Maui Legends Book Cover

COMICS JOURNAL Hit List

I don't pretend to know what is going on the comics scene of New Zealand, so I'm not exactly sure how these things work. It may just be that a book like Maui: Legends of the Outcast is simply one of those amazing flukes that is occasionally tossed by the capricious gods of sequential art into the hands of unsuspecting comics readers as a test of the faithful. In the case of a book like this one it is tempting to believe in divine providence because it is too difficult to believe that a book this elegant, bold and mature could simply materialize out of nowhere.

Maui: Legends of the Outcast is a European-style hardcover album produced by artist Chris Slane and writer Robert Sullivan which tells a number of bound-together tales of Maui Tikitiki-a-Taranga, an outcast trickster of Maori mythology. There are a number of different myths told here (including a confrontation with the Goddess of Fire to the capturingof the Sun in a giant net) and it is a credit to Sullivan's skill at telling these tales that the book holds together remarkably well as a single cohesive narrative line encompassing the life and death of Maui in just forty-eight pages.

What is most remarkable about the book, however, is the art by Chris Slane. Chock full of thick and heavy blacks that seem to rage across the page, it is all aggression, energy and power. Yet the sharp kineticism of the rendering is tempered by the subtlety of the colouring which is predominantly defined by muted greens and browns, highlighted by pastel monochrome purples and blues.The combination of frenzied linework and muted colour palate is just delicious. It may turn out not to be a gift from the gods after all is said and done, but it is the work of a supremely confident cartooning duo. And sometimes that's just as satisfying.

-Bart Beaty, June 1997

More Reviews: see Biography/contact

1997 Finalist in the NZ Library & Information Association's Children's Book Awards, Rusell Clark Medal and in the 1997 NZLA Young People's Non-Fiction Award.

Design, Storyboarding, Pencils, Inks, Lettering, Colours: Chris Slane.
Script: Robert Sullivan.
Colours: Jonathan Paynter, Bill Paynter.
Technical Direction and Fonts: Bill Paynter.
Publisher: Jane Connor, Godwit Publishing, New Zealand
© 1996 ISBN: 0 908877 97 8

48 pp colour Hardback (NZ$24.95 US$12.00) Softback (NZ$14.95 US$6.00) from this site.

Original artwork available.


			Maui: Legends of the Outcast. A Graphic Novel "From the land of "Once Were Warriors", this 48 page graphic novel is a vivid and spirited retelling of the Maori myth of Maui Tikikia-Taranga as he steals fire, fishes new land from the sea, and finally battles Death herself."

	COMICS JOURNAL Hit List I don't pretend to know what is going on the comics scene of New Zealand, so I'm not exactly sure how these things work. It may just be that a book like Maui: Legends of the Outcast is simply one of those amazing flukes that is occasionally tossed by the capricious gods of sequential art into the hands of unsuspecting comics readers as a test of the faithful. In the case of a book like this one it is tempting to believe in divine providence because it is too difficult to believe that a book this elegant, bold and mature could simply materialize out of nowhere. Maui: Legends of the Outcast is a European-style hardcover album produced by artist Chris Slane and writer Robert Sullivan which tells a number of bound-together tales of Maui Tikitiki-a-Taranga, an outcast trickster of Maori mythology. There are a number of different myths told here (including a confrontation with the Goddess of Fire to the capturingof the Sun in a giant net) and it is a credit to Sullivan's skill at telling these tales that the book holds together remarkably well as a single cohesive narrative line encompassing the life and death of Maui in just forty-eight pages. What is most remarkable about the book, however, is the art by Chris Slane. Chock full of thick and heavy blacks that seem to rage across the page, it is all aggression, energy and power. Yet the sharp kineticism of the rendering is tempered by the subtlety of the colouring which is predominantly defined by muted greens and browns, highlighted by pastel monochrome purples and blues.The combination of frenzied linework and muted colour palate is just delicious. It may turn out not to be a gift from the gods after all is said and done, but it is the work of a supremely confident cartooning duo. And sometimes that's just as satisfying. -Bart Beaty, June 1997 `More Reviews: see Biography/contact` `1997 Finalist in the NZ Library & Information Association's Children's Book Awards, Rusell Clark Medal and in the 1997 NZLA Young People's Non-Fiction Award.` `Design, Storyboarding, Pencils, Inks, Lettering, Colours: Chris Slane.` `Script: Robert Sullivan.` `Colours: Jonathan Paynter, Bill Paynter.` `Technical Direction and Fonts`: `Bill Paynter.` `Publisher: Jane Connor, Godwit Publishing, New Zealand` `© 1996 ISBN: 0 908877 97 8` `48 pp colour Hardback (NZ$24.95 US$12.00) Softback (NZ$14.95 US$6.00) from this site.` `Original artwork available.`