The History of Science Fiction: A Graphic Novel Adventure

A comprehensive history of science fiction is told via a clever comics narrative as two robots, Robby from the film Forbidden Planet and Jenkins, who seems to be replicated from Clifford D. Simak’s novel City, seek the origins of the genre that birthed them. Dollo’s inventive device allows the pair to travel through a virtual reality, meeting and conversing with major figures of sci-fi, much like James Burke’s Connections documentary, with each section focusing on a creator (such as Verne or Asimov) or medium/era/style (pulp, the British new wave) and branching outward to include movements and writers they influenced. This conceit at times may seem breezy (Arthur C. Clarke chats with his creation HAL 9000), but it works as an effective shortcut through the intricate branches of genre chronology. Morissette-Phan (Glitterbomb series) provides realistic but not overembellished art, with vivacious portrayals of real-life figures that carry energy through the many talking-head scenes. Further reading suggestions are generously peppered throughout, and though a panel can occasionally end up crammed full of names as in-dialogue bibliography, it’s all done with such a light touch it’s forgivable. Cutely, the robots do land on the “exact definition of science fiction”: of course, it’s “42,” per Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker series. Readers beloved of the mysteries and magic of science fiction will truly enjoy this undertaking. (Nov.)