I read the first volume of Love: The Tiger, but never got around to reviewing it. It was a beautiful book, but the ending was maybe a bit obvious from the beginning. With Love: The Fox I was drawn back to the series for many reasons. The first being that I love wordless stories (see: Age of Reptiles: Ancient Egyptians), but the second is that I recently celebrated the birth of my son and our theme for him was the Fox. Since then, I see foxes everywhere and I like it. It makes me think of my son and so Love: The Fox became a pretty obvious pick for me to read.
The story is simple to sum up because there’s a lack of words to interfere with it. We’re on a beautiful island that seems to have every genre of season and a variety of animals that you wouldn’t find in the same region as each other. But here they are, all of them getting along as best they can. This island is also home to an active volcano which suddenly erupts and begins terrorizing the island. We begin to see the animals fight for survival and run from danger… except for our fox. Our fox is heading towards danger and doing anything she can to get up the hill, but why?
I won’t spell it out for you, but it is pretty obvious. That doesn’t make it bad or ruin the story because a book like this, that are wordless, it’s the journey that’s important. It’s the journey that makes the story worth reading.
Author Frédéric Brrémaud manages to craft a world that is exciting and a story that is heartfelt and enjoyable. It’s like the Animal Kingdom cracked up a bit as we see things like Polar and Grizzly bears fighting each other. Obviously the chances of this happening naturally is slim to never going to happen, but it’s interesting to see it here. The world he’s crafted is interesting and one that you want to explore.
Of course the bulk of the work and a lot of the praise goes to Federico Bertolucci. Not only is the Fox iconic, but the entire island is. I may have gone into this with a soft spot for foxes, but even if I hadn’t, I would have come out with one.
The art is just beautiful. Seeing the different climates and areas of the island is gorgeous, but then just seeing these wonderfully rendered animals all in one place is like going to a giant free range zoo. What’s more impressive is that Bertolucci makes it so that the narration is easy to follow. You can always see where the story is heading and that’s tremendous when there’s no narration to assist. By far this is one of the best looking books of 2015.
Really this is a story that can only exist and be successful as a comic book. It makes me happy that it exists because I love animals and this filled me with a childlike joy. If you love touching stories and wonderful art, then please check out Love: The Fox. I know I can’t wait to share it with my son.
Score: 5/5
Love: The Fox Writer: Frédéric Brrémaud Artist: Federico Bertolucci Publisher: Magnetic Press Price: $17.99 Release Date: 11/10/15 Format: Hardcover; Print