A Graphic Cosmogony by Paul Gravett

A Graphic Cosmogony Reviews

• 
  Marjorie

  The art is fabulous and the offset printing is a great addition to the experience. Visually, this book is a masterpiece.
  5 stars for the art, 2 stars for the stories themselves, and that's being generous.
  
  I love the concept of story telling through image alone, but this collection didn't hit the mark. The storylines felt like the end goal was less about cohesion and more about ridiculousness. I wanted to love this so badly, but most of it was not very good, some of it was okay, and a story or two were noteworthy.
  
  Pretty, but no substance.
• 
  Veronica Erb

  Oof dah. I picked this out on a whim based on the titled and library description, and when I took a look at it after curb-side pickup, I was pretty quickly discouraged. Waaay too many comic artists whose names make me think they are men making not-exactly-clever versions of how the world was created.
  
  The two comics that I did enjoy in this collection were "Masters of the Universe" by Isabel Greenberg, which had some lovely bird people who felt like beginning-of-the-universe beings with some witty plot developments, and "Deus Magicus" by Luc Melanson, which charmingly portrayed the seven days at the beginning of the universe as if they were magic tricks.
• 
  Ebba

  This is a collection where 24 artist each have told their own story in seven pages about how the universe was created. It's almost only pitcures so it took me very little time to finish, but I enjoyed it. It was really cool to get exposed to so many different art styles, and some of the pitcures were really gorgeous. It's a bit hard to rate this since some of the stories were amazing, and some were just okay, but overall I enjoyed the experience of reading it. If you're interesting in the whole creation theme and art, I would definately recommend it.
• 
  Sarah Ahmed

  ok, here's the think, you don't actually READ 'a graphic cosmogony'. yes, there are some pages that contain text but this anthology celebrates artists' diversity and individualism, not only in illustrating/creating comics but also the way they think and their own philosophies. i found it to be a visually stunning anthology + i get to look up the artists i reallyreally like.
• 
  Mauricio Garcia

  As ever goes with these sort of things, this anthology is sort of a mixbag of qualities and degrees of originality. I would consider to be some of the highlights:
  Luna by Rob Hunter - beautiful art and use of a-sequential paneling.
  Deity School by Andrew Rae - which could very well be a Netflix animated series.
  The Void by Jon Boam - has a C.F. quality in the drawings and bat-shit technological prowess.
  Derek by Nick White - making fun of the conventions that other artists recycle in this very anthology and also switching up formats to tell different tales.
  Deus Magicus by Luc Melanson - which is just fun in a vintage Pink Panther sort of way.
  
  Worth of note is also how many of the artists went the same route, either their own spin of primordial mythos or a panspermia / creationism sci-fi comedy. Which goes to show how powerful these two narratives remain even centuries after they first were envisioned by our forefathers.
• 
  Alexa

  The design of this book is gorgeous - that’s what initially drew me in. I’m a fan of short stories too, so I liked the concept of having a bunch of artists provide their own take on the beginning of the universe. But the quality of the stories is so inconsistent. There are a couple standouts, 4 or 5 that I would go back to, and the rest aren’t that memorable. Many of the comics are wordless, so the few that have a lot of text feel out of place. I loved the different art styles too, and the quality of the art shouldn’t be understated. But having read the whole book, I think it takes more than a writing prompt and a medium to make a collection of stories cohere. These do not.
• 
  Tyler Graham

  An anthology of comics depicting different possible ways that the universe was created. It’s an absolute acid trip of a read, packed with vividly colored illustrations and made up of some serious, thought-provoking segments and other cheekier, silly ones, but on the whole I thoroughly enjoyed it. Isabel Greenberg’s story was my favorite!
• 
  Jasmin Kaushal

  Can't condense rating because there are several stories in this one book. So, only for the good ones 5 stars ✨ 🌟 ✨ complete.
  Also because cosmogony and where the universe 🌌 came from should be more thought about, promoted and celebrated in more medias. So hats off for bringing that topic to mainstream audience in an easy more prone to acceptance way which is: with visuals.
• 
  Matt Matt Tobin

  Great stories and amazing comics
• 
  Kinch

  A mixed bag of weird delights, some very crunchy
• 
  Jessica

  Interesting...but very, very weird.
• 
  Nigel McFarlane

  The artwork is good, but the creation scenarios themselves are mostly disappointing.
• 
  Micha

  My 2016 Reading Challenge list (the one from PopSugar) included graphic novel as one of the forty items to check off, and it surprised me that I don't actually read them. Really ever. Because I respect graphic novels and the people who enjoy them. And I have read the occasional webcomic, and I always see what
  Kate Beaton's done lately, and working at the bookstore I always went through to sort that section and thought that plenty looked interesting, and yet I don't read graphic novels. And when it came time to check this off my list, I didn't even know where to begin. I went to the library with a few recommendations, spent a long time going through the shelves, chose four, but only read this one. (It was a beautiful sunny day in the park, so warm for late October, almost wrong yet I wasn't about to complain.)
  
  I like the structure of it, allowing each artist seven pages. It's like the confines of a sonnet, encouraging artistry through limitation. There were definitely some I preferred over others, some which I might look into the illustrators of had I not already returned this book to the library, and yet I still have no great desire to take out specific graphic novels (apart from, admittedly, the graphic novel version of
  In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way: A Graphic Novel, which intrigues me to no end, but which I wouldn't dare open till I read the novel, which will be a while yet).
• 
  Jon Shanks

  24 7-page comics about creation by "indie" writer/artists. When it works, there are some instances of brilliance in here like Isabel Greenberg's "Masters of the Universe", nothing to to with He-Man, but rather the deities, Birdman, Kid & Kiddo from her wonderful book "The Encyclopedia of Early Earth", which was the reason I bought this collection. Other really good stories include: "Deity School" by Andrew Rae, "The Biggest Banger" by Mike Bertino & "Luna" by Rob Hunter. Unfortunately, there are far more misses than hits in the collection, with quite a lot of the other ranging from dull to confusing with a smattering of pretension. It's a shame as the book is beautifully packaged and the overall idea is a good one, but it's sadly a case of style over substance.
• 
  Ryan

  This book is beautifully designed and illustrated. However, some of the artists put a little more thought into their stories than others. A couple were not really in the optimum format. But the rest were nice. It helps that Nobrow has such a nice printing setup and put a lot of work into designing the book. So I can appreciate the publishing as much as the writing. I can't really say the same for other books...
• 
  Samantha

  I wanted so desperately to love this book, but it just didn't impress me. With any anthology there are hits and misses and for me there where 23 misses and 1 hit. But a lot of the artwork was gorgeous and a few of the stories were pretty interesting, just not amazing. I want to say thank to Nobrow for sending me this book though!
• 
  Steve

  An enjoyable and diverse anthology of work. Like a lot of Nobrow output, the narrative is a bit odd (you're often left thinking "...and?") but most of the artwork - and the ideas - are great. Jon McNaught's Pilgrims strip is, unsurprisingly, first class - I just love that guy's stuff.
• 
  Matthew

  Really solid anthology collecting creation myths of different cultures all done up in indie/outsider comics. Daulaire's book of myths this is not....these tales come with pretty graphic depictions of dismemberment, torture, sex & goddesses giving birth to entire universes. Quite wonderful, though.
• 
  Alex

  What a great collection of inventive genesis stories. All of them are beautiful, and though not every one is a hit, the ones that are are infinitely re-readable.
• 
  Chloe

  A great collection of short stories. It's rare for a graphic anthology to be full of consistently good art, but this one was a solid collection.
• 
  Kes

  gorgeous but not entirely engaging in terms of writing
• 
  Mack

  Nobrow never disappoints
• 
  Rebecca

  Good selection of stories about the creation of the world/universe with beautiful drawings.
• 
  Malli

  Outstanding graphic book. 24 artists take on the challenge of depicting their own Theory of Creation of the Universe in 7 pages each. Beautiful, partly psychedelic and immensely stimulating.
• 
  Sabah Usmani

  Visually spectacular, narratively lacking.
• 
  Judy

  FABULOUS. And so beautiful.