Looking For a Good Book

**Right out of the gate I want to make one thing clear… I was approved for a “Preview Copy” ARC of Bug Wars. Apparently a “Preview Copy” is not a complete copy of the book but a sample of the book. In this case, it appears to be issue #1 of the Bug Wars comic book and the graphic novel collects the first three or four issues.**

Slade Slaymaker and his family are returning to their rural home after a dozen years away. Slade’s deceased father had a passion for entomology and the young Slade is now interested in insects as well. Slade’s older brother, Sydney, couldn’t care less. What the family doesn’t know is that down at the insect level of the yard, life and death struggles are occurring with fierce bug wars being fought. There are barbarian bug riders, spell-casting witches, and true armies of ants at war.

Insects caused Slade’s father’s death and Sydney wants nothing more than to get rid of all bugs. Slade on the other hand, wants to understand them the way his father did. But as Sydney and Slade fight, Slade falls into the bug world, shrinking down to any size and becomes embroiled in the war.

The concept is interesting but doesn’t feel at all new. Of COURSE it feels like a dark version of Honey I Shrunk the Kids or The Incredible Shrinking Man, thrust into Conan’s barbarian world. These comparison’s will be made by anyone who has seen either of these movies.

It’s a strange idea to have this magical, sword & sorcery type world in the same realm as our ‘normal’ world (the world of Slade and Sydney). Using an Alice in Wonderland-type device brings the ‘real’ person into the magical world. But this magical world is much more dangerous than Wonderland was.

The bug world is violent. Much more violent than I need in my graphic novels. I read a lot of dark fantasy and horror, I don’t mind splatterpunk, but do we really need to see heads flying off bodies? Do we really need the massive amount of cursing that opens this book? Probably not. It sets a tone, but frankly, this reader wouldn’t bother read the next comic volume. The characters are too one-dimensional when this is their language.

The art is okay. It’s consistent and decent. It doesn’t draw me into the story but it generally serves the story well.

It’s really hard to say how the graphic novel stands as a story since I only have a quarter of it. Finding out more about Slade’s father and how Slade will fit into this story is important, and based on this first issue, I really don’t know how soon this information comes out.

Based solely on this first volume, just a fraction of the graphic novel, this is decent but not great.

Looking for a good book? Bug Wars, a graphic novel by Jason Aaron with art by Mahmud Asrar starts out interestingly enough but is more violent than it probably needs to be in order to get the point across.  My preview ARC is only a fraction of the book.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Bug Wars: Book One

author: Jason Aaron

artist: Mahmud Asrar

colors: Matthew Wilson

publisher: Image Comics

ISBN: 9781534329850

paperback, 160 pages