A comic book by any other name would smell so sweet.

I just finished a graphic novel, Pride of Baghdad, by Brian K Vaughan and Niko Henrichon. It is a story about a group of lions that escape from the Baghdad Zoo during the American bombing in 2003. It is a quick read, only some 130 pages, with very few words. I was absorbed in the beauty of the Iraqi backgrounds, the intrigue between the two lionesses, and the anticipation of the anti-war cry veiled in the turban of art. I was enjoying it so much, the ending I never thought about sprung up and surprised me, like a hunting lioness. I’ll not spoil it here, but it ends the only way it could end.
This book reminds me, once again, of the guiltless power of graphic novels. In the same way that the best music combines the primitive appeal of rhythm and the modern allure of poetry into something more than these parts, the best graphic novels combine the Word and the Image, presenting to the reader a whole which is far more significant than the parts.
This is one of those cases. Check it out at your local public library. Sometimes they are shelved in the Young adult or Teen sections.