Big fantasy stories are called epics when they involve a heroic quest over a lot of physical territory and conflict over a world’s fate. Genuine epics (Homer’s, Virgil’s, Milton’s), however, explain and justify the way things are. Civiello and Mosdi’s graphic novel is genuinely epical, explaining how one significant part of reality came about. What that part is isn’t disclosed until the satisfying surprise ending, which caps a heroic quest.
Igguk, a scholarly elf accompanied by different helpers at different times, must find the means to save Faerie from utter destruction, now that its queen is dead, by forces of darkness led by the Lucifer-like turncoat fairy Oberon. So stereotypical a scenario, replete with monsters and monstrous metamorphoses, might pall but for Civiello’s mind-boggling color artwork.
Civiello mixes media and techniques to conjure a murky, decaying world of riotously misshapen rocks and vegetation that is rendered much eerier by vertigo-inducing angles of vision, overlapping panels of illustration, and the occasional tapestry-like montage. Dizzying, perhaps, but never boring.
"Tim Lasiuta"
Emmanuel Civiello is a superstar. His first European work, "A Bit of Madness" made him a household name, and the subsequent serializations in Heavy Metal Magazine took him to the world stage. Checker Books now introduces Msr Civiello to North American audiences, in a quality book that will wow readers and art connoisseurs everywhere.
"A Bit of Madness" consists of four tales, "Igguk", "The Great Ornament", "Morrydown", and "Without Heart". Reading/studying this book made me catch my breath, and when I wasn’t lost in the text, I was lost in the art. Many touches make this book classy, like the chapter break ‘sketches’, the full page panels that ooze ‘Study Me’, and the intelligent dream like use of watercolor/oils.
"A Bit of Madness" takes the reader into a world where Faeries rule, and demons drool. Igguk, Odymus, Dom, Nicomede, and Fiz travel through the world Civiello inhabits with danger in their quest to gather to the Queen, and to explore a world without her.
I warn you, "A Bit of Madness" is addicting.
