If you live as long as I have, you will see that there is more to this world than we see at first. For centuries, I thought I was working for that perfect, solid god we are told of as children. But there is some deception there. There is some mystery between all of these perfect, solid things... ...and that is my god. My god is what I don't know. - T.O.E.

I did not love this, but I liked it really quite a lot. And really, the only reason I didn't love it is that it didn't go the distance that it had the strength for. But for a thing that was as much a an unplanned exploration by the author, it went a nice ways. It gave me a lovely heartache when Rice Boy discovered his origin and when T.O.E. (The One Electronic) found his fate. It was a journey worth taking, and if you do not ask it more than it offers, you may find that you love it much more than I did. I will certainly be giving Dahm's later efforts a try.

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If you haven't heard of this book, go read the webcomic NOW. Evan Dahm has created such an ethereal, melancholy world. Plus, quests for meaning, fate, and the best assortment of amazing and terrifying creatures you'll find anywhere. If Dahm and Guillermo Del Toro teamed up, magical horrible things would happen.

So here we follow the story of Rice Boy, a simple creature who collects fruit and has a friend named Rosemary, until a tall robot named T.O.E. (that's The One Electronic) comes along and changes his little existence. Rice Boy is told that he's the new fulfiller, the one who will make the centuries old prophecy true - only all the past fulfillers have turned out to be fakes, so it's hard for Rice Boy to take T.O.E. seriously, and T.O.E. himself has been having doubts about his divine mission. Of course, Rice Boy decides to at least go on a journey, and we get to follow him as the prophecy unfolds (or not). ( )

Set in the world of Overside, a multi-species world filled with conflict, I read this along with the prequel Order of Tales, set 400 years earlier. I've no evidence of this, but the One Electronic is either the inspiration for Prince Robot in Saga or their both drawing on a reference I don't know.

Rice Boy has that indie/hipster feel without the pretentiousness and all the imaginative fantasy you want.

The one qualm I do have is almost every character calls a member of their species brother (I guess it's akin to sista/brotha), so it's confusing to know which characters are really related or just being friendly. I mean who's out here tonguing down dudes they call brother?

Yeah. That's really not important. Anyway, I felt like I was on a journey with Rice Boy. Every discovery he made, I made. All the plot twists kept me on my toes too. I recommend it! ( )

Beautiful, surreal, well composed, simple but complex, Rice Boy is one of the most well crafted graphic novels I've ever read. Evan Dahm is a genius. ( )