If you are looking for a truly epic, long read, check out IDW’s Lights Of The Amalou.
It’s newly translated into English from the original French edition that won an Angouleme Festival award.
Lights Of The Amalou is written by Christophe Gibelin, and illustrated by Claire Wendling. The translation by Edward Gauvin is seamless. You would never guess that this book was originally written in French. In fact, the lettering is done with a font created from the original lettering by Wendling, so it likely retains the same look as the original version.
The story involves the struggle to save an old Great Oak tree. Well, okay, I am over-simplifying it by about 99%, but bear with me. Humans, ferrets, tree spirits, and “limpids” become enmeshed in a huge adventure, full of conflict and magic, influenced by this magic tree; a tree literally filled with significance.
As in most “epic ”stories, the characters evolve during this gigantic tale. Gibelin handles the huge scope of this story well. The animals and humans are fully “fleshed out”, so to speak, and the body language that Wendling contributes to their movements is truly striking.
The environments, from water and underwater to enclosed attics and winding village streets are drawn with a sharp eye to the atmosphere. I did not get the feeling that the artist was adding detail for its own effect, that is, over rendering. Rather, each page in this long story is well composed; drawings are weighted properly in lights and darks, and the coloring is excellent.
As I mentioned above, this is an epic adventure. Enjoying and understanding it at a reasonable pace would take days of reading. So, many great and marvelous hours of reading await you, if you are up for it!
IDW EuroComics, Lights Of The Amalou, $39.99 for 244 pages, not rated (some nudity)
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