Review: Viewfinder

By Christine D.U. Chung and Salwa Majoka

Toronto, ON: Tundra Books, 2024. Comics.

A lonely young space traveler leaves home in search of a distant planet. When she finally lands on the planet, which looks a lot like Earth, she finds an abandoned civilization. Discovering a time capsule buried at an elementary school, the space traveler uncovers a toy stereoscope that has pictures of the last days on earth and clues to what caused humans to leave Earth behind. As she wanders through the planet she encounters abandoned but familiar places like a museum, a library, and a train station all overtaken with bioluminescent fungi; and slowly animals covered in fungi appear as well. Finally arriving at a child's former treehouse, our traveler views space through a telescope and decides it is time for them to return home.

This wordless graphic novel is beautifully illustrated and offers poignant ruminations on a post-apocalyptic world. Somewhat melancholy, this book considers a popular sci-fi premise but it does so in a gentle and still sensitive way. The panels are expertly paced and leave breadcrumbs for readers to uncover the story and practice their own visual literacy skills. The bioluminescence is especially striking. A highly recommended sci-fi graphic novel.

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