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Leviathan
- Writer:
- Jason Shiga
- Artist:
- Jason Shiga
- Letterer:
- Jason Shiga
- Cover Artist:
- Jason Shiga
- Publisher:
- Abrams
- Price:
- $14.99
- Release Date:
- 2022-09-13
- Colorist:
- Jason Shiga
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A popular choice among young readers at book fairs and school libraries, Choose Your Own Adventure books offered readers a myriad of paths and endings as they made divergent decisions while reading a story printed in paperback. Though this interactive storytelling technique is well-worn within prose literature and even television programming like Carmen Sandiego and Black Mirror, one medium it hasn't really been touched on is within the realm of comic books. That changes with the new original graphic novel Leviathan, written and drawn by Jason Shiga and published by Abrams through their imprint Amulet Books.
Leviathan begins with a simple enough fantasy premise. An adventurer arrives at the Coastal Isles, a medieval coastal village living in constant fear of the eponymous mythical sea monster preying on all who cross its path. Navigating around town and meeting the various villagers, a local wizard may hold the key to defeating the beast for good. The protagonist sets out to free the Coastal Isles from the aquatic terror. However, not everything in this seaside community is quite as it appears, with readers' choices uncovering more of the mystery behind the Leviathan and the community on the Coastal Isles themselves.
Despite its medieval setting, Shiga presents a world that reflects modern sensibilities, welcoming readers of all ages as they explore the monstrous mystery at the heart of Leviathan. This is a classic high fantasy premise, with the book's inherent joy lying in the sense of divergent discovery offered by its multiple-choice, non-linear narrative. With this in mind, Shiga has constructed a cohesive and, more importantly, satisfying story that reads like a self-aware meditation on the genre with plenty of exploration and wry wit to keep readers entertained along their journey.
Presented in black and white, much of Leviathan plays out similarly to a webcomic in regard to character design and story progression -- this is, of course, not a slight but an observation in its visual aesthetic and one that Shiga has extensive experience with. Some of the most striking artwork in the graphic novel are panels that showcase an overworld perspective on the Coastal Isles, offering readers different paths to explore while evoking a feeling similar to the classic isometric perspective of the early Legend of Zelda video games. This feels like the closest readers will get to an interactive Zelda comic book, at least one that captures the classic visual presentation of the video game series.
The multiple-choice storytelling format really elevates Leviathan. Shiga makes this ambitious narrative choice easy to follow, presenting page numbers and connective lines to help inform where to proceed next based on individual choices without cluttering up the artwork. It really is an innovative storytelling technique that Shiga brings to the comic book medium, or at least one that hasn't been employed so effectively on such an ambitious scale before.
With a tried-and-true fantasy premise and engaging artwork, Shiga has delivered something his comic book contemporaries should take notice of in Leviathan. Shiga has honed his webcomic chops to make a major splash with the original graphic novel that will hopefully lead to similar projects down the road. A love letter to the unique narrative nature of interactive prose books and point-and-click games, Leviathan stands as a triumph for the possibilities of the medium.