I really love the writer and artist Gerald Brohm. A terrific author who manages to always win my no reads and no reads has become my serious problem in recent years... I can't recommend him to everyone, but if you, friends, like dark stories and stories in which most of the characters can be understood, there is no straightforward division into black and white, then you should like Brom's stories. I really love his worlds. He unfortunately doesn't have many books...like 5 and one art book - but what books they are! I've read 3 of them and I'm currently reading the fourth and not one book has disappointed me yet... I would even draw fan art for Lost Gods - I have plans)
What I like about Brom's books is that going down into darkness he doesn't lose the light, and even in Purgatory he finds room for real humanity and not sugar-coated but genuine kindness. I like his relationship to children, which is a leitmotif through all the books, I like his understanding of the place of the adult in the life of a child in general and the mother in particular, I like his absolutely alive and stunning mythical creatures - both ancient forgotten gods, demons, and animals from other worlds. And the plots... The interest never wanes and you never know how the story will turn out... And the ending at least in the books I've read is very strong...
I also got my friend Anya Schneider hooked on Brom and we even had a tradition of giving each other Brom's books as gifts. How many hours she and I discussed books and the author himself!
Well, Gerald Brom is first of all an artist, he has very cool drawings, and as a consequence he also illustrated his books with absolutely stunning works! And he even published two books as graphic novels, even though they're not the graphic novels that we're used to - as comics, no they're just beautifully illustrated books - the reading of which turns into a ritual, because they're big - A4 size and besides the full text on every page there are beautiful detailed pictures... And in spite of the fact that these books tell rather dark stories, though they are filled with true courage, loyalty, love and bravery - these books give you that forgotten feeling of reading high-quality books with illustrations from your childhood, when you turn the pages, read the text and look at the picture with a sinking heart, finding interesting details... that complete the story.
As I said before I can't recommend Brom's stories, they are rather dark stories with a lot of violent scenes... and not everyone will like them... But if that doesn't scare you, try reading it - it's worth it) I'd recommend starting with the book "The Child Snatcher" - it's a kind of re-imagining of the Peter Pan story.
Anya and I were hesitant about it for a long time, but nonetheless we worked up the courage and wrote to Brom on Instagram - we just wanted to thank the author.)
He even replied to us - let it be smiley faces, but it was in his style, and Anya and I rejoiced like two children))
Our letter to Brom:
We want to thank you so much and to say how much we admire your wonderful stories. We thoroughly enjoyed reading your books and are constantly "distracted" by the pictures, because everything in your books is so gorgeous - both the text and the pictures, that it really takes our breath away. Thank you for your worlds and for opening them up to us readers. Your stories are real, deep, intelligent, subtle and elegant, written with great love and attention to people and especially - to children. Thank you especially for loving children so much and treating them with such incredible care, kindness and respect. Thank you for your works and your kindness - real and sincere, which fits through all your works as the main motif. For us, you are an example of how real, great stories can and should be created.
Guys, if any of you have read Gerald Brohm's books - share your impressions in the comments to the post)