Red

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a visual artist, storyteller and public speaker. Born and raised on the north Pacific islands of Haida Gwaii, he melds his cultural and political experiences as an indigenous person with contemporary graphic literature to produce a unique genre called Haida Manga. His work has been enthusiastically received internationally and is published in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Spain, the United States and Canada (English and French). His books include Flight of the Hummingbird, A Tale of Two Shamans and Hachidori, a bestseller in Japan. He lives in Canada with his wife and daughter, close to the Two Sisters mountains on an island in the Salish Sea.

Referencing a classic Haida oral narrative, this spectacular full-color graphic novel blends traditional Haida imagery with Japanese manga to tell the powerful story of Red, an orphaned leader so blinded by revenge that he leads his community to the brink of war and destruction. When raiders attack his village, young Red escapes dramatically. But his sister Jaada is whisked away. The loss of Jaada breeds a seething anger, and Red sets out to find his sister and exact revenge on her captors. Tragic and timeless, Red's story is reminiscent of such classic tales as Oedipus Rex, Macbeth, and King Lear. Not only an affecting story, Red is an innovation in contemporary storytelling from the creator of Haida Manga and the author of Flight of the Hummingbird; it consists of 108 pages of hand-painted illustrations, and when arranged the panels create a Haida formline image 13 feet long. A miniature version of the panel in full-color is on the inside jacket.