Outburst

At the start of Coudyzer’s richly drawn but narrative-starved graphic novel, his moon-faced protagonist, 33-year-old Tom Deleersnyder, is listening to the police smash into his apartment while he deals with another crisis: he is part human and part tree, his limbs transformed into bundles of brittle branches. A flashback to his childhood shows that then Tom was just another socially awkward kid, more likely to lose himself in long daydreaming rambles through the woods than engage with his teacher or endlessly teasing schoolmates. On a school trip, his isolation takes a dramatic turn that sets the stage for the climax, which the book circles back to. Coudyzer is a former animator, and his visualization of Tom’s daydreaming about the quietude of forests is generally beautiful, but that same texturing doesn’t appear in the plot or his narration. The slights that Tom endures and his ultimate revenge are routine and feel secondhand. Similarly, Tom’s inner monologue is so flat and one-dimensional that when Coudyzer slips in a surreal plot twist, it feels confused rather than daring. (May)