The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship

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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

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.