The graphic novel section of any large bookshop is one of my favourite places to explore. There’s such a diverse selection of tomes, vibrant colours, strange and vague titles. But I have to admit, I never end up buying one - I already have too many to read at home, and never get round to them anyway. I’ve had the same copy of Watchmen on my bookcase for roughly 8 years, and that copy wasn’t originally mine (I’m sorry, friend that lent me Watchmen back in high school). There’s just something stopping me from sitting down with a good graphic novel and devouring its images, perhaps a latent habit from university days where it was Shakespeare or bust. However, when I was given a favoured graphic novel from a friend for a birthday gift, the pressure of the gift led me to reading The Motherless Oven, and having finished the series last year, I feel like I must recommend them to everyone.
The Motherless Oven is the first in a trilogy of graphic novels by Rob Davis, and is followed by The Can Opener’s Daughter and The Book of Forks. Each of the three focuses on one of the protagonists of the series - a group of older school children navigating a dystopian world. The titles alone will suggest a strangeness that surrounds these stories, but I must stress that the universe of Davis’ creation is much more wild than you could imagine. It rains knives here, and there’s no TV, only ‘the wheel’, and children build their parents out of scraps. The only ‘humans’ in this story are the kids, because the parents are machines. There are Household Gods, and these are also things like singing kettles.
There’s a lot going on here, I’ll admit, and I’ve seen reviews where people say they didn’t get this graphic novel, or that it was trying to be too edgy, but I think that’s part of the charm. The art style has this noir-esque vibe, and a complex world surrounding equally complex characters, so it’s understandable that, to begin with, this series is a little too much. But part of these stories is that they are built to be explored alongside our protagonists, and, like them, we are searching for answers. By the time we follow Castro in the final novel, The Book of Forks, we are discovering things that change how we read the previous two novels. This final installment is perhaps the most interesting and gripping of the three, as it really does reveal some deep-rooted lore that plays with the morality and philosophy of the whole universe.
The Motherless Oven is a wonderful place to start exploring independent, non-franchise graphic novel titles - as Alex mentioned in his review of Check, Please! there are some big hitters that dominate our cultural perception of the graphic novel, even though there are a plethora of unique and exciting titles out there. I cannot recommend this universe enough. It has been on my mind since I turned the first page, and has been integral to me breaking into the graphic novel genre.
There’s a lot going on here, I’ll admit, and I’ve seen reviews where people say they didn’t get this graphic novel, or that it was trying to be too edgy, but I think that’s part of the charm. The art style has this noir-esque vibe, and a complex world surrounding equally complex characters, so it’s understandable that, to begin with, this series is a little too much. But part of these stories is that they are built to be explored alongside our protagonists, and, like them, we are searching for answers. By the time we follow Castro in the final novel, The Book of Forks, we are discovering things that change how we read the previous two novels. This final installment is perhaps the most interesting and gripping of the three, as it really does reveal some deep-rooted lore that plays with the morality and philosophy of the whole universe.
The Motherless Oven is a wonderful place to start exploring independent, non-franchise graphic novel titles - as Alex mentioned in his review of Check, Please! there are some big hitters that dominate our cultural perception of the graphic novel, even though there are a plethora of unique and exciting titles out there. I cannot recommend this universe enough. It has been on my mind since I turned the first page, and has been integral to me breaking into the graphic novel genre.
review written by Jay Fox
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