Pig, along with his friend Fox and his sort-of-friend Hippo, have only a few days left to make it back to their town in Sunrise Valley before the deadly wave returns. Will their mysterious “uncle” (a lizard with a penchant for “borrowing” all manner of vehicles) get our heroes home in time? But there are other towns--and other creatures--in the world outside their valley.

One town’s air is so polluted that you have to wear a mask everywhere you go. Then there’s the underground settlement of moles who make sacrifices to a mysterious deity--but why does Pig see his father there? He keeps seeing him near dams and in wisps of what looks like the deadly wave, but Pig’s father died years ago, so what’s really going on? Gorgeous art and a fast-paced story make this second entry in the Dam Keeper series a great pick for graphic novel fans.

I enjoyed the sequel of the Dam. The Dam Keeper: World Without Darkness has beautiful and stunning visualizations. The first is still my favorite of the two but I thoroughly enjoy them both.

While the artwork is stellar, the writing is too light to provide a fully-actualized story that will resonate with the majority of readers. I feel that if the plot was a bit more sophisticated and if readers were given more text to flesh out the world-building and characters, it could easily be an all-ages success. Ultimately, it's a nice concept that is hamstrung my its execution.

Love the illustrations and overall story. This is the second title in a series, so you'll want to be sure to read the first. Great additional to any juvenile collection. Lovely overall.

I think I would have to read the first book in the series if there is one, to really understand the story, as it did not really draw me in too greatly. The artwork is gorgeous though, and I think many children would love to read this book - or have it read to them.

The Dam Keeper is full of astounding visuals, the artists are able to evoke emotion in the illustrations by using stunning, creepy imagery and creative panel layouts. There is a lot of humor in this volume and I began to really care about the group, where I felt disconnected from them in the first book. While this volume is somewhat rushed there is tons of character exploration and development as the group bonds and begins to rely on each other. The creepy story continues to unfold as interesting clues about the dam keepers are revealed. The Dam Keeper is a great graphic for young readers, it’s funny, creepy but not scary, and full of beautiful art that will enamore young graphic novel fans.

This story was a bit hard to follow but what really caught my attention and held it all the way through is the artwork. It's a super interesting style and we get to follow cute animals on their journey through different cities while they try to secure the safety of Sunrise Valley because that darn black fog is back to being a nuisance. This whole book really reminded me of the game Animal Crossing and I think any fans of that will definitly enjoy this.

We make leaps of progress from book 1 (re-read before starting this one). Again - the stand out of this book is the art. Its soft, its hard, its bright, and its fluid.

Good aspects to this:

- Gorgeous artwork and is just fun to look at. Excellent for students who cannot read yet or struggle with the font choice. You definitely see the adventure and can understand what is happening within the story with the images.
- A spookiness/dark aspect to the story. There is a ghost-like images and a sad flash back and what occurs at the end of the story.
- Touches on pollution and cultural belief differences but not deeply or anything. Could be used as an "extra" if you're teaching either of these points. Can students recognize they're putting masks on due to pollution? How do they react to different culture that they encounter? But definitely couldn't be a main piece in these lessons.
- Fun adventure story that you get to go along on!

Bad aspects to this:
- Like the first book the font is hard to read. Age range for the first book is 7 to 11. Yes, kids this age can read and read well. But most children books have easy to read fonts. They're just big enough and nothing too different from what the kids are reading. Recommend for a kid who can easily read different fonts than what is normally in a book.
- Use the word crazy a little too much for my taste.
-There is a scene where the Princess of the moles is stepping a later and Pig accidentally sees up her dress. It's depicted in the story. This happens on page 109 so if you want to just skip that page to avoid that situation while reading this with your kids.
- Ends on a cliffhanger we have to wait for the next installment!!!

Somehow I didn't notice that this was actually the second book in this graphic novel series! I think I'll go back and try to read the first so I at least have some idea of what's going on and how the characters got to where they are.

From what I can judge, this is a solid graphic novel. Nothing much happens in volume two except travel and meeting new people. Pig is obviously the main character and having "visions" of his late father and contemplating the mysterious sign of the Dam Keeper. The characters work out some sort of animosity they had towards each other and escape certain death a couple times. Pretty standard.

The art in this graphic novel could be really special. I would have to see a finished copy of the book to judge for sure, but the use of bright, saturated colors and soft lines is really great. It wasn't the style I would have preferred, and automatically skews this GN towards a younger audience, but I suspect that was the intention.

Intriguing read. 3/5 stars.

A continuation, apparently, of an ongoing series that struggles to stand on its own (which, to be fair, it was never intended to do). The artwork is unique in comparison to most other graphic novel offerings and the story is well paced.

The Dam Keeper: World Without Darkness is the second book in a graphic novel series for children, something I wish I had researched before requesting an e-book copy to review from NetGalley. I must admit, I was drawn into it by the amazing artwork on the cover - something which can be said about the graphics of the inside of the book as well.

However, that is the only aspect I enjoyed about it. Despite having not read the first volume, I managed to grasp the story from reviews. This book continues the adventures of Pig, Fox and Hippo after they got lost in the mysterious fog, who are trying to get back home. The story is fast-paced, with scenes running one after another with little to no explanations, and you are left to wonder what is happening now. I am not a fan of the characters' names, but must admit it made it easier to remember who is who, since everyone is named after their species.

I learned this was based on a short animated film, and this makes me wonder why I've even bothered to read this confusing graphic novel when the animation might've been a lot more easier to follow.

The story will definitely continue in a follow-up volume, as this book ends in a cliff-hanger. Not a fan of that either. I guess this could prove to be a lot more enjoyable for a child who needs to be constantly entertained and gets bored easily, since everything happens so fast and there are a lot happening at once.

I really hoped this would prove to be more original than it was - I was disappointed by the superficiality some themes were dealt with, such as sacrificing live beings, pollution, theft, disability (the blind creature).

The story of pig and his friends continues as they travel with Van, their new crazy lizard friend back towards their home. They much reach Sunrise Valley within the next 7 days or another wave of the smoke will sweep through the town, which is unprotected... on the way they find life in other towns, and meet other dam keepers... and one very unusual "mole."

The Dam Keeper: World Without Darkness isn't as strong as the first part, but it's still good in its looming darkness. I'm so amazed how well Kondo can pull this off and combines cute animals with such a heavy feeling. You can taste the sadness and peril while reading this and it's plain amazing. Pig, Fox and Hippo are travelling and going through cities just as their own only to notice they have experienced the same fate. The fog is back and our trio has to save Sunrise Valley and everywhere Pig sees these dam keeper markings and the mystery just thickens. The reason why this isn't as strong is mostly because we don't get anything out of our characters here. It's as if they are on the sidelines, which is a bummer, since they surely are the heart. The atmosphere is the same though, and overall this is a good continuation, even if falling somewhat flat.

The art is still great and how it combines candy colors and cute animals to this doomsday feeling and Kondo is a master at that. The comic is slow and suffocating, but still light in a weird way. I love it how this makes me feel, I've never encountered anything like it. I really enjoy this mystery and I hope it will be something awesome, since The Dam Keeper series deserves nothing less. I still give this four stars, since albeit the content is three, everything else is four and the series is awesome and Kondo still has time to make this better (like it was).

A decent follow up to the first one in this series. The illustrators are amazing but the story is a little sporadic at times. I'm looking forward to reading the next one!

Equal parts cute and gripping, the second of the Dam Keeper series just keeps getting better.!

The paper cutout and watercolor background make for an interesting style for this graphic novel.