There's a lot of good I can say about this book. It was short. It had a lot of pages with very little text. The color palette was nice. Um...the height of the tower was a reasonable height? That's it. The rest of it sucked.

I found the beginning quite boring but it got better when they explained what was going on.
Also the illustrator clearly has no idea how breasts work. Every single breast-having character had perfectly round and perky breasts regardless of their size and despite the fact that they were only supported by teeny tiny strips of fabric (or nothing at all in some cases).

This dystopian comic book features a strong heroine struggling with the aftermath of a difficult battle.
The world building was indepth, detailed and allowed the reader to expand with their own imagination.
There is a full plot ! - with answers to major readers questions which I fully appreciated.

As well as interesting character development with multiple characters!

The art is beautiful! Expressive + detailed

My only critique is that I found the "villain redemption arc " slightly hasty, but pivotal to plot completion and comprehension.

After the Fall is a post-apocalyptic comic book, telling the story of the remnants of humanity after a cataclysmic event that altered life on Earth for good. We follow Giala as she endures a life in an incredibly hostile environment and deals with grief and heartache, while also fighting to survive against a myriad of enemies.
I am a sucker for good post-apocalyptic stories. The scenario itself—some event or a series of events that sets off a chain reaction and alters life of humanity seems so full of potential, and so interesting to consider. I always gravitate to those stories, because in my experience post-apocalyptic stories often examine what it is to be human, what it is to endure even when everything is quite literally turned against you. So, naturally, when I saw After the Fall, I had to give it a shot.
One of the things that I liked the most was the art style—each frame was so gorgeously rendered, I ended up staring at each page, simply admiring it as a separate work of art. The shading, the colors, the shapes—it all helped create a really authentic atmosphere and helped the story feel more fleshed out. My compliments to the artist in that regard. However I have to say I wasn’t the biggest fan of how sexualized the female characters appeared in the comic book. While male characters sported practical gear that also made sense as protection, women’s clothing was reduced to skimpy outfits at best, or completely pointless a-piece-of-cloth-over-the-crotch outfits. I realize that it was a deliberate choice; however, I still find it quite unnecessary, especially given the contrast with outfits of male characters.
The plot, the worldbuilding and the characters are the weakest aspect of this graphic novel. Overall, the world of After the Fall feels like a mashup of every post-apocalyptic cliche and trope: a cold war-esque conflict that led to the end of life as we know it, remnants of humanity reverting back to barbaric social structures, warring tribes and mutants—it all feels very rehashed and lacks any sort of original spark, twist or subversion that could have made it interesting or didn’t feel as redundant. Although the artwork elevated the experience significantly, it still felt like I was seeing something already all-too-familiar. Though we’re given some backstory as to what happened to transform the world, we’re not given many world-building details beyond that, as a result of which, this world doesn’t feel unique or interesting. It feels very generic. Add the women in the skimpy clothing and it felt like I was playing a low-budget post-apocalyptic PC game from the early 2000s, that somehow got someone very talented working for the project in their graphics department.
The dialogue and the plot didn’t stand out at all. In fact, the dialogue at certain points felt very forced and artificial. I got the idea of the plot, but I think it required better writing for a more successful execution—the idea was interesting, but it’s fleshed out quite poorly. The themes of grief, heartache and discovery are left unexplored, and the reader only gets the sense of those emotions through the illustrations—none of the writing supports the emotional punch the reader is supposed to go through.
The characters, due to the poor writing weren’t memorable; the character design was interesting but it wasn’t something I hadn’t seen before, especially for the main characters. The only character that is sort of fleshed out is Giala, but even she appears quite flat.
Overall, I didn’t enjoy After the Fall. It has some redeeming qualities, but overall I was quite dissatisfied with most elements of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy of After the Fall.

I’m a sucker for barbarian stories, and anything that can take a novel approach to the genre is always interesting to me. Rather than taking place in the far distant past, like most related to Conan the Cimmerian, After the Fall takes place a century after a great cataclysm that destroyed human society entirely. Small tribes of humans cling together in the wasteland, but some are not as “nice” as others. My favorite part of this was seeing the remnants of the past civilization as used by the barbarians of this new era in novel ways. Broken buildings and cars litter the landscape, but the ability to actually utilize such items has been long forgotten, now they are just barriers or even building blocks. It seems that most do not even know how to read at all, so mundane things like maps are like ancient scrolls to them. Something as simple as a backwards baseball cap or set of headphones have religious significance. It’s an interesting bit of world building, and I quite enjoyed it.

“Earth. 116 years after the fall. Giala and her tribe live amongst the ruins of a metropolis turned upside down. When a gang of slave traffickers attacks them, the men are executed and the women are enslaved. Narrowly escaping, Giala has only one thing in mind: to rescue the children of the tribe and set things right. A dystopic tale of revenge and discovery, as the central heroine encounters new allies and enemies in her search for security and justice. Along the way she meets a band of mutants with strange powers that will ultimately lead to the discovery of the ultimate secret: the source of the cataclysm that led to the Fall… A mystical post-apocalyptic tale, lushly illustrated by the modern and flamboyant design work of artist Juzhen. A self-concluding adventure.”


This is a fairly short story, and I would have liked this to be fleshed out a lot more. As is is, the story seems incomplete to a degree considering the original incident that causes Giala to be separated from her tribe is sadly not concluded, nor is some of the stuff regarding a tribe of mutants that she runs into. Perhaps there are plans for more that I’m unaware of, but as it stands the plot is a bit unfulfilled. The art, however, is gorgeous and makes up for any issues I have with the story. I am not certain where he hails from, but his art reminds me of some of the more modern popular Korean and Chinese artists that you see from time to time. I will definitely have to seek some of his stuff out after this, as I really like it.

My opinions aside regarding the plot, this is a solid book, and is well worth a look if you like this sort of story. The characters are interesting, and the artwork is gorgeous. Laurent Queyssi could easily do more with this setting if that was something he was interested in, I’d absolutely love to see it. If you are a fan post-apocalypse fiction, barbarian comics, monster books, or even “cheesecake books”, this is right up your alley.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

After the Fall by Laurent Queyssi and Juzhen is an adult sci-fi graphic novel that will appeal to fans of Mad Max or the Saga graphic novel series. The story revolves around Giala, who lives in the ruins of a metropolis in a dystopian earth. She, along with the other women in her tribe, are enslaved by traffickers, which somewhat acounts for her minimalist outfit on the cover and for most of the book. She is determined to escape and rescue ther children of the tribe. Along the way, she encounters allies, fights, children with psychic powers, gargantuan lizard creatures, and other general dystopian elements.
when it comes out in October!

Overall, After the Fall is a stunning graphic novel for adults that any sci-fi fan would enjoy reading. One highlight of this book is the art. I was attracted to this book because I saw that the art is Juzhen, a pioneering Chinese comics artist. I was curious to see their art for the first time and to support a Chinese artist being translated into English, which is still pretty rare these days. I did enjoy the art, which was drawn in a very light-novel, modern Chinese anime style. Unfortunately, I was turned off by the nudity and skin-baring outfits that most of the women were dressed in. It does make sense in the context of the story, but it made me uncomfortable. In addition, I think the author tried to do too much with this story and crammed every element of science fiction and more into one story. If you're intrigued by the synopsis, or if you're a fan of graphic novels in general, you can check out this book when it comes out in October!

This graphic novel was a poor attempt at a post-apocalyptic story. The modern world has been destroyed, and the surviving members of society have broken into different tribes. Not much about the various tribes is developed beyond a mere mention that they exist. For some reason, only beautiful young females whose clothing was destroyed with the destruction of the world and grotesque males in full body armor survive in this world.

The story begins quickly when one seemingly peaceful hunting tribe of mostly beautiful young (possibly mid-teen) topless females bearing multiple children is attacked by a fearsome all male warrior tribe bent on rape and pillage. The peaceful tribe is decimated, the children scattered into an abandoned building filled with snakes (of all things), and the surviving females are taken captive. From there the story devolves into a chaotic mess where nothing is really explained. Although the artwork is decent, the dialogue is mediocre at best, and the world-building is non-existent.