Review by New York Times Review
"THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN BLAKE: Mystery of the Ghost Ship," the first graphic novel written by Philip Pullman, opens with the sort of cinematic flourish fans of the author's "His Dark Materials" series have come to expect. A solitary tanker floats in a darkened sea. We slowly zoom in on a single figure on the deck, staring out into the blackness, scanning for ... something. Don't look in his eyes, another sailor tells him: "They say you'll be dead in a month if you look in his eyes! " The tension mounts over the next few pages as a battered schooner emerges from the mist, finally revealing the form of our hero, standing atop the mast and glaring, red-eyed and fierce, from the haze. He and the ghost ship disappear into the gloom once more, and the sailors are left shaken. It's a hell of an opening scene, and Pullman and Fred Fordham, who has done the illustrations, do not disappoint from there. "The Adventures of John Blake" was originally serialized in the British comics weekly The Phoenix, but there is no sense of its being a disjointed episodic story. Pullman never writes down to his readers. In fact it's really only because he focuses his tales on young protagonists that his books are marked as intended for children. His dialogue here is sharp and smart and, yes, adult. The story propels along naturalistically, no small feat given the fantastic world we are entering. The ghost ship of the title is the Mary Alice, a time-lost schooner from the 1920s. The ship became unmoored in time following an experiment gone awry involving Albert Einstein and a mysterious floating device that looks like a cross between an impossible trident and the Antikythera mechanism. In the present, descendants of the missing crew track reports of the ship as it reappears throughout history, while they themselves are tracked by an all-seeing enemy with sinister designs on the Mary Alice. John Blake seems preternaturally formidable, a young man of an indeterminate age cut from the same cloth as Will Parry from Pullman's "Subtle Knife." The rest of the characters are a motley crew plucked from throughout history - a Chinese merchant from 1913, a former Barbary slave from 1614, an ancient Roman who serves as the mechanic of the ship's diesel engine ("The Romans were great engineers"). They're joined by Serena, a teenage castaway from the present day who serves as the reader's proxy. The cast is sprawling, and in typical Pullman fashion, there are hints of greater depths to each of them. Fordham sometimes has trouble drawing facial expressions that show strong emotion, and his action sequences can be stiff and hard to follow, but it's difficult to fault him when he renders the settings of John Blake's world in such painstaking and loving detail. And the settings are myriad - London, San Francisco, Fiji, not to mention the Mary Alice and the sea itself. The palette he uses for the sea at times evokes the seascapes of Winslow Homer. The mystery alluded to in the title is surprisingly straightforward, given that we're dealing with a time-traveling boat. "The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship" feels like the equivalent of a superhero origin-story film - there's a lot of setup to get out of the way before we can embark on more fantastic adventures to come, in subsequent volumes said to be in the works. A sequence near the end gives us a tantalizing glimpse, when a fog embraces the Mary Alice as it sails into the mists of time. Serena and John listen as disembodied voices emanate from the gloom - a sea serpent from the South Atlantic, a man being flayed by pirates, the siren-song from the "Odyssey." I want to see these adventures that have been and will yet be, and I'm confident that readers of all ages will want to as well. GEORGE O'CONNOR is the author and illustrator of several picture books and graphic novels for children. His latest is "Artemis: Wild Goddess of the Hunt," part of the Olympians series.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 25, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Like Pullman's indelible Lyra, Christina Henderson is a girl who finds herself yanked out of her accustomed world. Rescued from drowning by the time-traveling ghost ship, Mary Alice, she makes the acquaintance of young John Blake, swept up by the currents of time when he was an unintentional participant in a secret, ocean-based experiment conducted by none other than Albert Einstein. The ship is pursued in the present by a British secret agent, a female maritime expert, and the CEO of the sinister Dahlberg Corporation, all of whom have meaningful connections to the ship. With obvious affection for Tintin, Pullman threads this complicated skein of plot with customary measures of awe and menace, and for an esteemed man of letters on his first expedition into the graphic novel format, he proves an expert visual storyteller. Fordham animates with characters who have the detail and agility of a Studio Ghibli cast. He shows particular flair for silent passages, evidencing as much gusto in nimble fight scenes and breathless chase sequences as in a meaningful glare and capturing the vastness of the sea as it swallows a young girl. Those eager for the release of Pullman's new His Dark Materials book this fall will be delighted to bide their time with this. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Anything new from Pullman is big news, and his first original graphic novel won't disappoint.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Washed overboard when a storm hits her family's sailboat, young Serena Henderson is saved by John Blake, a mysterious teenager aboard a time-traveling ghost ship called the Mary Alice. Elsewhere, investigator Danielle Quayle and British navy commander Roger Blake seek to learn more about John and the strange timepiece he carries; a tech billionaire, Carlos Dahlberg, is also after John-with darker intentions. Once John reveals to Serena the secret that he knows will bring the billionaire down, the story shifts into high gear. Outside of some well-timed assistance from Serena, it's the men who get to have most of the fun in action scenes ranging from hand-to-hand combat to the dramatic disarming of a giant missile. The graphic novel format lets Pullman's (the His Dark Materials series) dialogue shine, and Fordham's lucid panels are strong, legible, and charged with energy. Originally published serially by the Phoenix in the U.K., the adventure reads like a tautly paced film script. While the story isn't as wildly imaginative as some of Pullman's previous work, it will undoubtedly hold readers' attention. Ages 8-12. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-When Harvard student Danielle succeeds in tracking the legendary Mary Alice, a pirate ship that disappears and reappears across time, she becomes drawn into a conspiracy headed by the menacing Dahlberg Corporation. The Dahlbergs are after the secrets of the Mary Alice, and only Royal Navy agent Roger Blake opposes them. Drawn into this web of intrigue is Serena, an Australian teenager who is swept off her parents' yacht and rescued by the Mary Alice crew. Serena learns of the mysterious vessel's ability to travel across time as well as the nature of its ragtag crew. While Roger Blake and Danielle race to find the ship before the Dahlbergs can, Serena unravels the true mystery aboard the Mary Alice: a teenage boy named John Blake. This is Pullman's first original graphic novel, and fans of "His Dark Materials" will recognize such plot elements as the use of futuristic gadgets and the role of father figures. Fordham's paneling and artwork initially read like storyboards, with a static appearance that relaxes as the fairly complex narrative progresses. The various plot threads coalesce into a powerful tale, with the artwork creating a soaring, cinematic feel. VERDICT A modern seafaring epic, highly recommended for all Pullman and fantasy fans and more than worthy of its author's oeuvre.-Matisse Mozer, Los Angeles Public Library © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Pullmans first original graphic novel is a smorgasbord thriller containing a little bit of everything--including espionage, time travel, bloodthirsty pirates, high-tech gadgets, and substantial explosions. Several intersecting story lines and a large cast of characters swirl around the mysterious teenager John Blake and his time-hopping ship the Mary Alice. Multiple tangential players--a determined maritime agent, a formidable British spy, and an evil billionaire inventor--all with their own agendas, work with and against one another as they pursue John and the Mary Alice. A narrative of corporate greed, murder, and collusion quickly develops after John and his crew rescue the shipwrecked Serena, a modern-day teenager traveling the seas with her family, and attempt to get her back to the present day. Cinematic illustrations, along with a strong sense of atmosphere and liberal deployment of panels per page, carry much of the storytelling. A few exceptional visual moments--a jarringly vertical panel of Serena sinking into the depths of the ocean and a nearly all-white double-page spread depicting Johns first time-travel experience--are a relief from the persistent mannequin-esque appearance of the characters. While many pieces of the story have a tendency to fall into place too easily, readers searching for a rollicking adventure comic will be thoroughly satisfied. patrick gall (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Purloined technology, time travelers, ghost ships, and deception converge in this graphic page-turner. In a world not too unlike our own, most everyone is connected by Apparators, smartphonelike devices that can also project images, created by technology mogul Carlos Dahlberg. A member of the crew on the ghost ship Mary Alice, white time traveler John Blake is doomed to ride in and out of different time periods after an accident suffered during an experiment conducted by his scientist father. Young Blake knows Dahlberg's darkest secret and has the evidence and desire to expose him. Serena Anderson, a white Australian teenager lost at sea, Danielle Quayle Reid, a black Harvard Law graduate, and Roger Blake, a white commander in the Royal Navy, all become caught up in Dahlberg and Blake's tangled web. High-adrenaline chases, blazing explosions, and gunfights abound as they come to discover their shocking connections. Will they be able to stop Dahlberg before his nefarious plans come to fruition? Pullman has created an intricate blend of science fiction and adventure, skillfully weaving together many disparate elements into a cohesive and exciting tale. Fordham's art, although realistic and spare, is cinematic in scope, imbuing this with all the momentum of a Hollywood blockbuster. Some of the finer plot details have a tendency to be quickly glossed over, but expect readers to be too caught up in this whirlwind ride to care. A richly imagined high-octane thriller. (Science fiction/adventure. 13-adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
