Customer Reviews

Glacial Period (Louvre)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

De Crecy's art is great, the dialog and the premise are good - 1,000 years from now the earth is in a high ice age, and a band of explorers is on an expedition to find out what they can about their ancestors. The hero is a sentient, genetically-engineered dog, and there are species-relations tensions, a great setup. But when they discover the Louvre, the story falls apart - the art comes alive and the story becomes weightless fantasy. Probably the short length and having to advertise the Louvre killed this.

The Louvre Museum has collaborated with NBM in producing this, the first in a series of four graphic novels that feature the museum's collection. This story takes place in some distant future, where an ice-covered Europe is remembered only vaguely, as a legend. An exploration team, including glasses-wearing, genetically engineered, talking dogs, explores the frozen wasteland that once was Paris, and rediscovers the Louvre.

The fantasy elements begin once the explorers enter the building. The artwork comes to life for Hulk, one of the dogs. The story takes on a parable quality, too, with ambiguous commentary on how art is perceived, chosen, and possibly made. The fantasy elements build until the end, a purely fantastical construct that could in fact be a beginning to a whole new story - one I think I'd enjoy.

Something like a hundred of the Louvre's artworks appear here, at least in sketchy form, with a helpful index at the end that identifies them. This crossover between the worlds of the finest art and the often under-rated graphic novel intrigues me. That might be partly because I just saw the Inkheart movie, with its crossover from the world of the written word onto the big screen. Future books in this series will each present a different vision of the Louvre by a different comic artist. I can't wait to see those views, too.

-- wiredweird

Glacial Period is a graphic novel about archaeologists of a future ice age Earth rediscovering the Louvre and its treasures. Science fiction and fantasy are blended to tell the story of what happens when the museum's inhabitants are trapped for centuries under the ice.

Beyond the adventuring scientists interpretations of who created the pieces of art they've found, the plot is very minimal, matching the artistic style is well.

So, what do you get when a hotshot graphic novelist teams up with the Louvre to showcase their works of art with a twist?

Well, you get a short sci-fi book that has a solid start but a contrived, odd end. In short, this is a half-hour read for most and the story was not all that great. It wasn't bad, but it just doesn't live up the self-promotional hype that fills the inside flaps of the front and back covers - such as "Here are the most intelligent comics the world has to offer" and claims that the other is a "mad genius" and his artwork is "breathtaking."

Not really. This one is too sketchy (not the art style, the plot) to be considered great by this reader.

The first volume of 'Glacial Period' represents a departure from the usual graphic novel format, coming from the Louvre, Paris' famous museum, and extending its art into the pop realm. Two French publishing efforts have joined with a literary comics imprint to produce Glacial Period, in which the Louvre will provide a series of four separate graphic novels by four artists: GLACIAL PERIOD is the first, comes from a rising graphic artists star, and is presented in gorgeous, full color throughout. A top pick which stands apart from the usual graphic novel adventure.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch