‘Mega Fauna’ anthology review
By Brittney MacDonald, Life & Style Editor
3/5
Mega Fauna is a graphic novel anthology released by Vancouver publisher Cloudscape Comics. It features short stories written and illustrated by local writers and artists, who came together to produce this work with an animal theme. However, with creatures like unicorns and dinosaurs, the term “fauna” might be a bit of a stretch.
Since this collaborative work is made up of 25 different short stories, discussing narrative and plot is a little difficult. Overall there is a good mixture of both serious and fun tales, and I enjoyed most of them. On the more serious side are stories such as A Grandmother’s Tale by Ian Thomas and Jeri Weaver, a beautifully illustrated dream sequence teaching the importance of ocean conservation. This is juxtaposed against stories like Little Tiny Giraffe by Kathleen Jacques, a less serious and more laugh-worthy tale about a woman who wishes for a very interesting kind of pet from a magical fish.
I found the majority of the stories were well-researched, especially where their animal subjects were concerned. However, there were a few exceptions, such as Amanda and the Mantis by Cameron Morris and Nina Matsumoto. The story is based on a widely believed praying mantis theory that’s less than factual, which is a little disappointing to see in this anthology.
Art-wise, this graphic novel is all over the place as far as styles and quality go. For the most part, the artists did a fantastic job. It was actually kind of nice to experience so many different artists’ works in a single volume, and there are definitely a few that I will be following now.
As a collective work, Mega Fauna works really well. I certainly recommend it, especially if you’re a Vancouverite looking to support your local comic book scene.
