Customer Reviews

In the Small

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

 

 

This is a really attractive, eye-catching book. The art--especially the cover--is beautiful, its larger than most graphic novels and trade paperbacks, and the concept is amazing. The idea of humans shrinking down to six inches tall, but the rest of the world--including the animals--stays the same size. Great, great premise. That in itself is enough to save this from a two star review, but if you're expecting good writing from this, you should look elsewhere.

Michael Hague should stick to art. He's good at it. Writing, though, he's not. The characters are all one-dimensional and utterly unbelievable, and the dialogue is literally some of the worst I've heard. A modern day business woman gets to her knees, throws her arms in the air, and says "Mouse, what's to become of us! Help us! Lead us!" If that isn't enough, Hague further shows his inability to write a story by the way he lays out this book. It goes against every new development that has come about in comics in the last ten years. He drives the story forward with captions rather than the art and dialogue. He uses thought bubbles. It often feels like panels were cut out, or that Hague was trying to condense a three-hundred page story into one-hundred and change. In one panel, a Mouse and his people hear a sound and say "What was that?" In the next panel, they are already engaged in a battle with rats. There is no sense of the rat's arrival, no room to show their reaction or them getting ready to fight. Everything, especially towards the end, is rushed. It is the total opposite of the cinematic style modern comics have taken on.

It's a shame that this concept didn't get a better writer, because it's a great one. A writer who knew his way even the slightest bit around the comics medium wouldn't make the mistakes that Hague did. I was highly, highly disappointed in this book. Readers should also know that many plot threads are left unfinished, most questions are left unanswered, and the final page has a very "to be continued..." feel to it. I just don't think this is a title worth continuing.

5/10

it seemed to me MR. HAUGE seemed somewhat rushed to get his idea down . i saw a sticker on the front of the book that said "SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE" . really ? with all the excellent writing out there . not to be too hard on the author/illustrator , but MR. MATHESON already told a very similar story in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN . the book seemed rushed and some names and events seemed quite derivative and fantasy topical . fair execution to my mind . i like the art a bit more than the text . a tad above mediocre from where i'm reading . more power to him if they make a good picture from this source material .

Great artwork, great premise, poor execution. All of the characters are two-dimensional and the story itself it terribly bland. The "twist" ending comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. If you see it at the library (where I got it from), it only takes about 20-25 minutes to read through - just don't expect much. Stick to art if that is what you are good at.

I bought this book used for $6, and I feel ripped off.

Yes, the art is good, and the idea is interesting. Beyond that, Michael Hague has no idea how to write a story--especially dialogue and pacing. The dialogue is stilted, and obvious. To quote "You can't just have your characters say what they feel--that makes me feel angry!" There is no inner feelings, or hidden motives: everyone has perfect conceptions of how they feel and will tell say so.

No motivation is given for any character: it's all poorly implied. For instance, everyone instantly believes in the psychic predictions of/follows the protagonist 'Mouse' (who isn't particularly short or mouse-like) even before the shrinking flash (which is never given an explicit explanation, either, btw). It's said he's been right about stuff before, but no examples are given. Furthermore, he decrees that the wounded need to be left behind, because the world sucks now, and nobody questions it. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! I guess he was supposed to be practical, but it comes off as cold and unfeeling.

The worst part is, this could have been a great epic story. We have two plot lines intertwined in what should be an engaging survival story. But there's almost no feeling of peril. Mouse's sister Beat lives in a survivalist paradice, has engineers for neighbors, and instantly morphs into Ellen Riply after she shrinks. It's almost too easy for them, and as a consequence, you just don't care about a whole half of the story. And the half you do care about has a terrible lead.

That said, in the hands of a talented scriptwriter, this could be a great, epic movie. Just don't let Mr. Hague do the dialogue, add some explanations, and for the love of God, make Mouse more likable!

I picked this up in the library. I like the idea, quite promising but forget about the storyline, pacing and dialogue.

The art is deceptively interesting. When you actually look at the panels, these appear to be based on tracings and then juxtaposed to make a comic. Some artists do these sorts of things but it is not real drawings.

I know that this comic is targetted at young adults but surely they can distinguish between art and collage, can't they?

Honestly, I can't say what made me continue to read this book. I felt the art was lacking considerable depth; the storyline (even though a great concept) was poorly executed. It's not that the book is "bad", I just happen to be more of a visual person and the visuals within this book could use some help. Granted, I love most of Michael Hague's art, but somewhere in the transition from illustrator to comic artist... something was lost. I would recommend reading the book anyway, to at least give it a fighting chance. Just try picking it up at a library before you decide to purchase it.

First of all, the art is phenomenal-the full color illustrations are really something to behold, there's just panel after panel of amazing art on display here. From post-apocalyptic cityscapes to gargantuan flowerbeds, it's the graphic depiction of violence (no, parents, this is not appropriate for your five-year-old), that is the most unsettling and thought provoking.

The premise: what if every human being on the planet was instantly reduced to a height of six inches, may initially seem like a set up for some light hearted shenanigans a la the Borrowers (a work subtly eluded to throughout), but in all actuality (as much as my own sense of belief can be suspended) hidden danger really would be omnipresent. And that's what Hague gets right: gardner snakes, birds, house cats, dogs, mice, spiders and, of course, other human beings are mortal threats lurking, literally, around every corner.

Hague poses a pretty wild "what if?" plot device, then answers back with a series of incredibly tough and gritty depictions of what seems to me like pretty reasonable speculations: wouldn't most people die almost immediately? Wouldn't domestic animals become objects of tremendous fear? Wouldn't the visions of an intern hired solely on nepotism become compelling once the world as we know it has totally ceased to exist? The answer to all these questions really is, in my mind: Yeah... probably.

Whether the story is an eerie, alternate reality September 11th scenario focusing on hope and the limits of human endurance in times of tragedy, or a religious parable about trusting unlikely prophets in times of desperation and need (and I can't tell if the use of the rather uncommon first name Hieronymous is solely meant to highlight the hero's latent moral judgement and excruciating flashes of nightmare vistas, or is just a reflection of the author's love of Flemish triptychs), this chilling narrative reexamines the potential dangers lurking in our own back yards.

Deftly mixing practical situations (characters sleep in mailboxes and don doll clothes-which don't end up totally working for grandpa) with more bizarre sci fi stuff (supernatural visions, demons), the book doesn't offer an explanation as to why everybody has suddenly become knee hight to a lawn gnome, it's just goes with it. As groups of survivors "get it together" and the story hones in on two questing siblings making it in the new world pecking order-with a couple of premonition sequences hypnotically woven in-brother and sister overcome a number of major obstacles in order to help their fellow men and establish a community in a world gone totally nuts.

Is this book for little kids familiar with Michael Hague's popular unicorn and fairy books. The answer is a resounding no; In the Small is scary and quite graphic. For the rest of us, it's a pretty awesome graphic novel that's definitely worth checking out. And while we may not be shrinking in 2008 (September 8th having safely passed us by-this year), this is still a highly recommendable book.

Although the artwork is quite extraordinary in places, the story is not only scant - large parts simply skipped over and nothing explained.

I agree with other reviewers who respect the art of "In the Small" while bemoaning the writing and plot. I have to wonder if this short story, found online and written in 2000, isn't a better treatment of the same material.
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The premise of IN THE SMALL is fairly simple. Suddenly, a blue light washes over the entire earth and all of humanity is reduced to one-sixth of its original size. Nothing but humans are affected, and those who do survive the initial transformation are left to deal with the chaos of a world built for people too big. Suddenly, even the smallest animals and the simplest natural phenomena can cause great danger.

The story revolves around a brother and sister, Mouse and Beatrix (Beat for short), who together gather up groups of survivors and marshal them to create a new society. Beat is at home with her mother and grandfather when the transformation occurs, and the three of them begin to turn their house into a sustainable community, inviting neighbors and strangers alike to share the space with them.

Mouse is in the city working at his father's business when the transformation occurs. He has a talent for seeing things before they happen, or at least sensing them, something that his father has never understood. But even his father cannot deny the accuracy of the premonition that hits Mouse an hour before the transformation, and afterwards, Mouse becomes the natural leader of a group of people who make a pilgrimage through the city and back to the house that Beat is busy turning into a thriving community.

The one thing that makes this book stand out from all of the other stories of humans suddenly shrunken and at the mercy of nature and the elements is the graphic novel format. Hague's illustrations add to the sense of terror and urgency felt by the characters whose formerly-docile world has quickly turned against them. In addition, his characters present several musings about the cause of this transformation, several of which appear to be environmental in nature. Beat suggests that this is a way of Mother Earth getting back at a species that has abused her for too long.

The cause of the transformation is not decided upon during the course of the graphic novel, and although the main conflict is resolved for the time being, the story's ending opens up a whole new series of questions that a sequel will surely address.

Reviewed by: Candace Cunard