The Sandwalk Adventures. By Jay Hosler. Columbus, Ohio: Active Synapse, 2003. Softcover, black & white, 159 pages. $20 USA, $30 Canada. ISBN# 0-9677255-1-8.
AUDIENCE: All ages.
SYNOPSIS: To the mites living upon him, Charles Darwin is a god, and within the hair follicle where they dwell, they tell mythic stories starring "Flycatcher" (one of the nicknames that the H. M. S. Beagle's crew gave their resident naturalist). The graphic novel opens with the story of how Flycatcher created the seven seas by leaning over the side of the Great Boat and letting them flow from his mouth. Mara and her brother Willy then climb up the hair follicle to see what Flycatcher is up to, and make the astonishing discovery that their god can actually hear Mara when she speaks to him! Poor Darwin thinks he is going crazy, especially when Mara addresses him as a god. He tells her that he is not a god, and that somehow her ancestors' stories must have become distorted over time - the creation of the oceans legend, he explains, must have been due to his constant seasickness while on the Beagle. And this leads to Mara's first important question: "But, if you didn't make life - if you didn't shape the species - then how has all of this come to be?"
Darwin talks to Mara and Willy during his daily constitutionals along the sandwalk, a footpath near his home in Downe, Kent. As Mara learns about Darwin's theory she attempts to pass the knowledge on to her relatives in the follicle, with less success than might be desired. The appearance of a huge looming mountain full of pestilence (a zit) outside the follicle temporarily drives Mara back to fundamentalist Flycatcherism, providing the opportunity for her to question the theory of evolution from a religious viewpoint. At last things get dicey for Mara when her family gets fed up with Mara's new notions (and her refutation of the old tales), and she's about to be tossed out of the follicle. Will watching her speak to Darwin Himself convince her family?
At the end of the book is "The Transmutation Notebook," a page-by-page annotation of the GN that gives more background information on evolution, Darwin's life and times, follicle mites, how some of the art was created, genetics, fossils, bacteria, creationism, hydrotherapy, and just about anything else touched on in the GN. It's not needed to enjoy the story, but makes interesting reading. There is also a bibliography.
EVALUATION: Once again Hosler demonstrates his ability to create a gripping story that simultaneously serves as a vehicle for learning. And we learn so much! It's with deep regard for the great man that we see Charles Darwin both as the elderly, bearded icon and as the laughing youth who rode 120 miles on horseback through Uruguay holding a mastodon skull on his lap. Mara's story is equally wondrous; how many people know that humans are routinely parasitized by mites which completely escape our notice? These microscopic beings live out their life cycles upon us, lives which are very strange compared to ours, yet not without similarity.
But the great, celebratory heart of the story is Darwin's theory of evolution. It is a careful, concise overview of the important points of evolution as known in Darwin's time (before the mechanics of heredity were worked out). Page 53 is a beautiful piece of prose about the continuity of life, inspired by some of Darwin's writing.
I found pages 16-17 enthralling as the camera pans out for the first time from the mite's world of about 200X magnification to finally show Darwin tapping a stuck jar lid against a table. As we pan out the thunderous "BOOM" becomes a gentle "tap" and we're within the human realm. Although a dialog balloon pointing to Darwin's head in this GN may be either from Mara or from Darwin himself, it is always clear who is talking. Similarly, down in the follicle the several key mites in the story are clearly distinguishable - Mara by her freckles and Campbell by his double chin, for instance. I am continually astonished at how Hosler can make his mite characters (like his insect characters in his previous GN Clan Apis) so unmistakable in each panel, given that in some comics (by other cartoonints) I have trouble recognizing who's who with HUMAN characters! It is due as much to his careful storytelling and panel layout as it is to his rendering of the characters.
The facial expressions of the mites remind me of the "Peanuts" characters of the late Charles Schultz, and I wouldn't be surprised if the panels showing Willy and Mara poking their heads and forelimbs out of the follicle were directly inspired by the classic poses of Charlie Brown and Linus Van Pelt chatting as they lean over a wall.
There are all kinds of little touches in the story. I enjoyed seeing a cameo of Nyuki and Sisyphus (from Clan Apis) on page 29. Here's one I didn't catch, until I read the annotations in the back: a wide panel on page 99 is a time-lapse view of Darwin getting up from a stumble and continuing on his way. Even though he's talking about the lack of direction in evolution - the lack of that progress the Victorians held so dear - I didn't notice that the art in that panel is an homage to the famous "March of Progress" image. (You know the one - a brachiating ape following a stooped hominid trailing behind an upright Homo sapiens.) Very clever!
The bottom line: highly recommended, especially for young people.
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