From School Library Journal
Grade 12 Up—An alternative comic if there ever was one, this book uses intentionally grotesque artwork, all animal characters, and adult humor to create a flippant story meant to amuse. The two leads are a blind, bloblike flightless dragon and his fanged red cyborg rabbit friend, and with every character they meet, they have the kind of jokey, ironic conversations one finds in indie movies. They move from milieu to milieu, encountering new oddities and narrowly avoiding danger. There are moments when the story pauses and the artwork and narration come together to make a moving panel or two, but usually the narration overtells and the jokes fall flat. Any conventional rules of storytelling go out the window in favor of introducing more weirdly colored creatures who involve the characters in embarrassing snafus. Although some of the creatures are highly original, this title is just not worth bothering with.—
John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
After escaping from Craftiwich and certain death at the hands of Herbert the Great Khan, the Dust King and companions Little Bat and the warrior rabbit Marvin the Red find refuge in the Village of the Cats. But the Great Khan pursues them, and dispatching Marvin and the cats to safety, the Dust King uses his powers to decimate his former friend's army and escape again. A chance meeting with drug-addled sorcerer Gilberto and the fragmentation of the planet into small floating islands doesn't improve our hero's luck, though he tracks down his missing arms; finds the erstwhile Hole-of-the-Spirits, where the shamans hang out; reconnects with Marvin and Little Bat; and eventually reunites with wife and children. This
Dungeon installment is a roller coaster of action, adventure, and laughs, made that much more fun, somehow, because Sfar and Lewis Trondheim also give their hero's odyssey a leisurely, rambling character. Fans waiting on the edge of their seats since
Dragon Cemetery: Dungeon; Twilight, v.1 (2006) shouldn't be disappointed.
Tina ColemanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved