The best all-ages series you don’t read has a new volume either out now or out this weekend. I’m honestly not sure. I got my copy last week thanks to an Amazon mishap.
Either way, I’m here to tell you why you need to read Amulet — or, if you’re already reading it, why you’re going to love the latest volume.
Written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi
Kazu Kibuishi’s thrilling, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling series continues!
Emily has survived the chaos of the Guardian Academy, but Max Griffin, who is working for the Elf King, has escaped with the Mother Stone. The Elf King has now forged new amulets, which will allow him the ability to invade Cielis and destroy it once and for all. Emily and her friends desperately make preparations to defend Cielis in what will inevitably be a brutal war, and they can only hope that it will be enough to defeat the Elf King.
In comics, there generally seems to be a divide between fans who embrace all ages comics actively and those that don’t. It’s a fairly understandable one, as the general impression about all ages comics are that they specifically for younger audiences (even if when comics were first being produced they were done with an all-ages slant). It’d odd because readers of prose seem to have this issue less (look at the popularity of The Hunger Games), and yet in comics it has become a “stigma” that some are trying to help us “overcome.” Truth be told, this aversion people have to all-ages books seems a fairly new mentality to have, but it is never the less a prevalent one — and that’s why a book like “Amulet” is here.
You see, “Amulet” is an all ages comic, but it does its best to make that statement true. How? Simple: “Amulet” tells an accessible story that never falls under the misguidance that it needs to pretend to be something it’s not to gain an audience. This is what “Bone” did so well when it was originally being released; “Bone” was one of those unique books that could travel down a path that could at times seem lightly juvenile (cartoon characters racing in make shift cow costumes), and yet when levity was required it was thus delivered in spades (all of the ending). “Amulet” offers up that same potent mix, the lightly juvenile (talking animals and robots named after gears) and the appropriate levity (read and find out), and in turn it is allowed to simply be what it is: a great comic, telling the story of a two siblings who travel to an alternate world and embark on an epic question to save their mother — which in turn leads to so much more. It’s fantasy, it’s science fiction, but it’s very clearly charting it’s own path between the two — and it’s a very entertaining path follow along.
So what do you get when you pick up the latest volume of “Amulet?” Sorcery. Time travel (kinda sorta). Mechs. Elves. Talking fox pilots. Child warlords. Giant winged eight-legged demons. Robots. Evil fighting good. Chess-related metaphors. It’s an eclectic mix of a lot of classic fantasy ideas in a similar vein to the Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda series, but Kibuishi is doing a fantastic job of blending some familiar elements into a world all of it’s own with this book. “Amulet” certainly seems like it has a few obvious influences, and yet those influences never seem like a crutch; Kibuishi is simply taking a wide variety of ideas, mixing it seamlessly together for what makes “Amulet.” We are given a new universe fully defined, one that’s infinitely accessible and just as engrossing as any other in the related genres, and in terms of ongoing sagas it’s certainly one of the best.
The fifth story changes things up a bit from the usual status quo, however. Things had already begun to get a little bit darker than usual before this volume, but the fifth volume really ramps things down an ostensibly darker path: the stakes are raised, a few things happen that are less than copacetic and not everyone leaves the book in a happier place than when they began. It would seem that since launching in 2008, the book is growing in maturity alongside it’s assumed readership. Kibuishi’s art does a great job of reflecting that, however, with the colors being a bit more foreboding throughout and the overall book seems drenched in shadows. For all of looming terror within the pages of this title, it certainly never stops being striking visually.
Continued belowHowever, in an age where “dark” usually means “grim” and “adult,” Kibuishi does aptly manage to straddle a great line that never ostracizes any potential audience. The opening sequence in particular, which peels back the curtain on one of the central antagonists, is a great example of this, offering up a tale of tragedy that can strike both young and old audiences on different levels. Most of the characters so far have remained relatively undefined outside of them being “good” or “evil,” but the story of Max changes all of that, for the better. The attention given to his character is not something you often see in comics aimed for younger audiences, but the evolution he has is one clearly skewered to the older audience’s understanding. The trick here is that neither experience detracts from one or the other, simply enhancing it overall, and that’s where Kibuishi’s main triumph with the book lies.
Suffice it to say, the book is a great entry into the series. Kibuishi’s narrative decisions, the series continues to expand in scope per volume, and while this particularly story isn’t the biggest in comparison with what came in the past, it’s still rather grandiose. The finale of the book is veritably cinematic, and Kibuishi’s handling of sequences read like a storyboard pitch. There a few odd moments of decompression because of this, and yet for the most part you can almost see the comic as an animated entity already, perfect for the big or small screen. Kibuishi also continues his splash-page trend with this book, leaving big moments to be sprawled out across the page and painted in a different style than the rest of the book, and the final result is quite gorgeous. While the more cartoony characters like Leon Redbeard (the talking fox bounty hunter) still don’t mix as well visually when placed against characters like Max or Emily, it’s easy to overlook something like that in a book that looks this good.
While I hate to keep regurgitating a singular thought here, “Amulet” really is a book for all ages. While it being published through Scholastic does inherently mean that it will probably end up in the Young Adult section of your local bookstore, it is never the less one of the best books that can be read by anyone. Buy it for yourself, buy it for a niece or nephew and read it with them, but mainly just buy it. There’s just no reason to be missing it anymore.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – STOP BEING SO GOOD, DAMMIT!
