The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins

The final moments of Dave's story are incredibly inspirational, and The Bangles' Eternal Flame has never been used as effectively as it is in those pages.

Club (Best Comics of the Year) 'Filled with elegant black-and-white sketches and darkly philosophical commentary, Collins's graphic novel details what happens when borders collapse and stories have no tidy endings.' - ' The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil is an artistic marvel, and that splendor heightens the emotion of the story. it's kind of Roald Dahl-it's very funny, dark, fable-like and about exactly what it's title says.' - Linda Holmes, NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour ' The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil has the tone of a playful fable, from the cracked syntax of its title onward.For a book about the liberating joys of disruption, though, it's exceptionally disciplined: Collins renders several hundred pages of immaculately ruled buildings and bean-faced people (and the fuzzy curlicues that interfere with them) in meticulous, microdetailed pencil textures.' - (Sunday Book Review) 'With one hell of a title, Stephen Collins' graphic novel makes an immediate impression, and the interior contents are just as gripping as the name.It's a poignant parable about the value of individuality and going against the grain, presented with a charming art style that brings a smooth animated quality to the story without losing sight of the darker aspects of the plot.' - The A.V. 'Slyly exquisite.What happens over the course of the next 200+ pages is a dilemma Roald Dahl would have relished: The roiling anarchy of There erupts on Here-specifically, on poor Dave's previously clean-shaven cheeks-in the form of a great, snarly, twisting, unstoppable beard.If Collins is right-if, as he says, stories are necessary-then let's hope this wry young writer/artist has got a lot more lies to tell us.' - Glen Weldon, NPR 'I don't want to spoil it. An off-beat fable worthy of Roald Dahl and Tim Burton, Stephen Collins' The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil is a darkly funny meditation on life, death, and what it means to be different-and a timeless ode to the art of beard maintenance. But on one fateful day, his life is an unstoppable (yet pretty impressive) beard. He loves drawing, his desk job, and the Bangles.

Citizens are clean shaven-and Dave is the most fastidious of them all. The job of the skin is to keep it all in. About the Book Originally published: Great Britain: Jonathan Cape, 2013.

The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins