PRAISE FOR RICE BOY
“Mythic, surreal, whimsical, colorful, and masterful.” FOREWORD Starred Review
“Lush and lovely full-color artwork and deceptively cartoonish figures . . . make Dahm’s fantasy adventure easy to get lost in.” BOOKLIST
“If you’re looking for something new, creative and different, don’t miss this excellent series.” MAJOR SPOILERS
“Colorful, heartbreaking, and imaginative . . . the effect of Dahm’s work is spellbinding.” THE ABSOLUTE
“Not a simple Sunday school retelling of scripture, Dahm’s ambitious graphic novel grapples with the revolutionary humility of Christ’s message, envisioning the cost of fighting evil with nonviolence and compassion.” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Boldly presents Jesus’s trip freeing souls between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, employing black, white, and red to dramatize the event.” LIBRARY JOURNAL
"Deeply personal and full of profound ambiguity." A.V. CLUB
“Recaptures the moody, mystical, and mythological aspects that have been long lost in Christianity, with riveting imagery that accompanied the tales.” COMICS BEAT
"A very dark graphic novel that, while still religiously based, is sure to appeal to horror readers." CEMETERY DANCE
04/24/2020
Even for the frequent churchgoer, the harrowing of Hell is a theological deep cut. It is more complicated than the Crucifixion, less hopeful than the Resurrection, and its obfuscation speaks to a modern discomfort with the concept of evil. Dahm (rice boy) knows this and dives straight in, knowing that Hell is exactly the place to challenge notions of the Christian mission. Here, a recently crucified Jesus, wide-eyed and saddled with the world's suffering, travels through a loosely Dantean, demon-filled realm to redeem his uncooperative biblical forbearers. In Dahm's Hell, evil persists microscopically—it's tragically easy to be set in one's ways, and macroscopically—Satan demonstrates directly that power corrupts. The radical message at the book's core is that Jesus's pacifistic martyrdom challenged earthly authority, but nearly every bit of Christianity's success has come from hoarding worldly power and warring against its detractors. It's certainly a heavy task, but Dahm's thoughtful questioning, as well as his cavernous yet claustrophobic hellscapes, make the story feel immediate and necessary. VERDICT Crafted to make complacent Christians and disinterested atheists alike squirm, this is a thought experiment in the form of church teaching, in the form of a monster-laden indie comic, a surprising, special book.—Emilia Packard, Austin, TX