Not sure who decided the cover, but:
I had a hard time seeing that as a fish at first. Even now, I have to really tell myself it is one.
And it’s not the little black fish protagonist either. Why wouldn’t we have the little black fish on the cover instead of a picture of his mother, who is only in the comic for the first five or six pages?
I don’t get it.
Actually, I don’t really get a lot of this comic. I almost do — a beloved Persian children’s story, interesting art, a story that’s supposed to be a lesson (although I’m not one hundred percent sure what the lesson is supposed to be if we don’t go for the literal, and yet universal, don’t-get-eaten-by-a-heron-lesson). It seems like a great idea for a comic book. But I just feel that there’s something I’m missing, something off a little bit. Even how I would describe this book seems off. I’d say cute but that’s only because there isn’t really a word that means what I want to say otherwise. It’s kind of bloody and without a happy ending, but nevertheless, cute. See — that’s off.
Tesfa looked over my shoulder when I was reading it and was really interested in the art work. Maybe what’s off is that I’m not a kid. I’ve lost that by now. Maybe as a kid I’d appreciate this comic more.
Still, why isn’t the little black fish himself on the cover?
The Little Black Fish by Bizhan Khodabandeh went on sale May 15, 2016.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.