Worst Morrison comic ever.

1440 ( )

Reminds me of I kill giants and one bad rat. ( )

Ugh. This would've been a 1-star if Sean Murphy's artwork wasn't so great. I've loved Morrison's work since I was a teenager but this was a rambling, incoherent mess. Pretty much skimmed through the 2nd half of it. Extremely disappointing. ( )

Joe is a hypoglycemic 13 year-old whose military father was killed in battle and whose mother is fighting to keep their house. When the class bullies steal his candy, he finds himself hallucinating a world where his pet rat is a warrior and he is some kind of savior. The fun lies in the reader connecting the dots between things in the real world and the fantasy, so I won't say anything more about the plot. Take your time reading it, and appreciate all the little details Sean Murphy has worked into the art.

I'm not sure why this was released under the Vertigo imprint, unless it was just because it was a creator-owned property. It's an affecting, intelligent, and cleverly-constructed tale, but there is no "mature" or "adult" content, as the terms tend to be used today. It would be fine for anyone around the age of the protagonist and up. I hope the "mature readers" warning doesn't keep it out of the hands of younger teens.

I couldn't help but think of a thematically-similar graphic novel I read recently, [b:I Kill Giants|6435893|I Kill Giants|Joe Kelly|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1243558074s/6435893.jpg|6625451], which concerns a girl who also lives part of her life in a fantasy. They would make good companion volumes. ( )