The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos Volume 1

Gr 8 Up–Looking at a complicated problem would cause most people to either give up or fall back on their knowledge to create a rational solution. It takes a mad genius to see solutions as Christopher does. Given the surname “Chaos” by his peers, his intelligence usually causes more damage than good, which leads to alienation and loneliness. Christopher’s life may seem pedestrian, but takes a wild turn one day after school: While following a cute boy into the woods, Christopher is shocked when his classmate turns into a werewolf. Add in a group of hunters, all in white, and a vigilante vampire, and you get a tale full of supernatural chaos. This is a dive deep into classic monster tales that weaves them together in a modern setting; the authors create exciting new characters to lead the way into a hopefully long-running series. A sequel is set up nicely at the end, giving readers another villain to focus on, with much deeper possibilities for future tales. The visuals here are electrifying; a vibrant color palette overlays a mysterious and muted noir style, well-known in Goodhart’s other works. Source material for monsters is unlimited and always popular with readers, so this vibrant graphic novel is likely to be checked out often.