'Eleanor & The Egret Volume 1: Taking Flight' by John Layman with art by Sam Kieth is a charming and quirky graphic novel about an art thief and her talking bird.

A daring art theft in Paris takes place, and the police are baffled by motive. The painting in question is worth a lot of money. Instead, it is fed to a bird, who then grows large and fat with it. Thus begins the adventures of Eleanor and her friend the Egret.

I liked this odd story. I'm not sure I was completely happy with the plot when it was all said and done, but I really liked the characters. I also really liked the art which borrowed from some art periods I like and had odd asides in some of the panels.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Aftershock Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

While the art style took a minute to grow on me I really liked Eleanor and her feathery friend. The story is intriguing and the characters had a lot of personality. I really liked this unique tale and I hope there'll be another in the future!

Just as odd and quirky as you'd think a story from the creators of Chew and The Maxx would be. If you're expecting explanations for the strangeness, you've probably never read anything by Sam Keith before. You just need to go with it. Keith's art is strangely beautiful and a little start here. Here he's using stark white to his advantage.

Eleanor and her talking egret are stealing the paintings of a particular artist. A French police detective is trying to track them down. What Eleanor and her egret are doing with the paintings is strange but I'll leave it to the reader to learn more.

This was a quirky read that was quick and fun, but it left me a little confused. I get that it was supposed to be a fantasy not based on reality, a mark it hit squarely on the head. The confusing part for me was the fact there was no real reason given for how Egret came to be in existence or how Ms Rue got her abilities. Rather, we learned to a degree how, but not the root reason. Does that make sense? Anyhow, overall it was a unique story that was coupled with an array of visually catching illustrations. I noticed one or two mistakes in the drawings between frames, like when in a movie they pause filming the scene and come back a different day not realizing one small detail is off or different from the previous day. In one panel in particular Eleanor is wearing glasses, in the next she isn’t, and then they’re back again in the very next panel. The catch is, to my understanding, she wasn’t to have taken them off there. I think it was just an artistic oversight.

All in all, I’d say this book rates between a 3 and a 3.5. I’m not sure I’d read any sequels, yet I’m not sure I wouldn’t. I suppose it simply depends on my mood and the books.

Thanks to the authors, publisher, and NetGalley for the review opportunity.

This is an art theft mystery involving a girl and her talking egret. I was confused during most of this book. I had difficulty following everything that was happening. The story is definitely unique and, in a good way, strange. I really liked the art style.

I give this comic a 3/5. I didn't follow the story that well, but it is definitely a unique story.

A chameleonic young woman and her even more metamorphic talking egret stage ingenious art heists. The introduction talks about how after Chew, Layman understandably wanted to take a break for something lighter, and Kieth was in a similar place, so I was expecting an avian-assisted Bandette. But it's not long before things take a dark turn, as the outraged artist engages a sinister hench-thing and a backstory of parasitism is revealed. Even the resolution is bittersweet, and this is one of those Aftershock 'volume 1's where I really wouldn't hold my breath for volume 2.

Also, I was reminded to finish this by seeing some waterfowl yesterday, but there were no egrets and I'm now stuck with a half-formed joke about Godwits' Law. It just goes to show you can't be too careful.

(Netgalley ARC)

The art style is NOT at all my thing. It’s melty and crackly like some MAD comics are, and I’ve just never found it appealing to look at. However, I did love the Art Nouveau undertones and frames throughout.

Fortunately, the story itself was unique and interesting. There’s a string of art thefts in a French town, but the thefts should never have been possible, due to the security measures in place–so how did the paintings disappear?

Eleanor is a relatively uncharacterized character, despite the arc explaining her backstory and how she came to acquire a pet egret named Ellis. But this wasn’t a bad thing, as it made me keep reading to see what tidbits we could learn about her.

The time period is definitely a doozy–is it the 1890s? the 1990s? sometimes in between? The aforementioned Art Nouveau style and some of the formal wear Eleanor wears suggests the 1890s, but there are obvious modern conveniences (cars, smartphones, security lasers), so it’s more like an intentional juxtaposition of the two ends of a century.

While I can’t say I will check out more of these comics, I did enjoy this story arc and can only imagine what quirky adventures Eleanor and Ellis will go on in the future.

If Kieth’s style is more your thing, and you like genre-bending surreal art thefts with snarky characters, you’ll definitely enjoy this!

The prime example of absurdist art.
There's some elements of magic present but I wonder if it's more a commentary on people and organizations that prey on artists than anything. It bears a slower, repeat reading.

A fun art-theft caper with some original ideas, such as the titular egret for whom artwork is stolen to provide it with sustenance, which forms the basis of the story. It's got a very pleasing art-style, feeling ever-so-slightly quirky which matches the subject, though there were some inconsistencies between panels (glasses not being worn in one and then being on Eleanor's face in the next etc.) that need checking in the edit.

I'm not convinced that the ending was explained well enough, but it's nevertheless an entertaining story that will please for an evening's read.

Eleanor and the Egret is an enjoyable caper with theft, witchcraft, beautifully drawn artwork and one very hungry Egret. I was not expecting any of the plot twists that happened and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Not bad but it just wasn't for me, I guess.

What we have with Eleanor & the Egret is a wholly original, quirky, and imaginative story with beautiful illustrations and superb layout and coloring. One needs to keep in mind movies like Amelie or the Pink Panther to get a feel and appreciation where the author and artists are going with Eleanor. The story is set in no one period and characters can change from modern clothing to Fin de Siecle Nouveau inspired stylings page by page; this whimsy creates the perfect milieu for a story about a bird who eats art and an artist looking to gain back talent stolen by a talent thief. You don't question the magic and instead just enjoy the ride and the beautiful illustrations and coloring.

Story: Eleanor and her talking Egret, Ellis, are art thieves. Ellis gets bigger and more powerful the more art he eats. Together, they are targeting one particular artist - a haughty beauty whose talent may have more to do with being a thief herself rather than natural ability. Together, Ellis and Elanor, with the help of an inspector and his cat, will foil the artist and restore that which was once lost.

There are some wonderful homages to everything French and especially the Art Nouveau period of France - from an obvious Le Chat Noir Steinlein poster to Eleanor's Alphonse Mucha inspired dresses. Contrast that with Eleanor dressed in cargo shorts, big Ugg boots, and a t-shirt in the next panel and we are transported to modern France but in the same timeline/story. The characters surrounding Eleanor and her Inspector love interest all look to have escaped from a turn of the century Cirque troupe - from clowns to mustachios, it's all there. It's quite fun and fortunately the story is more than the visuals, which really are fascinating.

The real stand out to Eleanor, though, has to be the coloring work. It's the tones that unify the different eras and transport the simple plot into a breathtaking blend of pencil-like pastels. If the illustration work is inconsistent and the plot meanders a bit, the colors do a beautiful job of keeping it all together. Probably among the best coloring I've seen in a graphic novel in years.

If you like films like Amelie, I think you will get immediately what Eleanor brings to the genre. Fun, different, unique, interesting, and wholly distinct. The plot has surprising depth and really celebrates the small moments and the common people beautifully. Eleanor's inspector brings the pathos to the story so it isn't just silly and I can't help but love his companion cat. In all, a wonderful read! Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

**Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review.**

By John Layman and Sam Kieth

I had a hard time putting this one down. Art heist, mystery and a touch of sweet romance. Maybe Ivan would like this one better. Eleanor and her pet Egret are tracking down the paintings by Anastasia Rue. There is a detective on the case, who finds himself drawn to Eleanor for some reason. And Anastasia does not have the patience to wait. Can the detective save Eleanor in time? You'll have to read it to see.

It was a little jumpy in the story, but in the end it all comes together. It was a fun story, and the artwork was really nice. I think it is geared toward adults, but would be safe for a younger crowd. Although there is a bit of a creepy/scary part. So, read it first and use your own judgement.

I don't know how to describe this other than to say that it is very, very...French.
The basic story is that a girl named Eleanor and her talking Egret are art thieves... but they seem to only be interested in stealing art created by one particular artist, Anastasia Rue. As events unfold, and we begin to learn WHY they are targeting Rue the story gets just a little bit stranger, and stranger yet.
We never really learn WHY the bird can talk, or even a satisfactory explanation of where he came from.... but there is a black cat in it so it gets a point from me just for that. Haha!
My biggest problem is that the art, for a story ABOUT art, is REALLY REALLY ugly, especially the design of the human characters.
It was just a little too weird for me to really like it.

A painting is stolen, a feather the only evidence. The detective has a cat as an assistant. The tiny dog in the sweater only says “Arf.” There’s a touch of steampunk, but in a world where animals talk, it hardly matters.
Early on there’s a hint that the reason for the plot is bigger than just stealing paintings, and while I’m glad for that, wish there’d been more to it, not left so far along. The second theft was ingenious, done in a way that could never otherwise be accomplished without a bird accomplice. . . especially a big bird. I wish said bird was smarter, though. Her disguises are cute, but don’t really hide her.
There’s a bird-shaped dialog bubble, but there’s also small bubbles of information about obvious things; it’s annoying, especially “Kiss.” The only ones I didn’t mind were the hearts, because otherwise I wouldn’t have known about that particular plot point. The only other thing that annoyed me was the shots of the victims toward the end, showing both “songwriter” and “musician.” Are you saying songwriters can’t be musicians, silly?
Cutesy tale, but in the end not much more than that.
There’s a cover gallery, the best of which features Eleanor painting amid a field of poppies.

I was really interested by the art style that Layman uses as it appears different at various points in the graphic novel. I liked how the relationship between Eleanour and the detective developed over the novel and would pick up a sequel to see how it would change. The villian was threatening but i felt that she was as multi-faceted as she had the potential to be. She was dangerous however without the use of outside assistance she was much weaker than she first appeared to be. The side characters were interesting and i'd like to see more of Eleanor with her bird and more adventures with them both in.

This was such a quirky story!! I really enjoyed it. Even though it was quite short the story was really well written and rounded.

The artwork is really beautiful and is definitely one my new favourites for that reason.

I was lured in by the cover art, but the regular artwork is not the same quality and much sillier looking. Like others have said, this is a silly plot. If you can get into it, you might enjoy it, but it's not for me.

This wasn't necessarily bad, it was maybe just a little bit too silly for me. I enjoyed parts of it but overall I just found myself wanting more explanation for things. Like why does everyone in this world apparently have a talking animal companion and how exactly did whatsherface steal people's talents and why exactly does the egret only eat art? It probably would have been fairly enjoyable if I could just suspend my disbelief for a few minutes, but there was never really any explanation for anything and I just couldn't get into it. Also I couldn't decide if I liked the art or not. Sometimes it was really pretty and I liked the art-deco inspiration but then other times I kind of hated it, especially the way people's faces were generally drawn.

I loved this tale of art theft, magic and romance. Someone is stealing the art of Anastasia Rue detective Belanger is on the case. Eleanor becomes a suspect and it is a quest to find out why before the agent of Ms. Rue herself finds them. This is an interesting story is it is quite engaging and I absolutely fell in love with egret who is a very hungry and very clever bird.