{"id":32604,"date":"2025-04-11T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T08:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32604"},"modified":"2025-04-10T16:35:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T16:35:49","slug":"john-muir-to-the-heart-of-solitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/04\/11\/john-muir-to-the-heart-of-solitude\/","title":{"rendered":"John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Lomig<\/strong>, translated by Christopher Pope<\/strong> (NBM)
\nISBN: 978-1-68112-352-3 (Album HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-352-353-0<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for dramatic effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t get nearly enough access to philosophy or big thinkers in comics, but whenever some creator does set out to explore and address deeper issues or formative moments in human culture, the results are more often than not splendidly successful.<\/p>\n

Self-schooled author, cartoonist and illustrator Lomig (Le cas Fodyl<\/em><\/strong>, Dans la for\u00eat<\/em><\/strong>) cut his teeth on edgy, Speculative Fiction graphic novels exploring the declining relationship between humanity and its environment, and here turns his questioning gaze on one of the USA\u2019s greatest naturalists: a man who literally changed the way the nation thought about its lands and populations – human and otherwise.<\/p>\n

Here in the form of a bucolic memoir via the explorer\u2019s own words and stunning sepia toned line drawing, Lomig traces Muir\u2019s 1000 mile walk in the woods. It began in September 1867, and on it he collected plant samples, made drawings and recorded the variety of life – plant and otherwise – all the way from Indiana to Florida (and even Cuba). The genesis of the jump from unhappy 29-year-old carpenter to inspired naturalist was almost losing his sight in an accident at a lumber mill.
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\nDuring his long and dreary convalescence – six months in a darkened room under the care of the remarkable Catharine Merrill: educator, Civil War nurse\/physician, cofounder of Indianapolis Home for Friendless Women and the second ever female university professor in the United States – Muir had a revelation. He decided that the rest of his life would benefit humanity by understanding nature…<\/p>\n

The long, eventful but astoundlingly non-thtreatening trek ends with Muir finding his promised land in the wild of Yosimte and experiencing another mind-expanding vision of revelation…
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\nBorn in Dunbar, Scotland on April 21st<\/sup> 1838, \u201cJohn of the Mountains\u201d was 11 when his father moved the whole family of nine to Wisconsin. From ealrly on, Muir was a prolific and inspired inventor, earning many patents and attending college unhappily before taking up the family business as a woodworker. The accdent that ended that period of his life led to not just the epic trek detailed here, but also a life of pioneering efforts to preserve America\u2019s wild places. The naturalist, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, geologist and glaciologist advocated tirelessly, using skilled argument, charismatic example, books and articles and by creating in San Francisco in 1892 grass roots movement turned activism focal point The Sierra Club.<\/p>\n

He also had no truck with war mongers or racists and truly lived his life hoping everyone would just get along with each other. He died on December 24, 1914 and John Muir Day is celebrated on his birthday in California and Scotland as well as many other places..<\/p>\n

This beautiful and lavish commemoration is filled with appreciation and wonder for Muir\u2019s life, lifestyle and achievements, and it\u2019s truly terrifying to consider that all the great works of Muir\u00a0 and his many converts could be so easily undone by a bunch of greedy jerks with mean hearts, stupid policies, orange bottle tans and big black Sharpies…<\/p>\n

This lavish, deliciously oversized (280 x 216 mm) sepia-toned hardback is not a history or biography text. You won\u2019t learn much about Muir\u2019s formative experiences in Scotland or time at the Unversity of Wisconsin, but the comprehensive essay and appreciation at the back does cover that in detail, copiously adorned with a wealth of photograpic, drawn and found images from his notebooks. The biography comes from archivist and scholar MikeWurtz – Director of the Holt Atherton Special Collections and Archives\/Library of the University of the Pacific at Stockton, California – filling some gaps whilst clarifying the first American naturalist\u2019s place in history and legacy for the modern world.
\n\u00a9 Sarbacane, Paris 2023 published in arrangement with Sylvain Coissard Agency. \u00a9 2025 NBM for the English translation.<\/p>\n

John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude <\/strong>will be published on April 15th<\/sup> 2025 and is available for pre-order now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lomig, translated by Christopher Pope (NBM) ISBN: 978-1-68112-352-3 (Album HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-352-353-0 This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. We don\u2019t get nearly enough access to philosophy or big thinkers in comics, but whenever some creator does set out to explore and address deeper issues or formative moments in human culture, the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115,255,122,216,170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-environmentalism","category-historical","category-lifestyle","category-non-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8tS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32608,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32604\/revisions\/32608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}