Review of Billy Fog And The Gift Of Troubled Sight By Archaia Press
-== What is it? ==-
Billy Fog And The Gift Of Troubled Sight (Billy Fog)
is a graphic novel that tells the story of a boy who can see things other kids cannot. Billy can see death and decay. The graphic novel was created, written, and illustrated by Guillaume Bianco. It was published by Archaia Press.
This hardcover graphic novel has a color cover. The interior pages are black and white with a few colored panels sprinkled throughout. Billy Fog is 8.5″ x 11.25″ and is 144 pages in length. I am reviewing a print copy that I bought from my local comic shop.
-== What I Like ==-
Billy Fog is a collection of cartoon strips, letters, newspaper articles, poems, stories, monster details, ads, games, and other miscellaneous content. As I read through the book I couldn’t wait to see what would come up next. Amazingly this collection of various content forms a coherent and cogent whole. In this case this vast array of content acts to enforce the gothic mood of the work.
EVERY page in Billy Fog contains some amount of artistic content. For example, in a section with a cartoon script the page number show a strange knife. These “doodles” make every page deliciously time consuming to digest. The back inside cover has a fantastic Ouji board. There is literally no blank page in the entire book.
-== What I Don’t Like ==-
There is some semblance of a main storyline in Billy Fog but because of the varied content it can be hard to follow at times. It can also be a bit twisted in parts depending on the content. Billy Fog is not a book that is intended for younger readers. I think teenagers would love it but younger folks would be confused and maybe grossed out by some of the content.
-== Summary ==-
Billy Fog feels like the offspring of Tim Burton and Edward Gory. It mixes childlike wonder with a strong dose of gothic horror. This is an enchanting romp that will keep you busy trying to examine every page for that tiny bit of content that you missed from the previous reading. For an $18.27 Amazon price tag this is a great deal for a quality product.
I give it 8 out of 10 paws.
Copies of Billy Fog can be picked up at Amazon for $18.27 at this URL.
