Amulet, written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi. 8 vols. New York: Scholastic | Graphix,
Amulet may be both the best and the worst thing to happen to children’s comics in the last ten years.
We have here before us one of the most ambitions, beautiful, and arresting graphic novel series for young readers that anyone has ever made. Although it starts with a bang and immediately sucks the reader in, by the time it reaches its not-conclusion in the most recent volumes, the story has petered out, suggesting that its fledgling creator was not quite as prepared to tackle this epic story as he at first appeared to be.
Kazu Kibuishi has few titles to his name; in fact, he’s known for Amulet and almost nothing else. Nonetheless, he was the editor of the Flight anthology, which is still just about the best thing that’s ever happened to comics. Over time, Flight morphed into Explorer, an anthology aimed explicitly at young readers. At a time when so much of fiction for children and youth is designed for political indoctrination, Kibuishi appears to be a man concerned for what children actually need—good, solid stories full of heroes and villains and serious decisions that transcend the fads and fashions and worries of the moment.
That being said, in spite of what are apparently the best intentions, he appears in Amulet to have bitten off more than he can chew.
When Amulet made its debut in 2008, it shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list, and for good reason. With a unique art style that finds a happy medium between careful detail and the overly simplified “CalArts” style, Kibuishi presents a tale for children that pulls no punches and reads like horror: The first volume opens with a young girl, Emily, watching helplessly as her father falls to his death. Two years later, she moves with her family into the decrepit house once owned by her eccentric great-grandfather; there, she finds a magical amulet, and shortly thereafter, a tentacled abomination grabs her mother and hauls her through a door in the basement. Emily and her brother Navin chase the monster into a parallel world called Alledia, a world full of robots, Rube Goldberg machines, and deadly monsters. Emily’s amulet grants her telekinetic abilities, but it also talks to her, playing games with her mind and constantly tempting her to sell her soul for power.
Although intense for children, that’s seriously good stuff. The first volume of Amulet will leave your fingernails ragged and make your butt sore from sitting on the edge of your seat.
Although unable to equal the raw intensity of Book 1, the subsequent volumes are mostly pretty good. Starting off as a brooding horror, Amulet later settles into a more conventional epic fantasy with steampunk trappings. Emily, Navin, and their mom meet a wide array of characters including elves and furries, all while getting caught in the middle of a war involving kaiju and humongous mecha. Emily gains greater and greater power while also coming increasingly under the influence of the sinister voice that speaks to her through her magical stone.
The great flaw of Amulet is that Kazu Kibuishi is clearly a huge fan of fantasy and science fiction. He has obviously consumed a large number of popular works in these genres, but like other enthusiasts (I am thinking particularly of Christopher Paolini’s Aragon or the late Monty Oum’s RWBY), he has consumed more works than he has digested. Kibuishi borrows elements form Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, The Last Airbender, and probably a host of other sources, but has not given sufficient thought to how these various elements might fit together.
Throughout the series, a careful reader will notice problems in consistency. For example, midway through the series, we learn that the elvish empire has destroyed a city called Frontera. A couple of volumes later, a handful of protagonists use their wiles to finagle their way onto a commercial airship headed for Frontera—because Kibuishi did not, apparently, consider how a major war and the total destruction of a city might disrupt commercial air traffic.
That particular detail is forgivable, but the series goes completely off the rails at the end of Volume 7. Although the entire series had represented this alien world of Alledia as steampunkish in technology, at the end of the seventh book, the heroes are suddenly boarding a spaceship.
When I read that, I thought Kibuishi was making a major mistake. That he took two full years to release the eighth volume deepened my suspicions that he had written himself into a corner he couldn’t get out of. Nonetheless, I crossed my fingers and held out hope that he knew what he was doing.
He didn’t know what he was doing. I am virtually alone in this (simply look at the glowing reviews on Amazon ), but the eighth and penultimate volume of this series is an unbelievable letdown.
This series has over seven volumes established a particular character as a major villain. The heroine deals with that villain anticlimactically. The series has promised us a major war between a ruthless invading force and a ragged band of rebels. The war ends anticlimactically without a major battle. The characters who blasted off into space were trained mech pilots on their way to pilot mechs in a last stand against implacable invaders. Instead of fighting from their mechs, they spend most of the volume visiting a farm while riding dirt bikes.
There’s a major fight in which many people die—and it happens entirely off the page. That is an astounding blunder for a series that has until now been full to the gills with heavy action.
I honestly don’t know what to make of this. In spite of some plot holes and rammed-together fantasy tropes, Kibuishi seemed, up this point, pretty good at avoiding the kinds of elementary mistakes he blunders into in the eighth book. He promises at the end that Book 9 will finish off the series—though he took a long time to release Book 8, and it’s anybody’s guess when the final volume will appear.
One thing Amulet has regardless of the story is gorgeous, carefully detailed artwork, although that is largely due to Photoshop rather than Kibuishi’s line work. Still, multiple full-page or two-page spreads are arresting with their sweeping views of rugged landscapes, airships, and fantastical cities. The art alone makes Amulet worth it.
Also, in spite of my criticism, this is the kind of series that will make you neglect your obligations: I sat down with all eight books and plowed through the whole thing, forgetting other duties in the meantime. Even the weak penultimate volume still offers a fair amount of entertainment, though it resolves several conflicts without sufficient drama. I will undoubtedly devour the ninth and final volume when it appears, whether I like it or not.
I do recommend this series, but it’s shaping up to have a poorer conclusion than I’d hoped for.