Sally Jane Thompson

This is the first graphic novel from this author and is perhaps somewhat biographically influenced as it involves a young 16- year-old girl Tamrika aka Tammy discovering her artistic talent and her first indication of a possible future career direction for herself.

Along the way there are interactions with other children at a boarding school, mostly with little interaction with adults. Issues such as shyness, dyslexia, the difficulties of young relationships etc. are dealt with along the way in a straightforward manner. Often the young Tammy is wise beyond her years with advice or observations about others but is not always able to deal with her own issues head-on.

The drawing here was quite excellent with cinematic touches of zoom-in and pan-out. There was also the occasional use of manga-style chibi (cute childlike caricatures of the characters) figures appearing in some panels for humorous effect.

The reason for the title "Atomic Sheep" totally escaped me though. There are no such story panels related to sheep, atomic or otherwise, in the story itself. I had actually expected some sort of sci-fi fantasy based on cloning from looking at the cover image alone.

I became interested in this author when I read that she spent a month-long residency in Tallinn, Estonia in September 2014 while working on a new book based around Estonian "libahunt" (English: werewolf) legends. So I am eagerly looking forward to her next graphic novel!… (meer)