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War of the Blink
"This Haida manga intriguingly blends graphic storytelling with a fine art sensibility... Yahgulanaas communicates via an arresting series of images evoking the traditional visual arts of the Haida people." --Publisher's Weekly The brilliant follow-up to RED: A Haida Manga -- another stunningly inventive retelling of an ancient Haida tale. The latest offering from acclaimed graphic artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, War of the Blink is a stunning full-colour graphic novel about war and peace. It is the story of a fisherman who suspects a party of raiders is descending upon his island home. When his warnings are not heeded, the man sets out to guard the village on his own, only to find himself caught up in a high-stakes game of kidnap and bluff. All this leads to a final showdown, in which one of the sides must blink first--and the villagers find a surprising way to save face and their home, and avoid bloodshed. Combining traditional Northwest coast and Japanese comic art in Yahgulanaas' own, dizzingly original mish-mash, War of the Blink is a timeless fable about the bravery it takes to choose peace over war. An earlier version of the artwork was displayed at the Vancouver Art Gallery a part of the groundbreaking exhibition "Raven Travelling." Review Quotes and Endorsements "Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has invented a new form of graphic storytelling seen in full colour in his beautiful new book ...The intricate watercolour changes the whole experience of the book, from linear and fixed to all over and fluid. -- Calgary Herald "Yahgulanaas blends ... two distinct styles together into something wholly original." -- National Post "Fusing the bold primary colours and geometric forms characteristic of classical Haida visual art with the emotionally expressive cartooning style of Japanese manga ... the traditional Haida story, freighted with all the sombre inevitability of Sophocles, is told in 108 pages of spectacularly beautiful, hand-painted images." --Vancouver Review "Red delights me beyond measure. Author and artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has created a new art form -- Haida manga -- that honours his heritage as well as the Japanese friends of his ancestors." -- FastForward Weekly
72 pages, Hardcover
Published November 24, 2017
About the author
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
15 books28 followersMichael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is an award-winning visual contemporary artist, author and professional speaker. His work has been seen in public spaces, museums, galleries and private collections across the globe. Institutional collections include the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum and Vancouver Art Gallery. His large sculptural works are part of the public art collection of the Vancouver International Airport, City of Vancouver, City of Kamloops and University of British Columbia. Yahgulanaas's publications include national bestsellers Flight of the Hummingbird and RED, a Haida Manga. When not writing or producing art, Yahgulanaas pulls from his 20 years of political experience in the Council of the Haida Nation and travels the world speaking to businesses, institutions and communities about social justice, community building, communication and change management. His most recent talks include the American Museum of Natural History and TEDxVancouver 2015.
Yahgulanaas became a full-time artist after many decades working in the Haida Nation's successful campaign to protect its biocultural diversity; however, he began to play as an artist much earlier. As the descendant of iconic artists Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw and Delores Churchill, his early training was under exceptional creators and master carvers of talented lineage. It wasn't until the late 1990s after an exposure to Chinese brush techniques, under the tutelage of Cantonese master Cai Ben Kwon, that he consciously began to merge Haida and Asian artistic influences into his self-taught practice, and innovated the art form called "Haida Manga."
Haida Manga blends North Pacific Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. It is committed to hybridity as a positive force that opens a third space for critical engagement and is weaved through his art, books and speeches. Haida Manga offers an empowering and playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection and action.
Yahgulanaas's visual practice encompasses a variety of different art forms including large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, re-purposed automobile parts, acrylics, watercolours, ink drawings, ceramics and illustrated publications. Exploring themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition he uses art and speaking opportunities to communicate a world view that while particular to Haida Gwaii - his ancestral North Pacific archipelago - is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally-engaged audience.
Influenced by both the tradition of Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, Yahgulanaas has created a practice that is celebrated for its vitality, relevancy and originality.
(from: http://mny.ca/en/biography)
Yahgulanaas became a full-time artist after many decades working in the Haida Nation's successful campaign to protect its biocultural diversity; however, he began to play as an artist much earlier. As the descendant of iconic artists Isabella Edenshaw, Charles Edenshaw and Delores Churchill, his early training was under exceptional creators and master carvers of talented lineage. It wasn't until the late 1990s after an exposure to Chinese brush techniques, under the tutelage of Cantonese master Cai Ben Kwon, that he consciously began to merge Haida and Asian artistic influences into his self-taught practice, and innovated the art form called "Haida Manga."
Haida Manga blends North Pacific Indigenous iconographies and framelines with the graphic dynamism of Asian manga. It is committed to hybridity as a positive force that opens a third space for critical engagement and is weaved through his art, books and speeches. Haida Manga offers an empowering and playful way of viewing and engaging with social issues as it seeks participation, dialogue, reflection and action.
Yahgulanaas's visual practice encompasses a variety of different art forms including large-scale public art projects, mixed media sculptures and canvases, re-purposed automobile parts, acrylics, watercolours, ink drawings, ceramics and illustrated publications. Exploring themes of identity, environmentalism and the human condition he uses art and speaking opportunities to communicate a world view that while particular to Haida Gwaii - his ancestral North Pacific archipelago - is also relevant to a contemporary and internationally-engaged audience.
Influenced by both the tradition of Haida iconography and contemporary Asian visual culture, Yahgulanaas has created a practice that is celebrated for its vitality, relevancy and originality.
(from: http://mny.ca/en/biography)
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 18, 2018
Delightful art (traditional designs fused with modern techniques) is the backdrop for a tale of fishing, war, and friendship. Be sure to look at the overall art at the end of the book where the pages blend together into a larger design.
May 29, 2023
Keywords that came to mind reading War of the Blink: Community, conflict, canoes, and bold lines.
mesmerizing use of traditional style with his own twist, The War of the Blink is a stand out from the crowd. Plus the page layouts felt a tad bit easier to follow, so I would definitely recommend it as maybe a first time Yahgulanaas reader.
You also get to see all the pages combined into a whole single piece in the back of the book and it really is gorgeous.
Looking at the different points of diversity that I always want to talk about, things were pretty focused and one note when it came to race, class, ability, sexuality, and gender. I liked seeing how the two villages related and worked things out, and that was definitely the main focus of the story more so then too much in the singular character development area.
And, to conclude, sticking with what seems to be a tradition with Yahgulanaas I would rate this a four out of five because I really liked it.
mesmerizing use of traditional style with his own twist, The War of the Blink is a stand out from the crowd. Plus the page layouts felt a tad bit easier to follow, so I would definitely recommend it as maybe a first time Yahgulanaas reader.
You also get to see all the pages combined into a whole single piece in the back of the book and it really is gorgeous.
Looking at the different points of diversity that I always want to talk about, things were pretty focused and one note when it came to race, class, ability, sexuality, and gender. I liked seeing how the two villages related and worked things out, and that was definitely the main focus of the story more so then too much in the singular character development area.
And, to conclude, sticking with what seems to be a tradition with Yahgulanaas I would rate this a four out of five because I really liked it.
January 24, 2019
I've genuinely seen nothing like this (aside from the author's other work). This short, clever book is full of movement, and colours are used in a way that very much speaks to me as a settler in the Pacific Northwest. This book imbued me with a rare sense of regional pride and reminded me that we deprive (have been deprived) ourselves of a world of remarkable artwork as a result of colonial ideals/cultural genocide. This book reminded me to feel lucky and deeply grateful for the resilience of Indigenous story telling, culture and art—as it continues to rise up and show us an interpretation of the world that can be challenging to our socialized norms of European imperialism.
I have a lot of thoughts about a book that was only a couple dozen pages long. (What a surprise. 🙃)
I have a lot of thoughts about a book that was only a couple dozen pages long. (What a surprise. 🙃)
August 2, 2018
The storytelling here is a little more straightforward than in his first "Haida manga" Red: A Haida Manga, but still very much in the Haida tradition. The artwork is again fabulous, the colors a bit more subdued in this one, with the story-within-a-design structure. The fly is one of my favorite characters, so nice to see it have such a prominent role here. And the project of combining Haida and manga conventions is really neat, and for me even more effective here than in Red.
June 26, 2018
4.5 stars
I love this story. Maybe it’s a true story. Maybe it’s an allegory. Either way, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has found a way to make light of conflict, to diffuse it with a wink (or, more accurately, a blink.) A hopeful and witty read in our current garbage fire of a world.
This is another of his hybrid Haida manga - pages of manga-style panels that all fit together to build a large monumental piece - micro and macro all in one. It’s impossible not to be impressed by such a process or the beauty with which it is executed.
I love this story. Maybe it’s a true story. Maybe it’s an allegory. Either way, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas has found a way to make light of conflict, to diffuse it with a wink (or, more accurately, a blink.) A hopeful and witty read in our current garbage fire of a world.
This is another of his hybrid Haida manga - pages of manga-style panels that all fit together to build a large monumental piece - micro and macro all in one. It’s impossible not to be impressed by such a process or the beauty with which it is executed.
February 23, 2018
This is the second of Yahgulanaas' graphic novels that I've read and not been particularly wowed by. His art style is really interesting and the way the pages all fit together is really cool and clearly hints at the importance of how everything is connected in First Nations culture. But the stories don't pull me in. I wonder if it's due to my Western expectations about story structure; Indigenous story-telling can be very different in its goals and methods.
June 11, 2018
Good book, more of a children's book and a kind of fable then I thought. Carries a great message about how its not shameful to blink, to stop for a second before getting into a war; or before you do something wrong. I highly recommend to all my other educators who want to talk about war and violence.
January 21, 2020
Man, I don't know. It feels like something I would find in a museum exhibit on indigenous myths. A beautiful object, with traditional art and coloring, but it doesn't really work as a stand alone graphic novel.
October 10, 2018
I enjoyed this one a bit more than Red. The story is wonderful and there is a thread of comic relief throughout. His books are a good place to start exposing yourself to Haida culture and lore.
October 5, 2020
The art is fantastic, and the quick story was engrossing and interesting. I am thankful for Michael for sharing it with the world. I will definitely be checking out his other works.
April 6, 2021
He's just a genius. This is a little less visually spectacular than Red, but also a little more intelligible, maybe, to non-Haida readers.
April 13, 2021
Stunning imagery!
April 16, 2021
God-awful drivel. Narrative nonsense. Artwork was decent.
June 30, 2023
Well told folk story that leads from reluctance top unity.
February 16, 2021
This story unfolds in the newly emerging Haida manga style. The imagery of the Haida culture has as much of role in telling the story as does the text.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews