2 out of 5

Boiled down to its primary story, Anno Domini 1000 tells of a young girl – Brunehilde, a wolfcharmer – who is investigating a child serial killer at the turn of the century. Sweet! Brune gets on the case as her beloved wolves are often being blamed; in tune with how they kill – and that they often wouldn’t kill in quite the gruesome and seemingly unprovoked way that the bodies display / suggest – she maintains they cannot be the culprits, and sets out to find the truth.

In the backmatter of the book, writer / artist Thomas Gilbert provides an agenda for the graphic novel, that’s apparently been a theme through his other books as well: looking at injustice, and systems that prey upon the weak.

The story is told, and the theme is very much there, but the combined application becomes a bit wayward. Part of this is Gilbert’s visual language: while his loose figurework very much appeals – reminding of a tighter Edward Campbell, with a thinner “European” line and some choice detailing of the Andrew McLean school – the storytelling is neither cinematic or comic book, flipping perspectives (and scale) inconsistently and confusingly for the pacing / tone of scenes, and assuming focuses which are hard to discern given the relatively flat look of his art, plus a muddy range of colors. Pages can be very interesting and sometimes awesome to look at – especially when things step into the surreal, detailing visions characters are seeing – but as a sequence, it is rather ineffective, adding complexity when the story seems to be pretty linear.

I stress “seems” there because that’s more in reference to the plot; Gilbert’s pacing is pretty odd as well, not really establishing a personality or m.o. for Brunehilde, with the former saved for a reveal towards the end which fits with Thomas’ theme but, as told, doesn’t add much to the story, and as to the former – we know of the killings from the start, but the book doesn’t really resolve into a hunt for the killer until it’s already in motion, as though that structure had been made clear already. Other characters are also introduced very oddly, with an odd couple pairing for Brune played off as rather unimportant, until, apparently, he’s really important. Some of this, of course, could be attributed to the translation not capturing some nuance, but that’s why I mention the visual storytelling / pacing as well – that should carry over, regardless.

As to the theme, while it’s easy to suss it out even without the afterword, it’s hard to say what our takeaway is when combined with the story. One is tied to the other, but it’s… tangential in a way. Well-intentioned, but unevenly affected.

These minuses make for a slow read, but once you’ve gone through it, it’s easier on a second pass, with less story expectations, and kind of absorbing the tale as more of an impressionistic one.