A.L.I.E.E.E.N.

by
Lewis Trondheim

:01 First Second, May 2006, 96 pp.
ISBN: 1-59643-095-8

Genre: Graphic Novel

Subgenre: Science Fiction
Reviewed: 10/6/2007

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Graphic Novel Page

Synopsis

While on a camping trip in the Catskills mountains with his wife and children, creator Lewis Trondheim stumbled across a rare find. And alien graphic novel from another planet. It seems that a spaceship had left behind some trash while visiting the planet Earth and this book was in the collection.

In the story, a cute little birdlike creature (Yellow) and his friend (Blue) are frolicking through the flowers until his friend runs into a tree and pokes out both of his eyes with pointed branches. Yellow takes his friend to a doctor to get him fixed up. Meanwhile, a big-headed creature (Purple) is traveling through the forest at night. He finds a new friend, but he gets killed by these green creatures with tongues that come out of the tops of their heads. To escape , Purple puts on the skin of his new dead friend.

A.L.I.E.E.E.N. by Lewis Trondheim is a graphic novel that is from another planet and stars some really cute little alien creatures that are having a really, bad, bad day. This book is intended for young readers 15+.

Review

When I first started reading A.L.I.E.E.E.N., I thought that this was a book for early readers. There is not a single word of English in the book, so the reading is very easy. But the book is dark and comical, not for early readers at all. The poor little creatures in the book are hunted down by packs of other creatures. Sure, they eventually find each other and all the different storylines eventually converge, but they are not something a child should read.

I let my 12-year old daughter read it before I looked over it and she thought it was stupid. But, I, on the other hand, found myself enjoying the story and loved trying to figure out what the creatures were saying. Yes, the story is a little depressing, but hey, life on an alien planet may not be as easy as we would like to think.

Since this is supposed to be an old, found, alien graphic novel, I like the aging around the edges of the pages. It is a nice touch.

Overall, I was quite entertained by this strange book that Lewis Trondheim found and I hope that aliens visit our planet again and leave another strange tale behind for humans to enjoy.

And yes, that is a trail of poop coming out of the rear end of Blue on the comic page shown above. The poop plays a major role in the story, believe it or not.

I rated this book an 8 out of 10.