Graphic Novel / Picture Book Review: Club Microbe by Elise Gravel

Posted on April 11, 2024 at 6:22 am by Gene Ambaum

Club Microbe by Elise Gravel. Drawn & Quarterly, 2024. 9781770467026. 56pp.

Every book of Gravel’s feels like a party, and this one celebrates microbes by showcasing facts about them and how fun they are to draw. My favorite illustration is the one about useful germs that live in our intestines, which features a toothy grin and a fart. I loved Gravel’s enthusiasm for bacteriophages, prochlorococcus (“We’re superheroes!”), hand washing, and cool Latin names. The book swept me along and made me want to draw.

If you’ve never heard Gravel’s name, you may recognize her art from the USPS’s Message Monsters postage stamps. https://www.painted-words.com/2020/11/elise-gravels-message-monsters-are-among-the-u-s-postal-services-new-stamps-for-2021/

And if her drawings in this book leave you wanting more, check out The Mushroom Fan Club, If Found… Please Return to Elise Gravel (her sketchbook), and my favorite of her books, The Great Antonio.