Wild Ocean: Sharks, Whales, Rays, and Other Endangered Sea Creatures by Matt Dembicki

Wild Ocean: Sharks, Whales, Rays, and Other Endangered Sea Creatures by Matt Dembicki
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

When I saw Matt Dembicki had a new anthology out I just had to read it. "Trickster" is one of the best graphic anthologies out there! Then seeing this was about a topic that I absolutely love, marine animals, I was in. This is not another "Trickster". It's not as large and it's an educational/non-fiction book opposed to folklore so it's not really fair to compare them and I'll stop with that. "Wild Ocean" is a collection of shorts by different graphic writers and artists each featuring an endangered sea creature or environment (coral reef). Some are presented as fictional stories from the animals point of view, some as folklore, others simply as straightforward factual non-fiction. The different artists bring a varied style so each short is unique in written and artistic style. Yet the colours maintain a marine theme focusing on greens, blues and turquoise. Personally I would have preferred a more fictional collection of stories but I enjoyed these collected here and learned some interesting information. What I especially liked from this type of book is that "Wild Ocean" does not play to any current political trends. Climate change is hardly mentioned in the front matter and not in the stories at all. Incontrovertible facts are purely used as reasons for endangerment such as over-fishing, pollution, habitat destruction, non-Western medicines among others. A very pretty presentation for those interested in the topic. Would make for good use in the classroom.

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