'Pride of the Decent Man' with story and art by T.J. Kirsch is about a man trying to make his way through a life that was marred from the start.

Andrew Peters grew up in an abusive home. His grandmother teaches him to write things out, and the story is mostly told through these writings. In the course of his life, he makes some bad choices that land him in prison. Now that he's out, he finds out that he might have a daughter, but will the sins of the past revisit him?

I liked this story, but it felt a little on the sparse side. The art is interesting as well as the text, but when the end comes, I'm not sure I felt any emotional connection with the main character.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from NBM Publishing, Papercutz, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Short, deep and something that made me contemplate things. I enjoyed this a lot, highly recommended!

You know what comic books hardly ever, ever do? Demand I read them a second time, immediately. But this one did. Splash pages normally just go nowhere, but this book, in using a heck of a lot of them, and others with very little to seemingly experience, reached the shore and came back. It has twice as much in as other books, and it's half their length. Go figure. In teaching us that not all muscle-bound ex-cons are lunk-head bully-boys, it says a lot, but it's a lot more than that. I'd never normally give a high rating to something that can be read in under 15 minutes, but yowzah. Just yowzah. I'm not fully convinced by the fighting bird metaphor, but this was good.

T.J. Kirsch, as both a writer and illustrator, did an impressive job in coming up with this outstanding graphic novel. The story of Andrew Peters will make readers ponder about their lives and how we treat others with hostile or dislike, without knowing who they really are. I am guilty of being a prejudiced to substance abusers; but after a while, I've learnt that these people might be dealing with problems and the only temporary escape they aware of is immersed themselves into this kind of abuse.

Andrew Peters, on the other hand, is an ex-convict; there are a lot of people that have preconceived opinion that anyone who served jail time has an ill personality and will never be transform. Reading this book will make us reflect on how we are as a person; it also serves as a wake up call that we should learn to be open-minded and put ourselves into other's shoes first before making any judgment.

Pride of the Decent Man is a magnificent book with a remarkable story that accompanies with admirable illustrations. I'm confident that there's a high probability that would be delighted to read this compelling graphic novel and they'll recommend this to their friends as well.

This is a short graphic novel about a man who tries to make a new start in his life when he discovers that he has a daughter.

The art is ok and the story is conveyed through simple prose. It is a simple story, told through clear but colourful graphics.

I did think it was a rather tragic story though and it kind of left me without much else to say.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review

This is a fun Young Adult graphic novel. Nice artwork and a good story.

This is an odd, quick graphic novel, telling the story of a man who tries to do his best, in life, but is lead astray by his best friend, who does not get punished the way that Andrew does.

The whole story is told via writings that Andrew does, as he grows up, as he is abused, as he makes wrong choices, and ends up in prison, as he gets out of prison and finds he has a daughter, that he wants a relationship with.

I'm wavering between marking this as a three to a three and half star, because this was so quick, so fast, and over so fast, I'm not sure that this was enough of a story.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Minor Spoiler Included

I was surprised by how emotionally attached I became to the main character in Pride of the Decent Man. Told in chapters, this graphic novel follows the life of Andrew Peters. Growing up in an abusive home, Andrew's Grandma teaches him to hold onto the good times to get through the bad. His Grandma takes photos throughout her life to reflect on as she grows older. Inspired by her, Andrew begins to write, capturing his thoughts and experiences in a series of journals.

Andrew tries to do the right thing in his life but allows his friend Whitey to consistently rope him into plans which never turn out the way he intends. The idea of redemption is common in a lot of what Andrew has been reading and when he discovers he has a daughter he hopes that his chance to redeem himself has come.

My heart melted when [spoiler: Andrew reads to his daughter what he wants to say to her. He's more comfortable writing than speaking and the fact that he wanted to get this interaction with his daughter just right was so touching.]

Ultimately Andrew is a good man who strives to overcome his past and I imagine he just wants to be the kind of man who his Grandma, then girlfriend and finally his daughter will be proud of. He leads a quiet, often solitary existence and I found myself really liking him. I was proud of him for taking responsibility for his actions and I wanted everything to turn out well for him.

In under 100 pages, T.J. Kirsch made me connect with his main character more than a lot of authors of 400 plus page novels do. The writing was fairly sparse but this made the words that were written have more of an impact. The illustrations told the rest of the story, allowing access to Andrew's emotions. Sometimes in graphic novels you can feel a disconnect between the story and the illustrations. Given that this graphic novel was written and drawn by the same person, there was no feeling of anything being lost in the translation.

I really liked the interplay between the handwritten portions of Andrew's journals and the speech. The flashback scenes added to the story and were done in such a way that they blended in to the story and I didn't find them distracting as a reader. I loved the use of the birds' silhouettes throughout and particularly loved the symbolism of the brightly coloured butterflies in the final panel.

I suppose part of what drew me to Andrew was the fact that I'm also more comfortable expressing myself through writing than speaking. I do know I wasn't expecting a great deal from this graphic novel and I've come away having read it twice so far with respect and admiration for this rough around the edges main character.

I received a copy of this graphic novel from NetGalley (thank you so much to NetGalley, NBM Publishing and Papercutz for the opportunity) in exchange for honest feedback.