Bolivar by Sean Rubin. Archaia, 2017. 9781684150694. 224pp.
In a lot of ways this is the longest picture book I’ve ever seen. Or is it a graphic novel? Since there are comics and a tiny bit of prose, it’s probably fair to say it’s both. And it’s even more important to say that I enjoyed it as an adult, not for some generic, unnamed kid’s sake sake.
Bolivar, a dinosaur, lives in New York City, but only his neighbor Sybil seems to notice. Everyone else is too busy. (Bolivar lives on corned beef sandwiches and tonic water with lime.) Sybil spends the first part of the book trying to convince everyone that Bolivar is a dinosaur and entirely fails (in fun ways) to get evidence. After Bolivar is given a parking ticket (despite not being a car), he has to go to City Hall and file a complaint, and the book takes a fun turn.
My favorite part of the book are the illustrated mosaics on the endpapers, the title page, and on the subway walls in the book. I cannot imagine how much time Rubin spent on them, and they look amazing. But really the whole book is fab. The people are very cartoony but have a lot of character, the streets and interiors are amazingly detailed, and every page has a texture that reminds me of Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I’m so happy Archaia published this in an oversized format — it really deserves it.
Bonus: The whole book is as much a love letter to New York as Roz Chast’s latest.
Book Threat 