Cory Cramer

This is one of my all-time favorite comics and has single-handedly earned my eternal respect for Daniel Warren Johnson. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll be vague about why I love this book so much. What I initially chose to read because of the hilarious and over-the-top-awesome concept quickly turned into a heartfelt examination of friendship, love, grief, and loss. The characters all won my heart almost immediately, the humor genuinely got me to laugh out loud, and the ending left me completely satisfied.

I read this book over the course of a weekend. It was a pretty short read, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I would've loved it if the book was even just 50-100 pages longer, but that's immaterial. Overall the book was fascinating. I loved the illustrations that went with the very detailed descriptions of each species' history and biology. The art really instilled a sense of morbid curiosity in me, since you could see how the humans were twisted and mutilated into the various species detailed in the book. The art and descriptions, both being from the perspective of some future alien scientist, were definitely my favorite parts. The storytelling was pretty good too, though some parts of the story had better storytelling than others. I know that the book wasn't originally written in English since English isn't Koseman's first language, but the English translation I read could have been better at times. Overall, I'd give this book 4.5 stars if I could, but Google won't let me for some reason. Whatever. Great book.