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A little robot named Arty starts to question why he is going on rounds through the desert over and over again. And that quest for the answers to his purpose launch him and his best friend Owen the buzzard off on a journey out of the desert, over the mountains to strange new places in search of some big answers.

Simple black and white drawings are in a comic style that should appeal to a broad audience, from elementary kids all the way through adults. Arty is fairly simple, almost Wall-E-ish looking robot (with enough distinguishing characteristics we’ll overlook the similarities and Pixar doesn’t have to call any lawyers). He’s surprisingly emotive with just one square display where his eyes would be. I liked that his best friend is a buzzard (points for uniqueness there) who is the comic relief and more than he seems. The two have some grand adventures, manage to answer some big philosophical questions in ways that that entire elementary to adult audience could easily follow, and along the way save various other characters from their own issues like deforestation of habitat. Purpose of life is a rather big topic to tackle in a little comic. I thought Nielsen did have some good points, and there are hints at bigger implications but there’s still even bigger questions that go unanswered (which is ok, it is just a comic). (He tackles more self-worth and purpose related to job and talents and how closely those should be tied.) There’s some great discussion starters in here for families, classes, or book clubs who read this together. My only qualm with the book were a few panels where the flow wasn’t super smooth and I had to flip back a page to see if I’d missed something. Once I realized I hadn’t missed a page, I plugged on and a few more panels in I figured out what was going on. So just beware of the few hiccup spots and know that you’re not missing anything. I’m guessing Nielsen will get better at these transitions in future books (this is his first after all), and we’ll chalk it up to a rooky hiccup that overall doesn’t impact the story all that much. We only get glimpses of the setting of Arty’s world and it’s left me curious about what all is going on – robots old enough they’re jobs are phasing out, new technology that makes deforestation outmoded, and we never are told why Arty was surveying the desert… I’m curious enough I’d be interested in more tales about Arty’s world. The students at my school have an insatiable appetite for anything graphic novel so I’m putting this on my list to order if I can squeeze it into the budget.

I picked this up thinking it was going to be reminiscent of Pixar's Wall-e and instead found a robot who interacts with many characters. However, like Wall-e, this story is about questioning the status quo. Our fearless hero travels outside his world to meet other robots and ends up making a difference.