Not a comic, but sort of.   Not a graphic novel, but it is graphic and a novel.  Not about humans or animals, but somehow about both.  Read on while I explain and tell you all about the world of Carnal, created by John Connell, Jason Bergenstock and Sea Lion Books.

Carnal takes place in Africa, a future Africa.  Man is gone and dead (well, I assume, but I wont be shocked if it turns out there are a few alive in a future volume) and three animals have evolved into humanoid form.  The lions, the hyenas and the water buffalo.  Together they make up a circle of life.  The lions are dominant, the alphas, but they are far from untouchable.  The hyenas hunt in packs and while they can be outsmarted they are legion and resilient.  The buffalo are twice the size as the largest lion and carry hammers larger than Mjolnir.  We can leave the buffalo aside for now, because they will play a much larger story in the next volume of Carnal.

Oron is the leader of the lion pride we follow in the story.  Strong, tall, survivor, warrior; all of these descriptions and more give Oron the aura of a god amongst his tribe.  Long Eyes is the elder of the tribe.  While he knows and sees more of the past present and future than any other member of the pride could hope to, he is still far from all knowing.  Trouble erupts when the wildebeests disappear.  (And those are still plain ol’ animals.)  Along the way there is adventure, abduction, death, battles and betrayal.  That only scratches the post.

John and Jason create a very human world, familiar yet different, and all the while never forgetting that theses are lions.  There is a hierarchy to the pride, there is something to be said about being a powerful male.  Also, this is just the way things are too.  Of course the lionesses are going to be upset that they made the kill, yet have to wait for the males to eat.  However that is the way of life.  The lions are treated as if they could exist now, as another country or religion with their own rules and ways of life.  How many of you reading this blog have even been to Africa?  Me neither.  These places, this story, could exist (you know, besides the animals that walk as man part).  Every quest, every bit of danger, is described in such detail that is stops being a story and becomes an engrossing historical document.

Much of the richness also comes from the art, on damn near every page.  You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the images of a six foot tall god of a lion swinging flaming axes at a hyena master of torture.  (There’s a sentence never before written.)  In an era of copying what came before, there is nothing like Carnal.

The story, and this is only the first of many, falls into the that wonderful category of timeless tales.  A wise old man, near the end of his life, trying to save his people.  A warrior leader, fighting that one last battle.  A woman rising above society’s place for her and out shining all the males.  Plus the double threats of evil from within and out.

I strongly urge you to go out, buy Carnal and sit in your favorite spot devouring the world laid before your eyes.  Then see if there’s any way to blow up the art and hang that from your walls.  Stare at the king of the beasts riding a tank of a rhino through a phalanx of hyenas.  Then count the days.  There will be more Carnal next year and I will take that day off of work to buy it the moment its put on the shelf.