Books on slavery are always a tough read just because of the brutality of the subject matter - this one goes an extra mile by throwing in some piracy, murder and good old revenge. I won't say much more to avoid spoilers but let's just say this shows the brutality of the time period in which it is set in a gut-wrenching way.

An adaptation of a 19th century novel. Atar Gull is the son of an African chief, sold into slavery. For the first half of the book, Atar is a minor character only really appearing in the background. Instead it focuses on the brutal slavers taking the people to Jamaica. Once Atar is sold to a plantation owner, the book focuses on Atar and his quest for revenge at all costs. I found the stylistic, cartoony art at odds with the brutal and harrowing story of a whole lot of awful people. Not really my bag.

I got a copy of this graphic novel through NetGalley as it looked interesting enough, and I always enjoy reading a good Bande Dessinée as the art never lets me down, even if the plot does. And safe to say that this was not the case. Both the plot AND art held up!

This is adapted from a 19th century novel about the life of a slave, and it does not skimp on the horrid and traumatic lives that black men and women had after being captured and sold into slavery. But as it is from a novel from the mid 1800s, it seems like there's not much research done so we have no idea really where Atar Gull was from, or how much of the tale is true. Apart from what we already know of the slave trade.

It's a relatively quick but depressing read, and the art seems to go quite well with the subject matter. All in all it was a good read of a book I have never heard of, but if you're looking for a book that accurately depicts the slave trade of the early 1800s, then this is probably not what you want.

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Atar Gull, it was quick read, great if you’re looking for a quick period piece and aren’t really wanting to connect with the characters. Unfortunately, I am a reader who enjoys going through the emotions with the characters. The art style is simple and clean. I am not really a fan of the coloring, as the method used to show contrast (the white eyes, sans pupils, with a blacked-out face), made the main character look like a villain as opposed to the hero/victim of circumstance that he truly was. The characters lacked depth in my opinion; for instance, Narina, after discovering that Atar was responsible for so many tragedies, there was no hurt or pain in her face, no words of malice or contrite. He just dismissed her after the confrontation, remorseless. At no point was there an explanation of his strength, no links to his culture as a reference point for his thought process, again no real depth. I did appreciate the showcasing of the brutality suffered by slaves from their captures during the journey to the West Indies. There seemed to have been more research into that portion of the story than research done on the mindset of the slaves. Overall, I wasn’t very impressed with this graphic novel. It’s surprising that I saw comparisons to Toni Morrison's “Beloved” in the reviews, at no point did I see any development like that here, perhaps in the Nat Turner graphic novel by Kyle Baker, but certainly not here. I can’t say that I connected to any of these characters the way I did in Beloved or Nat Turner. Overall, this isn’t one I would necessarily recommend, but I also wouldn’t say it was awful. I can say that it has inspired me to research further into the slave trade in the Islands, I’d like to really understand their mindset and thought processes of their slaves, in comparison to American slaves.

This review is also posted in my blog :
https://onewordtoomuch.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/atar-gull/

Thank you to Europe Comics and Net Galley for a free copy of this book in trade for an honest review.

Well, this sure is a grim read. It’s a tragic story of survival with a tinge of revenge and love thrown in together. Each character is swept either by faith or sheer bad luck into this entire turn of events. You will find that each of them has their own reason on why they become who they were in the story.

Set in the time of slavery, it sure makes it not a cheerful read. It reminds us on one of the darkest ages of human history. It’s the time when families are ripped apart by war and consumed by human greed. It’s when humanity is lost and only money and profit takes over.

The story is quite simple, but there’s a plot twist and it’s quite surprising. I might not understand what makes Atar Gull loves his father more than his son. His plan is cunning and a bit complicated, but he achieved his goal. However, the end comes in full circle.

Illustration is ok, a bit simple, not too much detail, especially on the faces and eyes. It comes in solid black lines and solid coloring style. For the black skin character especially the main characters, the eyes are only pictured as white color, makes it look creepy. It’s a contrast between a very dark skin with a white eye. It also shows the strength of character. From the side of coloring, brown hue, red, dark blue and black dominates the illustration. It’s quite suitable for the story setting in Africa and Jamaica.

Recommend for those who like a historical fiction set around slavery time. There’s a bit of blood, violence and nudity shown.

Africa, 1830. Atar Gull, a strapping young slave, finds himself on a certain Captain Benoît's ship, on his way to the West Indies to be sold. This is no ordinary slave. He is the son of one of the great tribal kings, an athlete, a warrior. He will come at a high price, and not just in terms of money. After a long, unimaginably tough trip, Atar Gull winds up in Jamaica in the service of a plantation owner. It is with this plantation owner that his tragic destiny is entwined. This is a staggering adventure narrated through a superb 88-page volume that will be sure to haunt you long after you've turned the last page.



My thoughts:
This story is haunting because I am not sure if there is a hero. Perhaps slavery narratives have no heroes. Perhaps moral centers cannot come from amoral situations.



I don't want to spoil the story but this kind of haunting is similar to the real actions turned into fiction in Toni Morrison's book Beloved. Margaret Garner, the real slave who becomes Sethe in the fictionalized novel, fled from Kentucky to the free state of Ohio in 1856. When she was set upon by slave catchers, she chose to kill her own child instead of allowing the slave holders to enslave and possibly sell her child. It is this same kind of psychological horror that is part of the slave narrative in Atar Gull as well as in Beloved. Perhaps not before 8th grade.

Digital copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.

It’s sometimes hard to read history - even when it is historical fiction.

When I told my son I was reading a comic book about slavery he asked me why anyone would do that. I told him that it was important to understand what happened in the past - even if it wasn’t something entertaining to read.

This book paints the harsh realities of having to live without agency, without worth, as a slave in the New World, against the backdrop of a fictionalized hero.

Well-written with art to match, but it is a dark story with very little light and little redemption.

But it is powerful and emotional.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

Revenge is a dish best served cold. Like, glacially so.

** Trigger warning for racist violence, including rape. **

Based on a novel of the same name, penned by the French writer Eugène Sue and published in 1831, ATAR GULL is a story of revenge – of the “dish best served cold” variety. Taken prisoner by Taroo, chief of the Great Namaquas, Atar Gull finds himself on a slave ship bound for the West Indies. During the voyage, the Catherine is attacked and ultimately boarded by a band of ruthless pirates, led by Captain Brulart. A ruse, a sacrifice, and a ship chase later, Atar Gull is one of the few surviving captives when the vessel finally docks in Jamaica. Here, he’s sold to plantation owner Tom Will; part of a lot of “Negroes and Negresses” to serve as a dowry for his daughter Jenny.

While all these horrors are certainly just cause for what comes later (or some of it, anyway), the breaking point comes when Atar Gull learns the fate of his father, the chief of the Little Namaquas before him. If the previous pages didn’t completely dispel with the myth of the “benevolent slaveowner” (an oxymoron if ever there was one), then certainly this calculating and heartless scheme will do the trick.

Gazing upon his father’s lifeless face, Atar Gull hatches a plan of revenge that’s slow to unravel, yet destroys everything in its path.

Usually I love revenge stories that center members of oppressed groups as anti-/heroes, but my feelings were a little more conflicted here. It’s hard to root for Atar Gull without restraint, since so many innocents suffer under his wrath: Will’s human captives and nonhuman chattel chief among them. Consequently, Atar Gull’s revenge felt a little empty and … unsatisfying. The final panels, though? Chilling AF.

'Atar Gull' by Fabien Nury with art by Brüno is an adaptation of an 1831 novel. It's a story of slow but certain revenge.

Atar Gull is the son of a king living his own life when he and many others are taken as slaves. When they original slave ship he is on is taken by pirates, Atar is spared because he is large and will fetch a decent price.

He ends up on a plantation in Jamaica. His owner appears to be decent, but beneath the surface he is not. Atar begins his plot of revenge. A plot that will take a long time for the unsuspecting to figure out.

I liked this story of revenge although it's odd to read a fictionalized story of slavery. What I did like is how the story stayed away from the typical stereotypes of this kind of story. The characters come across as pretty human. The art is unusual and works really well in the story. It doesn't sensationalize the horrors, but it doesn't shy away from them either.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This is a graphic novel based on a story written in 1831, a year after the story was supposed to have taken place. The slave trade was a very real thing, and this shows it in all is horridness.

I feel, however, reading the book, though, that it feels as though there was no research done. It is not clear if the tribe that Atar Gull comes from existed, or if the people did mark their skin the way he has, or anything that would identify this as based on anything.

The pictures are very dark, and depressing, but that is to be expected since this is supposed to put down the whole slave trade.

It is a quick graphic novel, though a bit on the gorey side, but then, this is during the times of slavery, and you don’t want o be sympathetic to white slave traders, even though, one of the slave traders is black.

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

An interesting graphic novel. Cool story and decent artwork.

Atar Gull is a fascinating look into the crooked morals of slave traders, planters, and the slaves they owned. It tells the tale of a slave so determined to find justice that even after being emancipated, he remains chained to a fever dream of revenge.

Nury infuses recognizable stereotypes with just the right amount of depth to make each of them intriguing. He gives us both heroes whose actions often border malice, and villains who often act with dignity. In doing so, Nury forces us to see light in the darkest of situations, and ponder the moral righteousness of intent. This book is expertly paced and perfectly plotted, missing any panel would be to miss the whole story.

Bruno drafts characters that are unique and identifiable, and colors his black and white world in a beautiful limited palette whose colors often bring extra dynamism to his clean, bold strokes. Bruno's economic line work makes you want to speed though these pages, but his interesting compositions leave your eyes wanting to linger just a moment longer on each panel.

Atar Gull is a work of art that demands to be seen and a compelling story that needs to be heard.

'Atar Gull' or 'The Slave's Revenge' was originally written in 1831 by Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue. This graphic novel is a re-telling of the original story.

It is a story of how a slave takes revenge upon his owner and why. I don't normally read fiction about slavery. It is just too horrific to imagine, but this caught my eyes on Netgalley and after much dithering, I decided with some trepidation, to read it.

It is a violent story, obviously. It shows the brutality and inhumanity of the Transatlantic slave trade, but this isn't simply a story about slavery, it is a story about revenge. In the midst of all this inhumanity and brutality a slave seeks revenge, and the why and how of this unfold in the story.

It is a truly shocking story, but also quite powerful and frightening. Atar Gull is a slave who never cries but at the very end he does weep and not for the reasons we would think. The slave owner is a good man but is he really? He thinks he is a caring slave owner and uses this to justify himself but as the story develops we get to see his blindness. Atar Gull the 'model slave' is a dutiful and obedient slave, a good slave according to his owner but by the end we realise that there is no such thing as goodness. There are no heroes here. Revenge is truly destructive.

The artwork is brilliant and manages to convey the horror of slavery without glorifying it, if that makes sense. The graphic novel also manages to strike a good balance between prose and pictures, and the artwork tells the story with all it's twists and complexities.

I don't know if I will ever have the courage to read Eugene Sue's original story but I am glad I read this graphic novel version.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

A very commendable saga, adapted from someone else's novel with a fine deftness by the chap who wrote the original 'Death of Stalin' graphic novel. A pair of warring tribes in Africa allows for double the amount of prisoners of war to be sold to slavers, and double the amount for one piratical nasty to ship to the colonies, where revenge is slowly seeded under the plantation sun. For once the artwork's unattractiveness (all sunken eyes and blubber lips) actually works with the all-round, pervasive nastiness and unsavouriness, and the story works as a kind of Count of Monte Cristo only a thousand pages shorter. In a world where slavery stories hardly stand out from one another, this one has a distinctive quality I enjoyed. Four and a half stars.