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A review by chwaters
Ant Colony by Michael DeForge
4.0
This is, by far, one of the strangest graphic novels I have ever read. As the title implies, it is about an ant colony. Or, more specifically, the collapse of an ant colony. The narrative follows several ants: a homosexual pair of males, an adolescent ant and his amoral father, a police officer with the gift of meta-narrative and an infertile female ant (only the queen is fertile in the black ant colony). Things get particularly weird when the spiders come to the area. The fluids produced by the mating spiders have a hallucinogenic effect on a red ant colony which causes them to begin attacking the black ants. In the meantime, the adolescent ant has accidentally ingested powered earthworm and subsequently gained prophetic powers. The adolescent ant's amoral father has decided it would be entertaining to destroy the egg sacks he's supposed to be guarding. War breaks out amongst the two ant colonies, which leaves the anthill all but abandoned. The brutal war kills off most of the ants, leaving the survivors to strike out on their own.
DeForge's artwork is totally unique. Yes, each insect is identifiable, but they're not depicted in the way in which we're used to seeing them drawn. The spiders have a distinctly wolfish quality to them and appear to have ingested far too many stimulants. The centipede has taken on the form of a stretch limo. The black ants are distinguished amongst one and other by the bumps on their heads and their colorful, visible internal organs. And then there are the bees.... The best way I can think of to describe this book is that it's a bit like an ant-based version of Watership Down - on peyote. It's crazy. It's funny. It's confusing. It's kind of brilliant.
DeForge's artwork is totally unique. Yes, each insect is identifiable, but they're not depicted in the way in which we're used to seeing them drawn. The spiders have a distinctly wolfish quality to them and appear to have ingested far too many stimulants. The centipede has taken on the form of a stretch limo. The black ants are distinguished amongst one and other by the bumps on their heads and their colorful, visible internal organs. And then there are the bees.... The best way I can think of to describe this book is that it's a bit like an ant-based version of Watership Down - on peyote. It's crazy. It's funny. It's confusing. It's kind of brilliant.