The History of Science Fiction: A Graphic Novel Adventure

Dollo and Morrissette-Phan (Crypto: The Graphic Novel, Book 1) offer a stunningly detailed overview of science fiction, from Homer’s Odyssey to the present day. Early chapters covering works by Jonathan Swift and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein give way to lengthy explorations of the lives and influence of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. In the early 20th century, the ascendance of pulp fiction magazines (featuring authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. P. Lovecraft) expanded sci-fi’s reach, paving the way for Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and other writers credited for pushing the genre into the mainstream. Rather than writing a dry presentation of events, Dollo and Morrissette-Phan utilize a playful approach throughout this graphic novel—for instance, dramatizing a long dinner conversation between Asimov, Heinlein, and several of their peers as a way to explore mid-20th century works, and following H. G. Wells as he travels through time to meet Michael Moorcock and Ursula K. Le Guin, in chapters focused on the British New Wave and the work of women authors like Octavia Butler and C. L. Moore.