Concrete Volume 5: Think Like a Mountain
Once again, Chadwick uses Concrete, a compassionate man whose intelligence has been transplanted into a towering, granitelike body with heightened strength and senses, to express a deeply held view on a pressing issue. In the story arc here, Concrete falls in with radical environmentalists seeking to win him to their side to save an old-growth forest. Initially observing from the fringes, Concrete struggles with his conscience, but exposure to the environmental defilement gradually convinces him to take an active role. The arboreal setting gives Chadwick the chance to show off his carefully wrought line work. Two-page spreads depicting, respectively, the remnants of a clear-cut forest and an abandoned drift net containing the carcasses of trapped sea animals are powerful. Chadwick's sympathies are evident, yet he gives the opposing viewpoint a fair hearing, and Concrete's ongoing skepticism helps keep the tale from preachiness, unlike, unfortunately, several ecologically oriented short pieces that round out the volume. Those are illustrated lectures, essentially, like the recent filmAn Inconvenient Truth.Gordon FlaggCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved