March of the Crabs Vol. 1

by Arthur De Pins

Overview

Crabs versus The World.

All species in the world evolve…except one. Cancer Simplicimus Vulgaris, or the square crab, has suffered with the same evolutionary defect for millennia: it cannot change direction. Condemned to walk in one straight line forever, these crabs living along the Gironde estuary have largely resigned themselves to their fate. However, one seemingly ordinary summer, three crabs decide to take matters into their own claws and rebel against the straight and narrow path they have been sentenced to, upending the entire ecosystem in the process. From critically-acclaimed French illustrator and animator Arthur de Pins comes the first volume in his hilarious and touching trilogy about scuttling towards your own destiny.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608866892
Publisher:	Archaia
Publication date:	03/31/2015
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

French animator Arthur De Pins first gained notice with his animated short Bed of Roses. De Pins worked with producer Jeremy Rochigneux on Bed of Roses, and teamed up with him again for La Révolution des Crabes, or March of the Crabs. In addition to March of the Crabs he is the author of the comics Zombillenium and Péchés Mignons. His work has appeared in the magazines Max and Fluide Glacial.

Editorial Reviews

02/02/2015
Shifting from the vantage point of tiny, wandering crabs up to the depiction of larger seaside confrontations and other interactions between humans, this first book of a trilogy tells a tale of varying scales, both physical and emotional. The fictional square crabs—who are as sentient and charming as the creatures in Pixar movies—can only move in one direction, a limitation that dictates an anonymous love life, almost perpetual loneliness, and an inability to flee from danger. A single square crab, soon to ne named Sunny, begins a journey that changes his life and the lives of all square crabs. One day, he stumbles on a way to change his direction and sets into motion a sudden evolutionary leap. But De Pins’s lens is wider than the world of crabs, and the hero’s interactions with two nature documentarians on their quest to film the square crab reveals the chaos of the human world and its ability to crisscross in any manner it pleases. A tapestry of human behavior unfolds on the beach, mixing larger environmental battles and the sordid actions of individuals. De Pins, also an acclaimed animator, has a clean, flowing art style—flat blocks of color eschewing black lines—that keeps his opposing scales vivid and seamless, beautifully capturing character movement, and the cluttered space inhabited by humanity. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly