heart. Through pages of Shakespeare stuffed into soda bottles and cast into the sea, Grue has fallen in love. Dear Creature is a love story of the oddest type between a monster and an agoraphobic woman.

Like every graphic novel I've read and loved (Watchmen being the standard bearer of course), the highlight is the writing. Case is both hilarious, through his crusty crustaceans, and poignant, in Grue's wooing. There is also a brilliance coming from Grue's dialogue which is written entirely in iambic pentameter. For those without previous exposure to ol' Shakespeare's rhythmic writing style, Case went to the trouble of including a primer in the back that's laugh out loud funny and informative.

The art itself has a very pulp quality that conveys some noir sensibilities in its use of light and shadow, but also a certain flair that's identifiable to me as Western. Of course there's a mounted cop that has a thing for the local 'working girl', so I suppose the Western elements aren't all that inconspicuous. My one complaint is in choosing the black and white palette. While striking, some panels become difficult to follow especially in the under water scenes that lack the stark white contrast.

Nested within the larger arc, is a secondary story featuring the aforementioned cop and his 'working girl'. While the response to Grue's love of his human soulmate is (perhaps) warranted given his history of violent crime and outwardly monstrous appearance, this secondary story demonstrates humanity's capacity for closed mindedness. It also highlights an unwillingness to look beyond ourselves as the cop becomes persecutor and persecuted.

All told Dear Creature is wonderfully imagined. The writing is crisp and quirky, complimenting the story, and its art, perfectly. Although I'm a neophyte in the reading (and even more so in the reviewing) or graphic novels, I would strongly recommend this one to all fans of the medium.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfection April 25, 2012

By Daniel R. Royer

Format:Paperback

Dying Breath: 5.0 out of 5
How in the world did I miss this book when it came out? Inside of the covers of this book, lies a story that blew me away and artwork that melted my eyes out of their sockets. The visuals were so GORE-Geous, and they were only presented in black and white. The real kicker though was the way that Case was able to show expression through facial features and body movements. Every panel had a real life feel to it and it just hit home with me, as it got me invested in the cast on a more personal level, like something you would get from watching a movie. The story itself nailed so many different levels; Horror ', Humor ', Romance ', Mystery '. Every single one of those concepts is covered and played out so well. The jokes from the crabs had me rolling on the floor. The horror elements were classic, which is what I expected with a "Monster" being the main character. The huge surprise was the dialogue. The sheer amount of time that Jonathan had to put into this writing to get it right would be mind-blowing to find out. It did take some getting used to, but once I got it down it was just poetry on the page. If you know me, you know I don't give out 5 out of 5's often, and this book is more than deserving of the highest score. It is so solid on every single level that I am sad to think it is over now. Do yourself a favor and make sure to check this one out. I missed out when it came out and I regret that I had to wait for it to be nominated for a Ghastly Award to finally have a chance to check it out.

Artwork: 5.0 out of 5 * Story: 5.0 out of 5

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars wonderfully quirky April 1, 2012

By B. Capossere TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

So here I am, fresh off a review where I admit that it seems graphic stories just aren't for me, and lo and behold, here comes one that proves the exception to what has been a pretty consistent rule. Jonathan Case's Dear Creature is a wonderfully quirky story that nicely mixes humor, pathos, 50s monster movie nostalgia, and a heaping portion of Shakespeare. And it all works.

Set in a California coastal town during the early 60s, Dear Creature relates the story of Grue, a Creature of the Black Lagoon-like figure who spends his time eating hormone-ridden teens and hanging out with his crab buddies, who make up a consistently comical Greek chorus throughout the story. His routine, however, has been interrupted by the arrival of a series of empty soda bottles containing Shakespeare's plays. The stories and language capture Grue's soul and he foreswears his murderous past, vowing to turn over a new leaf. His first attempt doesn't work out so great in one of the stories more humorous and yet sad moments. Rather than seek out a random encounter again, Grue decides to go in search of the source of the Shakespeare-filled bottles. He tracks the bottles to an agoraphobic named Giulietta, whose home is the hold of a boat she shares with her sister (abandoned long ago by her lover) and her sister's children, one of whom has just been arrested for the murder of one of Grue's victims. In love with Giulietta, Grue has to navigate the chaos of several situations: how to deal with Giulietta's illness, what to do about her sister's accused teenager, how to avoid a local policeman trying to clear the son, what to do about scientists trying to learn about the local monster, and finally, how to manage--if possible--the consequences of his past. All the while being prodded by his crab companions to simply return to his past life

Grue is a wonderful creation in terms of both the visuals (like a mix of the Black Lagoon Creature and a smiley face button) and his personality. One can't help but be caught between two reactions--anger over his many murders and hope that he finds a way to escape his past. Case's choice to have him speak in iambic pentameter much of the time is a great decision, lending him a sense of depth and nobility that is both comic and moving.

In fact, there are lots of great decisions in Dear Creature: having the crabs not simply comment on the action but actively try and turn Grue back to his darker side (often doing so perched atop his shoulder like the proverbial devil); having Giulietta be a middle-aged, frumpy, mentally ill "damsel in distress," having her desire to escape her agoraphobic prison mirror Grue's own such desires, having the lawman be both admirably noble and distressingly self-blind, and a host of other such spot on choices. One of the few missteps I thought involved an encounter with a squid, but it is a relatively brief and unimportant scene.

The art is all black and white. Sometimes I found the lack of contrast or sharp definitions a bit of a hindrance, but for the most part the artwork both carried and enhanced the narrative as one would hope in a graphic story. There are several perfect scenes where the art is perfectly meshed with the text or, lacking text, with the mood of the moment. Case also sprinkles in (or at least, I thought he did) some great "cliché" images, but cliché in the positive sense of a classic scene that folks will respond to with a soft smile of recognition, such as the cover picture which is in the classic "mutant/monster/alien abducting the girl" shot from 50s movies and old science fiction magazine covers (save for the smiles on both their faces). There's even a few Western images in here, thanks to the local lawman's penchant for using a horse. Finally, as a bonus, there's a truly funny appendix wherein one of Grue's crab friends gives a semi-tutorial ("semi" in that you probably don't want to trust all the "facts" presented) on iambic pentameter.

It's been quite a long time since I've read a graphic novel I responded well to. Dear Creature was for me a near-perfect concoction: just the right tone; just the right level of seriousness; a good mix of humor, sorrow, and angst; simple, clean, clear artwork that carried and enhanced the story without getting in the way of it; a story that went just the right length and knew when to stop; a few quirky and intriguing characters to focus on. And iambic pentameter. Strongly recommended.