Powell, Nate – Any Empire

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Any Empire

I should start this off with a disclaimer: I haven’t read Nate’s “Swallow Me Whole,” and this is listed as a follow-up to that book, so it’s entirely possible that I’m missing a lot of context here. What can I say, the man has put out all kinds of graphic novels over the last ten years and I’ve its own way. Things start off bouncing around between Lee, Purdy and Sarah, three kids who are each doing their own thing. Sarah is trying to figure out which kids have been hurting turtles, Purdy is a budding crazy person who is still looking for something resembling friends, and Lee bounces seamlessly back and forth between reality and his fantasies while playing with his toys. Lee’s bits hit the hardest for me, as this was set around the time that I was a kid and I vividly remember going from bored to totally immersed in the intricate imagined happenings of whatever toys and accessories were around at the time (there were all kinds of G.I. Joe/Transformers/He-Man crossovers when I was playing). School is included as well, but just barely. It’s mainly all about how these kids interacted with each other and how every little thing was crucial and fundamentally meaningless at the same time. A number of years pass quickly to the to the second part of the book (maybe ten years?) and we see snippets of what our heroes have been doing with their lives. (THIS IS THE PART WHERE I SPOIL BITS OF PART 2, IN CASE YOU DON’T WANT TO READ IT) Lee is wandering a bit, Sarah is established in a good job but bored silly, and Purdy is off in the armed services. Sarah and Lee have some catching up to do after losing touch since their childhoods, and things get downright weird when Purdy enters their lives again. Your childhood may play a role in how much you enjoy/can relate to this book, but it triggered all kinds of memories in me. I think you’d still get something out of this even if you were raised in a nunnery away from all other kids, but that’s because it’s a fascinating story that’s expertly told. What can I say, I’m biased towards such things. $19.95

Posted on October 31, 2012, in Reviews and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Comments Off on Powell, Nate – Any Empire.

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