…and the Blood Flowed Green

Marion ‘Mick’ Mulligan is a failed sci-fi author who dreams of escaping his humdrum life. When he is kicked out by his girlfriend, he spends the night on a park bench, where dreams become nightmares as he is abducted by extraterrestrials and abandoned on a lawless frontier planet. Together with his alien pals, Mulligan successfully leads a jailbreak, but the only way back to earth is via other planets, each one more uniquely dangerous  than the last.

Part of the new Murder Can Be Fatal series by author-illustrator Alan Nolan, this graphic novel is irreverently off-beat. The book courses with a grim, deadpan humour which contrasts the fantastical images of life on other planets. You can take a man out of Ireland, but even out on Azur, the only planet in the galaxy to be made of almost entirely of water, you can’t take Ireland out of the man. ‘Holy Mother Molly! Just like high summer in Dublin City!’ exclaims Mulligan, stepping off the spaceship into a vast ocean.  Reluctant readers may appreciate the graphic novel format, but this book offers much to enjoy for a wide range of readers, and their parents.