Vic Lee's Corona Diary 2020 is among the first (of likely hundreds if not thousands) personal diaries to be published and it exceeded my expectations. Lee mixed personal milestones and experiences with what was occurring locally in the UK as well as globally. Living in the U.S. I appreciated seeing his entries and illustrations of the U.S. alongside what was happening elsewhere in the world. While we've all lived through this hyper aware of each day's news about the Coronavirus, the days have blended together. It's hard enough to keep my own local and national news in order without trying to remember what was happening elsewhere in the world.

It was a bit depressing reading this book in the midst of an out-of-control second wave of the coronavirus. The book finished on a relatively positive note before Covid-fatigue and selfish actions caused this unprecedented rise in cases that we're experiencing in December 2020. While this is true, I imagine this is a book that will become even more valuable as time passes for a unique, personal take on the events in the first 6 months of this pandemic as they unfolded.

Vic Lee models through word and picture, in highly artistic form, the reflection and processing that is so important in the context of 2020. Digital applause for a text that is well done and timely.

This has been a year like no other.

Here is a book like nothing I have ever seen or read.

You would think that we would all have had enough of COVID 19, indeed I am dreading New Year’s Eve as we say goodbye to the first two waves and scan 2021 for the swell and rise of the third wave.

We can’t just dwell on the past, we have to process it and go forward with some sense of identity and reason to be encouraged.
Here is where this book works for me.

Here is a personal diary of life under the changing reality of new disclosures, advice and statistics assailing our senses everyday since we learned of Wuhan and a new virus that all too quickly became a global pandemic.

Different images, incidents and interviews from the 24 hour news feed that we endured will be with us for many years to come. Other strange news items may have past us by completely.
I think having personally been self-isolating and a follower of the media I may have become mentally oversaturated with this deadly disease. Happily, prudence, providence and protection from employer, family and friends have endured - I have not caught the virus.

This book of original and unique illustrations has captured the whole thing and brought some clarity and indeed closure. As I have seen the epidemic through Vic’s interpretation and comic touches I have felt a sense of common journey, shared struggle and an united mindset. We have shouted at the same things and struggled to make sense of the same double speak and mixed messaging. He has recorded on paper what I couldn’t express in words alone, and in the way one’s own artistic expression can be healing. By association his work has served to be transforming and cathartic for me personally.

I am indebted to the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy. I have loved the whole process of poring over the artwork, illustrations and messaging.
The black and white designs have the sense of banners carried in earlier twentieth century protests from women’s suffrage to the temperance movement. The hunger marches to CND.
I found each page unique but comfortably familiar as I learned to absorb the words and pictures. This is a complete and satisfying overview perhaps written for Vic himself initially, but most recently created and shared just for me.
I will purchase this book for myself, not as an investment to sell at at local date. It has time capsule potential but electronic books means it may always be on record for historians. I just feel it is a book to refer back to when things seem difficult or others don’t appreciate your low mood. This book for me is part of the process of re-building, and like homes in an earthquake area - may we create something that endures and stands robustly against future disaster.

Though the formatting for this ARC [and one can only hope it will be better in the purchased version] was horrible [instead of side by side, you had to scroll up and down, therefore missing a LOT of the story and it was very awkward and disjointed in spots], the art and story itself was just fantastic. Vic Lee is an extremely talented artist and it was interesting to see the Pandemic through someone else's eyes, especially one who is also an artist. His feeling come through loud and clear and it is fantastic [and also pretty frustrating]to look back through his lens and art. I highly recommend this. Very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Vic Lee, and Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion/Frances Lincoln for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I rarely give five stars, leaving that rating for those works of culture you should pin to the side of space probes and send to the stars to represent our best efforts, or else non-fiction books that exceed even their own expectations of success. I rarely give one star, without putting a qualifying "one and a half stars" at the end, for in a world of not being able to score a book zero, something has to be reserved for the heinous, awful and never-deserved-to-be-published.

This gets one star.

The introduction was the first tell. As it was full of broken sentences that showed a distinct lack of grammar. And became hard to read. But then every spread in this book is hard to read – this visual diary, which is really a mass of word art and hand-lettering as opposed to illustration, is presented in full-spread glory, and you have no way of knowing which chunk you're supposed to read first. So that's awkward. But then out of the introduction I had distinctly taken on board the comment that any government would have been lambasted by this book, and it didn't matter who was in charge – they were all dropping the ball when it came to providing security, efficiency and leadership nous.

So why do we get a comment blaming laxity on it being a time "when rich arrogant have no clue (sic)"? I'll not sit here debating the toss as to whether this is accurate or not, but if you don't think it's politically biased you need a health check. What pray tell would have been the text of that box if Starmer, or lord help us his predecessor, had been in charge? "When anti-Jew communists have no clue? When the allotment-holders have taken over the asylum? When unionism showed itself to be the best thing in a crisis?"

So I admit I didn't get too far. I wanted a graphic novel, I got splodges of hand lettered activism, rampant bias, and the annoying (and annoyingly mockney for a lad from Surrey) Joe Wicks declared a "geezer". No, my dislike for Joe Wicks is not enough to give this a zero rating in all but name. But so much else was.

Beautifully illustrated and what a short concise and encouraging and heartbreaking story of corona to date. This is so necessary for everyone to read in life. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Award winning artist Vic Lee brings readers a short graphic novel of his experiences during the year of 2020, a year where life changed in multiple ways as the deadly Corona Virus swept across the world.

Those expecting a traditional comic might be in for a bit of a shock by this book, because it's really quite different to many that I've read, where instead of the pages being separated out into panels that tell a story, it's more like the pages are murals, with some themes and ideas spreading over two page spreads.

Whilst this makes for a very different read, it also makes things a bit more difficult when reading it in a digital form, like I did. For single pages it's fine, but when the artwork is spread across two pages, and the messages it contains flows around the pages it can make it hard to follow when you're having to skip between two pages of art, scrolling back and forth. I'm not marking this against the book in this review at all, but I'm going to point this out to people so that you're aware of it before you go and grab a copy, and I'd advise you to try and get hold of a physical book in order to avoid some of the pitfalls that I went through.

Despite those small issues, the book itself is a very pretty thing, and the artwork is so different from what you find in a regular graphic novel. I can't really think of any other books that quite looked like this, and the stark black and white pallet really added to this. If felt less like a mass produced piece, and more like flicking through Vic's book, seeing the drawings he'd made with pen and ink. The style felt messy and flowing at times, yet always had a neatness and care to quality that it never looked like he'd lost control or just drawn thing because they could; everything on the page had purpose.

Vic is able to cover many of the major events of the last year, both here in the UK and around the world. He's able to capture the likenesses of world leaders and members of the British government so well that despite looking like slightly exaggerated caricatures you always knew who they were meant to be, and never felt unsure just what was supposed to be going on.

There are a few times in the book that things are written from a more personal point of view, and we get to see how Vic saw the pandemic, how he experienced lock down, or the times he saw people in the street not caring about safety or taking care. These were the better parts of the book, and the ones that held the most interest for me. The majority of the book, however, felt more like Vic simply just relaying a basic overview of what was happening in the world at the time. He talked about what major development happened on a certain date, or how the news unfolded, but didn't relate these parts to his own experience.

These segments often left me feeling a bit flat. Despite being presented in this intricate and interesting art form these were still all things that I knew. I knew when the lock down came into effect. I knew how the pandemic began. I knew how the government cocked it up. I knew all of this, this wasn't new information to me, and as such it didn't grab me. If I'd have been seeing how Vic processed this, how he felt when these events happened I'm sure the book would have grabbed me more, but it just felt like a list of dates and facts at the time. This approach might be fine for events that happened a long time ago, but when it's the same year I'm in now, and events I lived through, it felt like the least engaging way to convey this to me.

There's a lot of information in this book, presented in interesting ways. Some of it comes from a personal place, but sometimes it feels more detached and clinical. Because of that, I never ended up loving the book as much as I think I could have; but I do see how this book can go on to be received. This strikes me as a book that is interesting now, but will become even more so as time moves forward. I think that this is the kind of book that will be a useful way to get across some of the events of 2020 to people in the future, to people who are still to young now to fully understand just what's going on, or the global implications of these events. I think this is a book that will go on to become a valuable teaching resource in years to come, and is definitely one to keep an eye on.

I think someone in a few decades time will pick this book up and think it’s a work of fiction, I'm glad someone has documented all that’s happened over what has been the craziest year of my life - funny to look back and remember WOW THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Will also be a great revision tool when children in many years time come to talk about the history of 2020. I loved it.

Amazing!

However, I would like to say that I am so sure this graphic read will be much better with the physical version.

Do not hesitate to read this one if you love comics and illustrations but with the basic black ink.

The dates and facts are quite accurate and relevant regarding the ongoing 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.

Awesome efforts put in this one I can totally see it. Thoroughly enjoyed reading the advance reading copy.

Thank you, author and the publisher.

This was a beautiful visually stunning depiction of what the past months have felt like watching the news and experiencing the virus firsthand. Aside for the gorgeous illustrations, I found it very interesting to learn how events and decisions made surrounding the coronavirus unfolded in other countries and how it compared to the United States.

This is an excellent timeline for the Covid 19 pandemic. It portrays the facts of the virus in graphic novel form providing information but also the more humorous incidents during this ongoing disaster. While the author is based in London, he covers the details of the pandemic response in many other countries including America, my own country. The artwork is just amazing. I plan on buying a hard copy of this book when it's released.

Fantastic piece of memorabilia for your kids to have in years to come. Who'd have thought we'd be going down in history in 2020. Great illustrations & the perfect summary of this year

Vic Lees Corona Diary stands out from the slew of 2020 inspired works. A superbly illustrated and incredibly detailed artistic journal of this dreadful year. Anyone interested in collecting memorabilia relating to 2020 and the COVID pandemic should definitely buy this wonderful book.