The Most Important Comic Book on Earth

by Paul Goodenough (Editor), Cara Delevingne

The Most Important Comic Book On Earth is a global collaboration for planetary change, bringing together a diverse team of 300 leading environmentalists, artists, authors, actors, filmmakers, musicians, and more to present over 120 stories to save the world.

Whether it's inspirational tales from celebrity names such as Cara Delevingne and Andy Serkis, hilarious webcomics from War and Peas and Ricky Gervais, artworks by leading illustrators David Mack and Tula Lotay, calls to action from activists George Monbiot and Jane Goodall, or powerful stories by Brian Azzarello and Amy Chu, each of the comics in this anthology will support projects and organizations fighting to save the planet and Rewrite Extinction

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Nonfiction, Environment, Nature, Anthologies, Comic Book

343 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 2021

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a failed attempt by non-comic writer’s to jump on the comics band-wagon. Almost everything about this book is hard to read, up to and including the story credits which are broken down by not only the standard “writer”, “artist”, “letterer”, etc, but also “developed with” which is really nebulous and maybe unnecessary for a 4-panel comic?

There are definitely important subjects in this book, but a lot of it is muddied by cramped pages with way too many text blocks, and heavy-handed storytelling. There are some accomplished comic artists and writers involved in this book, and a few stories stand out from the crowd (as with any multi creator anthology), but they are too few and far between to salvage this one.

[Kate Yates · Rating 5 out of 5]

I urge everyone to buy this book, read it then pass it on to someone who maybe wouldn't normally engage with environmental issues. It should perhaps replace the Gideon Bible in hotel drawers and magazines in waiting rooms - it needs to be seen by everyone!

[Keen Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

This suffers from many of the worst clichés relating to a charity project, think of those many dreadful charity records put to music?...although clearly well-meaning this is rife with poor quality stories, lazy clichés and tokenisitic gestures. Some of the “names” are so tenuous and tokenistic as to be laughable, we get woolly euphemisms such as “developed with” or “inspired by”, seemingly celebs keen to jump on the band wagon and get the positive PR to be seen as green.

There is a real smug, liberal middle class air about this, which it really struggles to shake off. Almost everything about it really grated on me. Obviously its intentions are sound, but is that enough?...Some of these stories, pages, narratives are atrociously bad, and one apparently doesn’t understand basic grammar?...The layout is shockingly bad, consistently confusing and generally all over the place. All along you feel like it’s doing nothing more than preaching to the converted and patting itself on the back.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is collection of many very short comics (most 2-4 pages long), all about the environment. Given how much I care about climate change and the environment, I was hoping to really like this book, but instead was quite disappointed in it.

The primary problem with a lot of the stories is that they are clearly not written by comic book authors, but climate activists. Many of these comics are just short essays with pictures as window dressings. Others are poorly disguised essays, where the "dialog" is actually just someone making talking points. A few non-comic authors make attempts at making actual comic book stories, but they often fall flat, either due to the extremely limited story length or their inexperience with graphic novels.

Given that it's a short story collection with MANY contributors, there is certainly some gold in here! The best stuff is by those experienced with comics (I'm thinking in particular of stories from War and Peas, Brian Azzarello, and Robert Kirkman). Also, the art is generally quite good in this book - while the writing is subpar, the artists they got to depict the writing are great.

In the end, this all adds up to a less-than-satisfying experience as a comic book. Ideally, this would be the sort of tome you can pass to someone to get them hyped up on the environment; I doubt this collection would do so.

[Aylin Kuhls · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, was für eine Enttäuschung. Irgendetwas ist hier entschieden schief gelaufen. Dabei klingt die Prämisse, die dieser Comic-Anthologie zugrunde liegt, so vielversprechend. Aber was hier letztendlich zusammengetragen wird ist oberflächlich, steif und nichtssagend.

[Jayme · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection. This collection paired a variety of artists with environmentalists and environmental organizations to make graphic short stories and essays. I think I liked the concept of this better than the experience of reading it. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so radical in tone, including pieces done by controversial organizations like Sea Shephard and Extinction Rebellion. This graphic novel meant business. Unfortunately, it also meant some of the pieces felt more like propaganda than stories. Still. Cool idea.

[Tash Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is the most important comic book on Earth; everyone should read it and pass it on, and everyone should act on it.

The climate crisis is real. Extinction is real. Our planet is dying by our own hands and we are not doing enough to save it. It's daunting in the face of so many huge problems that it's hard to know where to start, or imagining how even one small person can make a difference, but change starts with you. And this book will show you where and how you can change your actions and get involved saving the world.

[Menglong Youk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't help feeling helpless whenever I read books about climate change. This book does a good job at highlighting some of the problems, and the effort of ordinary people addressing them, but my pessimistic a$$ still think it is not enough.

[Bob Comparda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll agree with other reviews that the writing credits are a little misleading. This is not 120 stories written by 120 different people, but most of the comics were written by Paul Goodenough and drawn up by different artists and "inspired by" or "developed with" different writers or celebrities with the exception of a handful that are written by the celebrity themselves. That being said other reviews are a little harsh because of this. It's still an anthology so you're going to have a good amount of bad mixed with the good. And this specific anthology is all about bringing awareness to important topics like climate change and endangered species.
So mostly this was full with filler comics that give you information you already know "the world is in danger and we need to change our ways". But there were some stories in here that were actually really good and got me looking things up online like the story about Elizabeth Finley Broaddus written and drawn by Philip Sevy. A couple other I enjoyed off the top of my head were "Yellow Bird" written by Tate Brombal and "Untidy" written by Paul Goodenough and developed with Dominic Monaghan.
Although not the greatest stories I've ever read I am glad to have this book on my shelves and to help support thr companies involved that are trying to protect our planet.

[Haileymark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really loved the idea of this comic, but found stories shallow, too short with little last impact and assigning blame to individuals in a pretty unhelpful way. It might have just been the format that made this not work for me- a lot of the times the "stores" were a single page, or a snippet out of a longer story, and as a result everything felt just too short. Maybe if they had included longer snippets it would have helped with making the content feel more significant. The use of celebrities in some of the stories felt strange and out of place. It was cool that it highlighted some particular areas and organizations that did good work, and those were my favourite parts. The rest of the time I felt like I was being yelled at for 1.5 hours with little to no examination of intersectionality and environmentalism. Like you could have explored environmental racism or environmentalism and class? Proceeds from the book appear to go to environmental causes, but there wasn't a lot information on how the book was produced/shipped in an environmental manner. I dunno. weird time man.

[Geno · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ★
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Una pena que una colección de comics que busca concientizar del cambio climático se quede corto.

Aunque la idea es buena, la ejecucción es desprolija, algunas historias son de varios cuadros y tienen un argumento, otras se sienten como un ensayo con imágenes y algunas, apenas como unos cuadritos sin demasiado interés.

Tiene sentido que sea despareja en calidad ya que muchas historias son "desarrolladas por" celebridades -una movida para atraer la atención-, sin embargo se nota que les falta para crear paneles que de verdad comuniquen.

Al final del día, en este libro lo que importa es el mensaje llegue, y en algunos casos, se pierde.

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This book compiles several comics about saving the environment. Like all anthologies, it could be hit-or-miss. Some stories were good, others were funny, and a good chunk of the comics were simply there.

I would have loved it if the comic strips were more consistent in length and plot organization. some comics felt like an essay with a few pretty pictures.
I guess that's the cost of having some comics “developed with” celebrities

In the end, the message it's more important than the book itself. Even if the execution it's not the best.

[Stephanie (aka WW) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic book is chock full of “save the earth” comics. 120 different comics, in fact. It brings together the works of “300 leading environmentalists, artists, authors, actors, filmmakers, musicians and more”. The book is entertaining, informative and inspiring. You can help the cause(s) by purchasing the book or giving to one or more of the numerous initiatives described within. Very worthwhile.

[Emily Carter-Dunn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf

I refuse to take this into the new year with me.

It is preachy, repetitive and boring.

[♥ isa ♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed both the artwork and the educational parts this book shared with me. I highly recommend it.

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so important to read and has so much information about how climate change and biodiversity loss is impacting both the UK and around the world. I particularly enjoyed reading about the various charity projects and being printed to following them on social
media to find out more about their important work.

Everyone should read this.

[Jessica McKendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title suggests, this probably is at least ONE of the most important comic books on Earth. These stories, told in short comics, are beautiful, devastating, and inspirational. There is so much we can be doing to save the Earth for future generations, and there are so many people who are actually doing something about it. But they can't do it alone.

We all need to pitch in, whether it's taking shorter showers, carpooling when able, or even just taking the time to recycle, there are easy things all of us can do to help. However, easy changes aren't going to fix everything.

Must read for anyone who lives on Earth.

[Cole Schoolland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas. Beautiful artwork. But the message overwhelms any sense of “story”.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Commendable effort to use comics as a platform for environmentalism. The personal stories of activists such as those who took part in the Extinction Rebellion were interesting and inspiring. Most of the very short comic stories were not well executed unfortunately. Many were just text filled dialog clouds with little bearing to the drawings, trying to drive home fact filled messages. There were even pages of advertising from the NGOs describing their projects around the world and asking for donations without sufficient information.

The line between being overly doom and gloom and inspiring hope and optimism is very fine and a difficult balance to achieve in these sorts of publications, and this critique should by no means deter future productions of similar works.

[Marc Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, yes, and yes. The title says it all. This comic book and the stories it tells you really make you want to do everything you can to contribute to a better future. What a noble and stunning way to combine storytelling and the art of comics to reach the visual learners in all of us. Page after page the imagery woke me to see what is going on in our world exciting me to do something. Oh I already took the first step by buying this Comic Book which already has bought lots of lands and giving it back to the indigenous people. Over 300 persons have contributed to the book, it is like Band-Aid but for Comics and is presenting over 120 stories to save the world and raising monies to 7 charities with important causes. I had a great conversation with Paul on my podcast Inside Ideas, ep 148: https://youtu.be/uYZ4ZCLbBBE where we talked about the impact of the book, comics, and much more.

Or check out any of the links below:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/how-com...
https://medium.com/inside-ideas/paul-...

[Matthias Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit uneven. It is composed of a lot of small stories. Some are heartwarming. Some are inspiring. Most are catastrophizing and moralizing. The only constant is that the art is top quality! So at least it’s nice to look at.

On the good sides, there is a lot of information on impactful charities, which I really appreciated.
On the story side, I was often bothered by the disconnect between the tone and the audience. I expect that people that would want to read this book already somewhat care about environmental issues, but a lot of stories seem addressed to climate change deniers and deal with humans being mindless greedy destroyers. I am not sure that provides any value beyond the shock effect, which is pretty weak after the third story in a row with the same plot.

[Miles Row · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is partly a call to action but the bit I enjoyed was the snippets about activists from around the world. It also has a fair number of celebrities so could appeal for some because of that. It'll be interesting to flick through it in a few decades time.

[Ashley Bowers · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the beginning of this book you will learn that it is an anthology dedicated to saving as many species from extinction as possible. Which is a wonderful concept for a book. However, as someone who’s read a lot of comics and graphic novels I can confidently say this was not an effective approach for sharing this information. The layout of the book is messy, and it is difficult to decipher the dialogue, images and messages intended from the varying illustrations. I would suggest the comics could have a more streamlined approach, but I understand that art is unique. And, with 120 stories from 300 different voices, I think the scale of this project is too big.

Moreover, the limited space for all of the contributors took away from their ability to provide relevant information to share meaningful messages. And, I do believe it is absolutely possible to learn a lot from an image and a few words, but I just think the message was lost in many of these comics. I did a lot of independent research into the topics that had the most impact to me personally or the comics with illustrations and art that I enjoyed. So I have learned a lot. I particularly enjoyed chapter 3: ‘restore,’ which is a lot kinder to the reader than the rest. It was considerably positive and hopeful since it shared projects and campaigns that were successful. This chapter also focused on a concept called ‘rewilding’ which emphasises the importance of allowing habitats and ecosystems to regenerate naturally. This had me wanting to go out to the garden to find some mini beasts! And, the next time I see a garden lawn that hasn’t been mowed or attended, I’ll be thinking of all the wildlife flourishing and at home there.

Nonetheless, I think it’s also important to share that the majority of the book is heavily negative in tone, with a focus on problems that far outweigh the solutions offered. I was quite let down by the final chapter of the book - Chapter 4: inspire and educate. The final comic in particular was confusing and the only message I got from it was death, which was incredibly disheartening and jarring for the last page. Maybe I misinterpreted this (which is exactly the issue I have with the format). I honestly found a lot of the book painful to read. And while I am criticising I would like to offer some suggestions on how I think this could be improved. For example, I think a fact file with detailed information on the different global campaigns and information on the leaders and contributors would be valuable. It was difficult to find this information from the comics and some of the comics weren’t named. I would further suggest each comic have a list of overall project aims, active goals and ways people can aid.

Overall, I liked that there was an emphasis that small things matter despite the issues explored being considered a current ‘global mess.’ Certainly, the issues are, all over the world. But, you don’t have to do it all. One person and one act can make a difference. I was fascinated to learn of the number of small projects and campaigns going on globally, especially since I wasn’t aware of most of them.


Some important notes:

Interconnectedness

Get into the habit of asking where did this come from?

The Children’s Fire - a regenerative principle (safety and security of future generations).

Elizabeth Finlay Broaddus

“We’re the only help that is coming.”

“The short-term benefit is the safety both to animals and humans. The long-term benefit… is love.” (Bridge to the future)

[Frank Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dieses Review bezieht sich auf die deutsche Ausgabe, erschienen unter dem Titel "Der wichtigste Comic der Welt. Geschichten zur Rettung des Planeten" mit der ISBN 3741638250 im Panini Verlag.

Was entsteht, wenn sich über 300 kreative Köpfe zusammentun, um eine Anthologie aus unterschiedlichsten Comics zu erstellen, die dem Leser vor Augen führen, wie sich die Menschheit auf der Erde austobt? Genau, es entsteht der wichtigste Comic der Welt.

Auf insgesamt 360 Seiten werden Geschichten erzählt, die unterschiedlicher nicht sein können, aber doch eines gemeinsam haben. Sie klären auf, erzählen von Ereignissen und machen den Raubbau an der Natur deutlich. Die Comicstile reichen dabei von kindlich naiv bis künstlerisch überaus eindrucksvoll. Mal sind es sehr kurze Comics, die aus wenigen Einzelbildern bestehen, mal sind es längere Geschichten, die auch textlastiger sind.

Zwischen den Comics werden zudem immer wieder Projekte vorgestellt, wie heute schon die unterschiedlichsten Gruppierungen versuchen, das Bewusstsein zu stärken, um eine Zukunft für unsere Kinder und weitere kommende Generationen zu gewährleisten.

Der Comic wurde 2021 in den USA als erstes veröffentlicht. Meines Erachtens merkt man das der Zusammenstellung so deutlich an, dass man als deutscher Leser geneigt sein könnte, sich zurückzulehnen, weil ja die meisten Umweltsünden »irgendwo anders« stattfinden. Wer jedoch genauer hinschaut, wird feststellen, dass der gemeinsame Tenor darin besteht, die Menschen überall auf der Welt davon zu überzeugen, dass auch kleine lokale Veränderungen ein Teil des großen Ganzen sind. Und genau das schaffen die Künstler in diesem Buch deutlich zu machen.

Das Buch selbst ist thematisch in vier Kapitel unterteilt. Im ersten Kapitel geht es um »Veränderung«, in dem z.B. auf das eigene Konsumverhalten aufmerksam gemacht wird. Kapitel zwei ist mit »Schutz« betitelt und zeigt, wie und was schützenswert ist. Das dritte Kapitel widmet sich zahlreichen unterschiedlichen Projekten, die sich für die Rettung unterschiedlichster Lebensräume einsetzen, weshalb dieses Kapitel »Retten« heißt. Im letzten Kapitel »Motivieren« geht es schlussendlich darum zu zeigen, wie jeder Einzelne motiviert werden kann, mehr für seine Umwelt zu tun (dies findet sich allerdings quer durch alle Kapitel).

Fazit
Es ist gar nicht so einfach, über ein derart umfängliches und abwechslungsreiches Buch, ein kurzes Review zu schreiben. Und selbst mit meiner jetzigen habe ich den Eindruck, als würde ich der Anthologie nicht gerecht werden. Natürlich kann einem nicht immer alles gefallen, aber ich finde dieses Gesamtwerk sehr beeindruckend und die Zusammenstellung als sehr gelungen.

In dieser deutschen Ausgabe findet sich exklusiv eine Geschichte des deutschen Künstlers Timo Würz, der mit beeindruckenden Tierporträts bisher auf sich aufmerksam machte (wie z.B. mit dem vergriffenen »The Art of wild + free Animals« aus dem Jahre 2018).

Auf meinem Blog habe ich das Buch inklusive einiger Einblicke ins Buch veröffentlicht.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for the message of this novel, 3,5 stars for the comics themselves.
The title of this stunning collection is a bit grandiose, but nobody can deny that climate change and the ecological disaster that goes along with it is the most important topic right now. Even more important than war or economical depression or rising energy prices. We are on the road to making our planet unliveable, not only for other species, but also for us. We have to act now to prevent extinction - the extinction of plants and animals, and our own extinction with it. The situation is dire. So it's great to see comic writers and artists working with activists and celebrities to create a unique collection. I expected a depressing read, but most stories are surprisingly hopeful, highlighting the work of activists and biologists in saving species and placing climate change on the agenda. Many personal testimonies are shown in comic form, showing how individual actions can come together to affect real change. Many pieces give concrete advice to readers on how to engage with climate change and add to the chorus of voices calling for action. I felt myself encouragend and inspired to take more concrete action.
As for the actual comics here it is a mixed bag, as with any anthology. Most pieces are very short, with hardly enough room to tell a real story, they are mostly illustrated fragments. The format works well with more comical pieces and cartoons. There are a lot of four panel comics by well known cartoonists, with a biting edge to them. War and Peas had a few very good ones in here. At the end there were more story pieces by well known comic writers that told good stories with a bit of a SF-twist to them. I enjoyed those a lot as well. The other content is mainly informative and illustrating important topics on conserving nature. I will re-read this collection for those.
As the royalties of this collection all go to good causes, I really encourage all readers interested in climate change and all comic fans to buy this. Even if the individual stories are not great art, there is a lot to like here and it will get you inspired to work together in community with others to help save our world from extinction.

[Eric Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate that the Editor of this anthology is donating all the royalties to multiple environmental non-profits and that so many creatives took the time to donate work to this cause. I'm a big climate activist myself and supported this anthology by purchasing it.

My review... There are a lot of short comics packed into this volume that are written to make you worry and/or feel guilty about what you do in relation to our climate crisis. Some provide knowledge about actions you can take (like regenerative farming), but the vast majority do not educate, and instead present worse-case scenarios connected to inaction or continuing to overconsume. What has worked the best in climate action (or any action) is to provide inspiration/education coupled with actions you can take. This closes what's called the value-action gap. Educating about climate change doesn't mean someone will act or know what to do to act. The next steps must be provided after the knowledge is shared.

To make this book more effective, I'd cut back on the incredible numbers of short comics and instead tell a lot less, but more impactful stories. Most felt underdeveloped. Some told the same message, but with different characters in a different setting. I felt in those cases the editor should have curated them to be less redundant.

Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with this collection of comics. Again, I wish there were fewer comics, and instead longer more impactful thought-out stories that carried a stronger message of action.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4/5] There’s no question this is a comic book with one of the most important topics in the world. And it does a really good job promoting the topics it sets out to promote, with some big names on the front page and even some well known faces appearing in the comics.

Climate change is a problem, a huge one that we’re not doing enough about (or much at all as a civilization, if we’re being honest). The book shows examples of what we’re doing to the planet and ourselves, how people are trying to help and what we can (and must) do better. It offers everyday changes that each of us can make and resources to find out about how we can help do even more.

However, it is a comic book, so it would be unfair to ignore that in the review. It’s very “hit or miss”, with some comics being really good (I even cried a couple of times, the Loving Reaper comics really hit me hard), some less so, and some being sentences written in bubbles over pictures. I thought the last group really should have been in normal text format, or adapted to a comic format more naturally. My assumption is that those were mostly done by people from the activist, rather than the author side of the project. Of course, I don’t expect to love every single comic, but there is a lot of room for improvement.

I’d give it an easy 5/5 for the idea and what it represents, but probably 3/5 for the execution of the comic side of it, thus the 4* rating. It is, nevertheless, a book I’d urge everyone to read and, more importantly, think about!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The span of comics in this book is fantastic and there's a lot of knowledge to be gained from this book. But, but I feel like some of the messages were missing the point in where the blame of the climate crisis lies. You have one author who had an excellent comic about people in Africa experiencing the heavy restrictions and laws for climate issues, when they are one of the least responsible for this whole thing. Which was great. But alot of these comics point the finger at the poor and impoverished who are merely victims of the system as much as the fish and turtles. You say we need to stop using single use plastic or switch to an all vegan diet and if not we're horrible for it but do you know how hard that can be for so many people? Whether due to location or income the resources to do "better" are not readily available for a lot of people. Basically what I'm saying is there was alot of finger pointing at people who have no control over what's going on and are merely victims of the several 100 corporations that are cause for most of this. Also the damn plastic straws and sea turtle thing pisses me off. Like ok yes the turtles may eat the straws and that's very bad but now that's all people care about and it's used as an obvious ploy to distract others from the bigger picture such as overfishing and toxic dumping and fracking.

[Nikhil Kamath · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Most Important Comic Book On Earth is an apt name for this one as this comic book is a collection of stories to save the world. The book is divided into 4 chapters with stories of changing the system, protecting the world, restoring the damage and inspiring & educating. Some of the stories have been developed with the likes of Ricky Gervais, Dame Judi Dench, Taika Waititi, Sir Ian Mckellen, Andy Serkis etc.

Every story from this book is hard hitting and makes you as a reader think of how you as a reader can contribute to shaping the future of the world. Some stories also give a view of the future and what will happen if we don't take action on the climate emergency.

Rewriting Extinction with collaboration of Greenpeace, World Land Trust, Reserva, The Wildlife Trusts, Born Free and Re:Wild also shares information on existing projects through this book that we can contribute to.

In my constant effort to learn more about the climate crisis, this book has been extremely helpful in providing a global perspective and bringing forward stories of projects and people involved in making the world a better place for all of us.

[Hannahcomb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. I think it comes down to the organization of the comics. The overall feeling is claustrophobic. My head hurt like I was being screamed at. I like angry indie comics but there's a 'fun' angry and this is not fun to read.

I think it boils down to...There was no editorial care taken to transition between different comic art styles and subject matter. I did not understand the different sections and how they were arranged. Content-wise, the same topic could crop up in different sections. For example, an illustrated call to tear up asphalt and plant trees shows up in...the section about there being no laws against environmental destruction? How does that work? And other puzzling choices. It was hard to tell why comics were displayed in the order chosen. The result is incoherent tone and blunt, repetitive messages.

What a shame. Comics are a whimsical medium. They are ideal for making new ideas palatable and easy to comprehend. It hurts my heart to see wonderful individual comics blanched to the same tone as a Twitter screed.