{"id":4065,"date":"2016-05-29T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T06:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4065"},"modified":"2016-05-30T13:20:57","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T19:20:57","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-485-featuring-alexis-deacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=4065","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #485: Featuring Alexis Deacon"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nI’ve got some art today from author-illustrator Alexis Deacon’s<\/a><\/strong> first graphic novel, Geis: A Matter of Life & Death<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. (“Geis,” a Gaelic word for a taboo or curse, is pronounced gesh<\/em>.) It will be on bookshelves in July from Nobrow Press. [Edited to Add, 5\/30\/16: Alexis has illustrated this graphic novel<\/a><\/strong>, though <\/em>Geis is still the first he’s both written and illustrated.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Let me back up a bit and say that I love to see Alexis’s work, and I was happy to see he’d done a graphic novel. (I just read this 2014 Guardian<\/em> piece<\/a><\/strong> about him and very much enjoyed it, if anyone wants to learn a bit more about him.) This is what the publisher calls a supernatural historical fantasy and is the first in a trilogy. Readers are promised at the book’s close that “soon” we will be able to read Book Two, A Game Without Rules<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The book opens with the death of the great chief, Matarka. Her will declares that “there would be a contest. Fate would choose the one fit to take her place.” Calling upon the Gods, fifty souls are summoned at night — to the confusion of everyone. Thus begins the contest to see who will become the ruler of the island. <\/p>\n

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A young girl in a blue dress is our heroine. She is mystified as to why she was chosen and is surrounded by the likes of the Chief Judge, the High Priestess, the Lord Chamberlain, the Grand Wizard (who is, refreshingly, a woman of color), and more. At the beginning of the competition, all fifty contestants are scattered forth across the kingdom—they are literally flung out in many directions—and told they must return “before the light of the next dawn touches the castle door.” Things are complicated, however, by a sorceress, and Deacon takes readers in and out amongst the various contestants’ adventures. Our heroine does quite well for herself, but I won’t give too much away. It ends on a cliffhanger, and there’s lots more action to come. <\/p>\n

Deacon’s artwork is beautiful, elegant. I already mentioned I’m a fan, right? But to see him do such finely-detailed work in a graphic novel is remarkable. The palette is dominated by primarily soft, pastel hues, and his lines are both precise and fluid. He paces the book well and sets a mood both mysterious and sinister — but always riveting and quite entertaining. I was bummed to see the story end. (For now.)<\/p>\n

Enough of my rambling. Let’s look at some art!<\/p>\n

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\nGEIS: A MATTER OF LIFE & DEATH. Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Alexis Deacon. Illustrations used by permission of the publisher, Nobrow Press, London.<\/em>
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\nNote for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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1)<\/strong><\/font> It’s summer for my girls! This means some moderate adjusting of my work-at-home schedule, but it also means more time to see them and read more books together. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> I visited third-graders this week and talked to them about writing, and I read their own stories. (They “published” their own picture books in-house!) I also read picture books to first-graders, which was pretty fantastic. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Doing story time in Parnassus’s<\/a><\/strong> new space. (They’ve expanded the store and doubled its size.) I also saw some pretty special piggies, but more on that later. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> Paul Simon’s new CD is at NPR’s First Listen<\/a><\/strong>, and IT IS SO GOOD. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> My book club. We sometimes even read picture books to each other. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> I really loved this Q&A<\/a><\/strong> with Sherman Alexie, especially where he talks about seeing The Snowy Day<\/em> for the first time. I’ve read Thunder Boy Jr.<\/em> in more than one story time this week, and children love it. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Seeing the work my daughters brought home from the school year, especially their writing. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I’ve got some art today from author-illustrator Alexis Deacon’s first graphic novel, Geis: A Matter of Life & Death. (“Geis,” a Gaelic word for a taboo or curse, is pronounced gesh.) It will be on bookshelves in July from Nobrow Press. [Edited to Add, 5\/30\/16: Alexis has illustrated this graphic novel, though Geis is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-intermediate","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}