My love of post-apocalyptic science fiction is no secret, so I was all kinds of excited to check out In the Small: a mysterious blue light covers Earth, reducing human beings to the size of… well, iPods, to judge by one of the panels. Collapse of civilization! Humanity stretched to the limit! New pre-industrial communities! Sign me up, man!
The introductory sequence reminded me of Y: The Last Man, but it entirely lacks the intricate plot, believable dialogue and characters, taut pacing, and all-round good writing that make Y outstanding.
…Ok. It says “snark” right up there in the blog description, so I might as well go for it: words cannot express how much this book annoyed me. I kept tearing pieces of paper to mark pages that seemed particularly laughable, only to find that the next page was worse. A selection (spoilery, but trust me, you don’t care):
Mouse, the precognitive-office-intern-turned-messiah, is spreading his arms wide (in a Biblically torn white garment, no less), with a woman bent in supplication before him:
“Mouse, what’s to become of us? Help us! Lead us!”
“We’ve got to leave. No one’s coming for us and if we stay here, we’ll die. The streets will be dangerous, but I see a safe place where we all can live.”
(Turns out the “safe place” that he “sees” is… his house. Playing for effect much?)
Mouse’s Gary Stu tendencies just get more and more irritating. At one point, a gang of big (well, relatively speaking — heh) dudes threatens his ragtag fugitive band of office workers (”She belongs to us now. Everything on the block does!”). So of course, he stabs one of them through the chest… and the rest run away. Uh-huh.
Oh, and here’s his “Everything’s Alright” moment, after his dad is killed:
Mary Magdalen… I mean, Jane from Accounting: “It’s all my fault, Mouse. If he hadn’t stepped up to save me…”
Mouse: “No! It’s not your fault, it’s mine! I should have seen this!”
MMIMJFA: “Don’t think like that. You don’t need to prove anything to us.”
Mouse: “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break down like that.”
MMIMJFA: “Everyone is vulnerable, Mouse, even you.”
This exposition about their new society sums the whole thing up pretty nicely, I think — awkward pacing, creepy religious imagery, clunky writing, and all:
As the weeks pass, Mouse’s army moves closer to their promised land. They live under a strict set of rules: protect the weak… and punish the wicked. Living in the small, the once frightened group of office workers blossom into seasoned warriors. But their brave young leader’s dreams continue to haunt him.
The whole thing has a clumsy Christian allegory feel to it, though I can’t find any evidence that that was the intent. Does anyone know what the story is here?
As for the art, Hague is a very big-deal illustrator. Velveteen Rabbit, for Pete’s sake! I do love his work, but I would never have guessed this graphic novel was the same guy. The people — especially the children — all have enormous foreheads and big lips and oddly vacant eyes. They reminded me of the scary aged children in Akira.
The book ends with all the humans outside Mouse’s little suburban paradise turning into demons, promising a sequel. I want to care, but I just… can’t.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Sara // Oct 30, 2008 at 10:29 am
I love post-apoc as much as the next fellow, but that does seem like kind of a dumb apocalypse.
Also, big time illustrator =/= good cartoonist, and Michael Hague has hands-down the most annoying website I have ever encountered, ever.
EVAR.
2 Martini-Corona // Oct 30, 2008 at 11:00 am
Hm. Was Michael Hague inked and colored by someone else? He could be running into the Bad Inker problem, like Colleen Doran (whose own work is very clean) did when she penciled an issue of Sandman (in the “A Game of You” storyline). She was so unhappy with the experience that Gaiman apparently allowed her to re-ink the whole thing for later editions of the GN…
3 Miriam // Oct 30, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Hee! My house is TOTALLY the promised land - I’ve got milk and honey and everything!
( It was all worth it for your extremely amusing irritation.)
4 Sam // Nov 2, 2008 at 12:37 am
M-C:
It’s a good question. I just checked the book, though, and I see no mention of an inker or anyone else. Other than that it was written “with Devon Hague” (his son), who I suppose could have done the inking, but it doesn’t say that.
5 Devon Hague // Nov 2, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Hey-
This is Michael’s son, Devon that helped work on the book. Over the past few years I have been working as an assistant with him helping with painting and editing and such.
I just wanted to thank you for the review, as harsh as it was. It’s always good to hear feedback, so as to improve upon things in future books. This was one of the first books my father has worked primarily on the computer for, and not surprisingly you can see some of the growing pains here and there. There are some upcoming books that are done on the computer that I think you will be much happier with the inking and overall look of. One is a collection of ghost stories due out next year.
A small note on the website…from what I understand, it is currently being redesigned to be a much more user friendly experience, so any annoyances should hopefully be gone soon :).
Anyhoo, here’s hoping to you enjoying his upcoming books better than you did this one :). Hope you had a lovely Halloween!
Sincerely,
Devon Hague
6 your neighborhood librarian // Nov 6, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Oh damn - I was going to heap praise upon you for reviewing this book, and add other specific criticisms of the art and the pacing, but now I feel like a jerk, after reading the EXTREMELY gracious reply by Devon Hague.
I am always so humbled when I encounter a creator who responds to a bad review with equanimity. I have all but quit reviewing anything that I can’t praise, due to dicky authors who come poking around afterwards and leave condescending comments (rhymes with Dinkslaughter).
My hat’s off to you, Sam!
:paula
7 Sam // Nov 10, 2008 at 10:00 am
Paula:
Heh. I made a commitment to myself a while ago to review *everything* I read (which is starting to add up now that I’m going through a couple of Cybils nominees in a day, let me tell you!), and honestly, the negative reviews are sometimes more fun to write. (I’m a bad person, clearly.) But I do feel rather like a jerk when I see that an author has read my negative review, and even more so when he replies so graciously. Oh, well. I have to call ‘em like I see ‘em, I guess!
8 Sam // Nov 10, 2008 at 10:04 am
Devon:
Thank you so much for your comment! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply, but I want you to know that I appreciated your gracious thoughts about my review. I look forward to seeing more of your father’s and your work, as he works through the graphic novel growing pains — I love ghost stories!
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