Bourbon Island 1730
By Lewis Trondheim; Olivier Appollodorus
(First Second, Paperback, 9781596432581, 288pp.)
Publication Date: October 28, 2008
Categories: General
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It is 1730 when Raphael Pommeroy arrives in the West Indies with his ornithology professor. They’re supposed to be in search of the almost-extinct dodo . . . but Raphael is quickly entranced with the piratical inhabitants of the island, becoming obsessed with their vision of a world where all people are free and equal, regardless of their skin color. Drama unfolds on Bourbon Island as all the inhabitants race to find the treasure secretly cached on their island – and reveal their inner selves in doing so.
An epic adventure in the tradition of Watership Down, Bourbon Island 1730 is a unique historical drama featuring animal characters, fully imagined and realized by Lewis Trondheim and Appollo in pitch-perfect words and inventive pictures.
A phenomenally prolific and well-regarded artist and writer, Lewis Trondheim has published more than 35 books in the last ten years, including A.L.I.E.E.E.N. and TINY TYRANT. He is one of the leading figures in French comics, and is a co-founder of the alternative publishing house L'Association. Hilarious, caustic, and original, his multifarious books have earned him international renown.
Olivier Appollodorus, known as Appollo, is a French graphic novel creator. Along with founding a number of comics industry journals, he has worked on projects with some of the most prestigious French creators.
A quiet yet still somewhat swashbuckling tale of 18th-century piracy and colonial tension on a small French Island. Young Raphael arrives on the island with ornithologist Chevalier Despentes in hopes of finding the Bourbon Island dodo, despite its rumored extinction. Unbeknownst to Raphael and Despentes, the island is in the midst of a coup d’état engineered by pirates (known on the island as “Maroons”) to overthrow the governor and free their leader, Buzzard. When the two groups meet, conflict ensues, and Raphael—who has always dreamed of becoming a pirate—finds himself at the center of the clash. With historically based subject matter and simple pen-and-ink illustrations, this graphic novel is more reminiscent of Scott Chantler’s subtle Northwest Passage (2007) than a splashy Cap’n Jack Sparrow epic. With its population of symbolically selected anthropomorphized animals, it evokes such landmark works as Spiegelman’s Maus. Readers expecting the madcap silliness of Lewis Trondheim’s earlier A.L.I.E.E.E.N. (2006) and others may be disappointed, though history buffs will likely find this enjoyable. Discursive endnotes act as helpful historical anchors to connect the reader to this time. -- Kirkus Reviews
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