Leviathan

(NBM, 2004)
™ and © Jens Harder

German artist Jens Harder pays tribute to one the world’s grandest creatures, the giant whale, in this wordless and surrealistic series of short stories. The only text to be found is a single literary quote that prefaces each chapter, and the stories themselves are either symbolic or loosely based on historical or Biblical events.

Harder is clearly passionate about the plight of these endangered animals and his stories are essentially cautionary ones. But his viewpoint isn’t the usual endangered–species angle; instead, he speaks from a presumed position of dominance on behalf of the whales, who see themselves as masters of the seas. They tolerate man but are growing impatient with his interference.

As unusual as this graphic novel is, though, it suffers from Harder’s overabundant use of heavy lines, rather than solids; it looks as though he drew the story with a ballpoint pen. Moreover, the cover price of this French import is likely to scare away the casual reader; NBM would have been better off printing an American edition rather than importing the original.

— Jim Johnson

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