The Bookbinder’s Slaughter
Creative Team
writer/illustrator: KEENAN POLONCSAK
The Bookbinder's Slaughter is a hauntingly dark tale of madness, traditionalism, and the pernicious effects of religious zealotry. There is a lot to unpack here, so let's break it down.
The Bookbinder's Slaughter features a rather minimalistic graphical style. Drawn and inked entirely in black and white, the panels are far removed from the flashy stylistic choices of the Marvel superhero books. Rather, what Keenan Poloncsak has created is a relatively short (just 30-odd pages) and introspective tale involving just two characters, with elements of horror, mostly at the story's conclusion. One thing to highlight is that the entire lettering is done in cursive. While it wonderfully fits in with the book's style and story, some readers might find it off-putting. It’s not often that a comic book is written in this form.
In keeping with the minimalist style, The Bookbinder's Slaughter’s story takes place almost entirely in a bookbinding workshop.This is a wise choice, as such a confined setting keeps the story tight and focused. The story moves nicely along towards its surprising conclusion.
The creator of this tale is Keenan Poloncsak, an extremely talented, self-made man who, after working as an apprentice at a bookbinding shop (Le Relieur des Faubourgs) in Montreal, eventually took over the business from its previous owner, Laura Shevchenko, to whom The Bookbinder's Slaughter is dedicated. Poloncsak draws, writes, and even binds his own books from such a quaint corner of the city.
Poloncsak’s creation takes the reader on a dark journey. While it is hard to classify The Bookbinder's Slaughter as pure 'horror', the book does contain violence, scenes of death, and implied mutilation of the human body, so beware of these themes, as they may act as triggers. The twist ending in particular may shock some readers because of its implied violence, leaving the readers’ imaginations teetering between a small-scale story and a horror tale, and perhaps prompting them to see what they’ve just read through an entirely different prism. This is one of the book’s greatest achievements.
The Bookbinder's Slaughter falls squarely outside the mainstream graphic novel market, but then again, the author likely never created this story with a mainstream audience in mind. As the French would say, The Bookbinder's Slaughter certainly has that je ne sais quoi, that undefinable quality that makes it stand out amongst the crowd.
The unusual lettering style, the prominence of a centuries-old, quasi-niche practice -along with related terminology-, combined with the horror elements, make The Bookbinder's Slaughter a one-of-a-kind piece of comic book art that discerning readers will remember for all the right reasons. The book made me think of Umberto Eco’s classic novel The Name of The Rose, which features a similar blend of traditionalism, religious obsession, and horror, all in a single, darkly quaint location.
