Reviews

Leaving Richard's Valley by Michael DeForge

rowanine's review

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

izzy_my's review

5.0

I think this is my favourite DeForge book so far.

mereduck's review

5.0

Neville-identifying, for better or for worse.

I loved Richard's Valley, and damn it Toronto you're breaking my heart here!

alayahjw's review

challenging reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i just am endlessly intrigued with what michael deforge has to say with his work.

maddiekl's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

jenny_d's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I don't really know how to feel about this book. It kind of feels like it dances around some profound message or something but never quite says it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Emotional abuse

ro_reads's review

dark funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

zorpblorp's review

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

oliviachap9's review

adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

ohmanbleh's review

3.0

Read this straight through in one sitting, and enjoyed it. A rag-tag group of people & animals move in & out of association with Richard, a charismatic leader who leads a cult in a Toronto public park. Everyone is trying to understand where they belong, who their friends are, and what it means to be at home. It’s very funny, and I laughed out loud at the art pretty regularly. I loved the heart-shaped raccoons, the hand-shaped spiders, & the shifting, psychedelic backgrounds of sticks, rocks & trash.

All that being said, it’s a bit twee. If you hate Wes Anderson films, I’d guess this might not be for you. For instance, a snake named Mark falls in love with a pile of rocks, then founds a cult known as the “Marksists”. When a spider sits on squirrel’s head, the two become a famous pop star. A frog steals everyone’s snow shovels and starts a black-market snow shovel business. I like this kind of thing, but by the end even I was ready for more plot/character.

I think this is more a symptom of my biggest complaint about Leaving Richard’s Valley: you can tell it was compiled from Instagram posts. Often, the pages are one-off jokes that probably made a great Instagram update but fall flat in book format. There’s also none of the creativity in layout/structure that I usually enjoy in comics - by necessity, all the compositions are either 4-panel squares or 1-panel squares. The pacing (for scene, dialog, everything) is generally broken up page-by-page.