50 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 2, 2020
Review_FICTION
WWI, the narrative is more eager to
present him as the one-dimensional
British bulldog who defeated Hitler.
Besides sidestepping controversies like
Churchill’s role in the 1943 India famine
and ignoring nearly any personal aspects
(from his prodigious writing to bouts of
crippling depression), Delmas also curi-
ously drops the story at the end of WWII.
The result is an energetically drawn but
perfunctory portrait. (Apr.)The Doctor Is In (Omni #1)
Devin Grayson and Alitha E. Martinez. H1,
$14.99 trade paper (96p) ISBN 978-1-64337-619-6
Grayson (the Batman series) and
Martinez (the Black Panther series)
wield their combined superhero comics
experience to launch this inventive series
set in H1’s new alternative universe. Dr.
Cecelia Cobbina can project nine differently
colored psychic avatars, each endowed with
a distinct intuitive skill set. She’s working
with Doctors Without Borders in Central
Africa when she defuses an operating room
hostage crisis with empathy, avoiding
violence. Accompanied by cartoonist Mae
Walters (who fictionalizes their adventures
in comic book form), Cecelia returns to the
U.S., soothing various explosive events
involving other
superhumans,
such as getting
young hero
Antony Miller
out of police
custody. But to
her dread, she
discovers her
powers are not
natural gifts—
they are symp-
toms of a poisoned and dying Earth. When
Cecelia is recruited by the enigmatic Sajan
to run the ultrasecret Omni Corporation,
ostensibly an underground institute to
help the newly powered, the question
becomes: is Omni a force for good or evil?
Martinez’s realistic figure drawings are
employed in dynamic and energetic
motion work, while Bryan Valenza’s colors
pop and sizzle, with lively polychromatic
splashes across the page. Suitable for a
young adult audience and sporting a diverse
cast, this is a fresh, activism-oriented spin
on the genre. (Mar.)then joins—a roving gang of bandits,
among whom she grows to regional
infamy. Throughout, she plots revenge,
which she eventually enacts by beating,
maiming, and killing men who harmed
her or other poor women and girls, and by
robbing the wealthy and redistributing
funds to impoverished surrounding
communities. Her capture, imprisonment,
pardon, and subsequent election to
Parliament are given shorter coverage in
bookending
scenes. Fauvel’s
loose, scribbly
pencil drawings
and jewel-toned
colors capture
both the rare
joy and extreme
sorrows of
Phoolan’s early
life, including disturbing, graphic rape
scenes. Fauvel portrays Phoolan’s tender
expressions of charity, and her love marriage
to a fellow bandit, and her most violent
acts against the powerful in the same
vibrant strokes. This striking biography
is as memorable as its vigilante heroine.
(Apr.)Churchill: A Graphic Biography
Vincent Delmas, Christophe Regnault, and
Alessio Cammardella, trans. from the French
by Ivanka Hahnenberger. Dead Reckoning,
$19.95 (120p) ISBN 978-1-68247-528-7
A foreword by historian Andrew
Roberts (Churchill: Walking with Destiny)
starts off this slim graphic biography of
Winston Churchill on a high note: tart,
incisive, and celebratory while brooking
no illusions. Delmas (Charlemagne) picks
up the baton in assured fashion, portraying
the young British aristocrat as starving for
adventure and fame. Eager to fight in
British colonial skirmishes from South
Africa to Sudan, and convinced he will
die young, Churchill is presented as an
impetuous glory seeker determined to
“make history” by writing it himself, if
necessary. His ambitious climb to political
power (Parliament, the Admiralty) are
rendered with great elan in the art by
Regnault and Cammardella. Once the
world wars begin, though, Delmas’s
account turns more narrowly heroic in
scope. While noting Churchill’s missteps,
such as the Dardanelles fiasco duringWhite Donkey
with this tense
graphic novel set
in present-day
Afghanistan. A
Marine squadron
arrives in cold,
mountainous
Badakhshan on a
mission to break
up the Taliban’s
interference in
the local gemstone trade. They face reti-
cence from the villagers and Taliban
patrols who attack on horseback—and the
overall moral ambiguity of trying to fix
what years of interference from America,
Britain, and Russia have wrought—as
well as internal threats of racism, sexism,
and egotism among their own ranks.
The story centers on no-nonsense
African-American marine Sergeant King,
whose innate humanity doesn’t prevent
him from committing acts of shocking
violence. Uriarte lends a gritty sense of
realism to the action, which helps sur-
mount some over-familiar tropes playing
through the script. Uriarte’s drawing is
labored at times—it’s particularly hard to
tell the armored-up characters apart—
but his storytelling is assured and often
thrillingly cinematic. The page count
gives the narrative room to breathe, with
wordless images of tiny human figures
against the vast mountains and a bravura
ending. This visceral war story reinforces
the difficulty of decisions by forces
fighting across blurred lines. Agent:
Katherine Boyle, Veritas Literary. (May)Phoolan Devi, Rebel Queen
Claire Fauvel, trans. from the French by
Montana Kane. NBM, $34.99 (224p)
ISBN 978-1-68112-251-9
Based on the autobiography of Phoolan
Devi (1963-2001), India’s notorious
“Queen of the Bandits,” this passionate
battle cry of a graphic tribute by Fauvel
(Catherine’s War) roots itself in Devi’s early
experiences as a member of the oppressed
Mallah community of the Shudrah caste,
a child bride, and a survivor of repeated
sexual violence. Devi is married at 11 and
raped by her husband. She’s rescued by her
father only to be tormented by men and
boys in her village and gang-raped by
police. From there, she’s captured by—