‘Failure to Launch: A Tour of Ill-Fated Futures’ edited by Kel McDonald is a graphic novel full of failures that may have changed our lives for better or worse.

This anthology takes a fascinating detour from the typical celebration of human ingenuity. Instead of focusing on groundbreaking successes, this graphic novel dives deep into the annals of history to unearth a collection of ambitious projects, ideas, and inventions that ultimately fell flat. From centrifugal force births to phones to call the dead, there is a lot here to discover. There is the man who wanted to bring hippos to Louisiana. There is the utopian space station that still relies too much on the home planet

There is a lot here and that is the weakness of the book. At 300 pages, it’s just too long. The art is fine as are the stories, but it all becomes cumbersome by the end.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this graphic novel for an honest review

This was an interesting read which I read little by little and I can see people loving this, I enjoyed my read of it but that's it.

An interesting look at some of the big ideas and pretty big failures over the past couple of hundred years. I didn't particularly enjoy how these tales were told but the information was still interesting and kudos to the artisrts.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Ultimately, my problem with this is the one I have with many anthologies: the stories were too disconnected from one another. Yes, they all share the same prompt, and they all follow it. But when you have a 300 page book and every story is like 5 pages you end up having A TON of different themes, tones, and in this case because it is a graphic novel, drawing and writing styles. Not to even get into the typos that are absolutely everywhere, but it was jumping all over the place and none of the stories ended up staying with me. I think it would've benefited from dividing them into categories like inventors, athletes, scientists, etc so we could at least know where something was going without being spun around 20 different moods in 50 pages.

3/5

I think some of the stories were interesting. While some were either hard to follow or didn’t make sense in the way of why it was in the anthology. I also think there were way to many stories I think if some of the smaller stories were longer it might not have felt so daunting to read. And like I said some of the stories didn’t seem to fit with others. I know it was about failures, but I went into this thinking they’d be historic and some of them weren’t that historic just kind of things that have happened. I also think it would benefit to have it in chronological order of time eras. It was weird to go from the 1700’s to the 1990’s back to the 1800’s. A lot of the stories were interesting and most of the art was good. I just think either splitting things up, or chronologically putting the stories would have made this flow better and not make it seem that you are reading a bunch of random things that have zero correlation

I finished 51% of this, but I’m choosing to DNF and not rate because this is an ARC from NetGalley. I wanted this collection (based on the cover) to be futuristic/scifi… unfortunately this was just a very strange collection of short graphic novel stories and some of them felt unfinished… like it was missing pages to make a cohesive story. A lot of this is historical… but reads like dry nonfiction as opposed to something fun and made up… these all feel like real stories… but they aren’t supposed to be?! At least based on the title they aren’t supposed to be??

Unfortunately this graphic novel just wasn't for me. I found myself bored and putting it down to never return. I kept telling myself I'd pick it back up, but after so much time and no real draw to continue the story I'm officially calling it quits. I think primarily my issues stemmed from the overall message and feel or lack there of. I would have enjoyed if the story had more emphasis on showcasing how failures are often necessary for future advancements. However, from what parts I read it seemed more focused on the failure and not any takeaway from that or connectedness between stories. Also the stories that I read followed characters I either didn't really like, or wasn't super interested in, so it also made it harder to stay engaged in the story. Overall unfortunately this graphic novel just wasn't for me.

What a cool concept! This collection of short snippets of history in comic form was so interesting! I enjoyed these stories and thought the collection as a whole was really well done. Each artist brought their own style to the story they were telling and for the most part they were very interesting and engaging!
I'd recommend this to history lovers who are looking for unique books about history that they might not have thought to look for or to anyone who enjoys reading comics and graphic novels.

This is a series of short stories about people in history that had good ideals but did not have the resources at the time to finish or complete the project or had someone around them sabotage them so they were not successful.

This was not quite as advertised but that doesn’t mean it was bad. I think, before it comes out, a better description could be written to not make some readers upset. Like all short story collections, some shine brighter than others.

This collection is unlike any graphic novel collection I’ve read, as it was a mix between genuine education on said 'Ill-fated futures' and playful storytelling, which keeps you reading.

If you find yourself drawn to the history of innovation and the concept of inventions changing the course of the future, then this is the perfect graphic novel for you.

I was initially drawn to this one due to the cover art and title. The art within is varied as it is from multiple creators. I felt that each artistic style matched the tone of its story well, although some art styles and their corresponding stories were not for me.

As someone who doesn’t have a keen interest in innovation to the degree that some may, I found some of the stories lacking in engaging content and therefore found myself skimming through those that appealed to me least.

That being said, this didn’t impact my rating too much as I felt that those that did hit the mark really hit it. My favorites in this collection were 'The Second Extinction of the Pyrenean Ibex' by Erin Roseberry and 'Little Islands' by Blue Delliquanti, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from them.

Thanks to NetGalley and Letter Better Publishing Services for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

Couldn't finish it -- too depressing. All these failures just wasn't what I wanted to see right now, even though the creators were talented.

Not every story will be of interest to every reader but there's such diversity in the work here that I think most readers will find something they enjoy. It's great to see creators I normally associate just with fiction try something different

The idea was there but the execution was lacking for me. I could not stay engaged during the stories and found myself having to go over pages because I would zone out.

I expected a collection of futuristic stories from the cover, but it is more about scientific explorations of the real and alternative past. I really enjoyed it for the interesting facts it contained, and more than once I checked to see if everything was as it had been told. In places they even reference sources, which is very rare for a comic book. We get a space station shaped like a bagel, plastic bicycles made by Volvo, Dolly the cloned sheep, a prison with constant surveillance, electronic waste, Sony's AI dog, virtual celebrities, a rain machine, the dawn of blood transfusions, the power of wireless networks, but also a white-dominated world's fair and a Venezuelan utopia powered by wind turbines and wave energy. I really liked the way the book uses the past to reflect on the problems of today. Like all collections, there were some less compelling stories, but overall I ended the reading with a very good experience.

I like the ideal behind this graphic anthology but it didn't really engage me like I expected. I love exposure to different illustration styles but overall the stories themselves fell flat to me.

A very interesting read, lovely collection. I enjoy these type of graphic novels., showcasing different creators styles of comics, it can lead to discovery of new artists.

I loved the idea of this graphic novel. Stories of discoveries that were ALMOST amazing...
What bothered me was that it seemed to take a left turn from this premise. There are some stories of Almost Anson inventions and 'discoveries', but the larger part of the book was about politics (I actually agree with the politics presented, but it was off-putting given the book premise), and hoaxes. I feel like this could have been split into two works with different themes and been more effective.
The artwork was generally very good and the stories were interesting, the lack of theme was a bit too large of a hurdle for this work though.

**Disclaimer: I recieved a free eARC of this through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this opportunity.  This was an interesting collection.  The stories all had to do with an interesting theme, and were mostly things I knew very little about.  I liked the discussion and covering of these various moments in history that I personally didn't know very much about.  I also liked how each had a different art/illustration style.  However, some of the stories were less interesting than others.

This graphic tour of humanity's past attempts to improve society through technology is as fun as it is informative. From the early blood transfusions to the dawn of the Luddites, each chapter comes from a different creative team and tells a different story most readers will probably not be aware of. The diversity of styles and topics makes this a unique and worthwhile read for fans of books on technology, history, or just good graphic novels that use the form as well as can be done.