Tuesday 11 November 2014

Isabel Greenberg - The Encyclopedia of Early Earth

Title: The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
Author: Isabel Greenberg
Pub. year: 2013
Pages: 176
Editor: Little, Brown & Company

Summary: Before our history began, another--now forgotten--civilization thrived. The people who roamed Early Earth were much like us: curious, emotional, funny, ambitious, and vulnerable. In this series of illustrated and linked tales, Isabel Greenberg chronicles the explorations of a young man as he paddles from his home in the North Pole to the South Pole. There, he meets his true love, but their romance is ill-fated. Early Earth's unusual and finicky polarity means the lovers can never touch.

I started reading Graphic Novels lately and I discovered this one on Sanne's vlog. It looked gorgeous and what she had to say about it gave me the push I needed to buy it.



The book is divided in different stories, which are chapters of the life of the storyteller or of the people he met during his journey. We see those people, hear about their beliefs, their problems, as a foreigner discovering a country for the first time. It's funny how, by showing this new deity, she melt religions of our world into something new who feels old and known.

The tales are sweet and at the same time somewhat dark and violent, but it's told in a way that makes it look laughable and turn the "mean" characters into dumb people. The tone is sometimes funny and sarcastic, and we can feel the pleasure Isabel Greenberg took in making this. At the end of the book, we learn that someone created a font to match her handwriting for the graphic novel. I find it to be a very good idea, as you can see below on the picture. It's pretty, it goes well with the pictures, whether it's in speech bubbles or above/under the drawings.

Moreover, the author primarely uses black and white, with hints of reds and yellows, to tell the story. This fits perfectly with the universe, where the main colored stuff are fires and blood or armurs, and the world seems snowy everywere. It gives a really tale-ish feeling to the entire book. The kind you want to read around Christmas, warming in front of a fireplace.

Anyway, as you can see, it was a great reading and I'm really curious to see if she did any other graphic novels!

If you're a Graphic Novel avide consumer, feel free to share your favorites in the comments!