Review by Ian Keogh

Five wolves are aboard a boat in the open sea. On spotting a shark their first instinct is to draw it, but they’re outraged that when shown the illustration the shark eats it and swims off. Their indignation is ongoing when they spot five cats in another boat. The cats fire their cannon and when the wolves’ boat sinks we’re a quarter of the way through the book.

Despite issuing The Five Wolves under the First Second imprint, long associated with graphic novels for young readers, Peter McCarty seems entirely uneasy with that idea. His whimsical fable is produced not with clarity in mind, but artistic purpose. A succession of elegantly drawn sepia-toned illustrations are accompanied by dialogue highlighted in bold from within rectangular shaped wordclouds. Why? Furthermore both the illustrations and text boxes are framed within massive white areas as if hung on gallery walls.

It seems a statement of intent, and as the wolves go about their adventures, their activities are accompanied by statements and questions about the meaning and purpose of art. Self-satisfaction should be the cornerstone of artistic production, and The Five Wolves is exceptionally self-aware without any sense of pandering to an audience. If you have the patience, reading the words not highlighted in the text blocks reveals extra layers, perhaps quoted from elsewhere.

It’s all very clever in exploiting the nonsense format, and the individual illustrations can be striking, but the overall stamp is of wilful inaccessibility, hardly entertainment for adults or children.