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Nate Powell

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Any Empire Kindle & comiXology

by Nate Powell (Author, Artist) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 29 ratings

Part of: Any Empire

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Nate Powell's follow-up to the Eisner winning Swallow Me Whole examines war and violence, and their trickledown effects on middle America. As a gang of small-town kids find themselves reunited in adulthood, their dark histories collide in a struggle for the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"At times poignant, at at others surreal, Any Empire is an engaging, never preachy work about childhood, centering on those secret currents that define our youthful rivalries and the games we play." -- MTV Geek

"The most prodigiously talented graphic novelist of his [generation] ... Powell's exceptional visual-storytelling gift transforms a potentially obvious antiwar parable into a ravishingly beautiful, emotionally resonant, thoughtful, and provocative work of art." -- Booklist (starred review)

"We've all experienced the world's endless cycle of innocence shattered, and Powell renders it all in lovely chiaroscuro... he crafts memorable and heartfelt characters that linger in the mind and scar the heart." -- Under the Radar

"[It] is everything a graphic novel should be, and few are. Spare, to the point dialog, fluid and effortless visual storytelling devoid of pretensions... I very rarely read graphic novels because I usually can't get past the first few pages. Any Empire drew me in from the start and didn't let up." -- Larry Hama, GI Joe

About the Author

Nate Powell (b. 1978, Little Rock AR) is the New York Times best-selling graphic novelist whose work includes The Year Of The Beasts (2012, Roaring Brook), The Silence Of Our Friends (2012, First Second), Any Empire (2011, Top Shelf), Swallow Me Whole (Eisner Award winner for Best Graphic Novel, Ignatz Award winner, Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist; 2008, Top Shelf), and Sounds Of Your Name (2006, Microcosm). He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009Z1NIUE
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Top Shelf Productions (August 31, 2011)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 31, 2011
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 190766 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 289 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,001,175 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #470 in Graphic Novel Biographies & Memoirs
- #1,154 in Literary Graphic Novels (Kindle Store)
- #1,656 in Art Book Graphic Novels

Customer Reviews:
4.2 29 ratings

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Nate Powell

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Nate Powell is a National Book Award-winning cartoonist who began self-publishing as an Arkansas teenager in 1992. His work includes SAVE IT FOR LATER, civil rights icon John Lewis’s MARCH trilogy, COME AGAIN, TWO DEAD, ANY EMPIRE, and SWALLOW ME WHOLE.

Powell’s work has received four Eisner Awards, two Ignatz Awards, the Comic-Con International Inkpot Award, multiple ALA and YALSA distinctions, and is a two-time finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has discussed his work at the United Nations, on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, PBS, and CNN.

Powell releases two new books in 2024: the graphic novel FALL THROUGH from Abrams ComicArts, and a comics adaptation of James Loewen’s influential LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME from The New Press.

He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

29 global ratings

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Wish

Beauty in Chaos...Surrealism as the Profound...

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2011

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I have never really felt the need to review a product, but I felt so strongly about this that I just couldn't pass it up. So I thought I could write a long, gushing praise for the author Nate Powell. His work has impacted my life since late youth until the present in more ways than one. Why force readers to drudge through such wordplay hogwash and rob them of the experience of his latest work, Any Empire (2011)? It's brilliance is of the profound fabric that comes rarely in this lifetime. We bitter cynics chew our nails yelling obscure obscenities at the chicken hawk Yankees whose colorful display emanates from our high definition Television screens while espousing some self-fulfilling, pocketbook profundities (Okay, okay - just once! Sorry!). Then something as simple as Nate's latest work lands in our laps and we are quiet, flipping through the pages in awe of such powerful imagery.

The visuals clash at many points and the text follows a less is more approach, constructing sentences carefully to not rob the images emphatic nature. The switch between time periods creates a paradox that only a surrealist like Dalrymple could pull off so eloquently, while providing to the overall meaning of the story. Perhaps most important is the nature of the book itself, which follows such an odd contradiction in the nature of man...to quote a slogan from the book itself, and its many cliche' overuses - "War is Hell".

That said, the story lends itself more to a visual display rather than that of text with some hidden agenda, or soapbox preaching. It is a powerful piece of surrealism that catches its reader unaware at many points. It doesn't shock you, anger you, outrage you...it does its best to confuse you....but mostly it captures nostalgia in a way that is so entertaining and knowledgeable that you can't help but give it your undivided attention. Perhaps those of us who grew up in the South feel a slightly closer connection. Truly anyone from a small town full of Americana-ideologies can relate. To give such a great piece of work a cursory glance would be to spit in the face of its constructor's finest intentions.

This is a story whose meaning is so poignant in today's troublesome political, militaristic climate that it is certainly a must read for any graphic novel fan. An amazing follow up to Swallow Me Whole (2008). While Nate Powell's work may be overshadowed by the parallel release of Thompson's latest dazzler, Habibi (2011), I do hope this comic doesn't go unnoticed.

The hardcover and binding, as well as the cover art, make this more than worth the 20.00$ USD price tag (not to mention the Amazon discount!) and I suggest this to anyone who is a fan of Farel Dalrymple, Craig Thompson, Jeffery Brown and many other contemporary cartoonists < I do not mean that in a demeaning fashion).

Winter's approaching, order this book (Support the artist and his big time publisher, ha), grab a blanket, and turn on whatever relaxes you while you dive into this must have!

7 people found this helpful

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Patrick Hurd

pertinent

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2015

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The visual told a story that dialogue wasn't needed to convey. And as a child of the '80's, the depiction of our ingestion and interpretation of post Vietnamese war violence in entertainment truly feels like a lesson unlearned. Well done.

One person found this helpful

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Anthony Franklin

Interestig but a bit flat

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2013

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I bought a used copy of this on the cheap because I had heard good things about Nate Powell's writing and I like finding good non-superhero graphic novels to add to my collection.

I think this is worth reading, but mostly because the art does tell quite a story. Nate certainly has a talent for executing a storyline and character's narratives through art alone. My problem is the story itself is a bit disjointed. His somber but nostalgic look at the character's childhoods sets an interesting tone, but the underlying commentary about violence and coming-of-age pitfalls associated with it are not enough to make these character's interesting, especially the antagonist I'll just refer to as The Bully. It falls a bit flat.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed it overall even though I was not wowed by it. The artwork, and storytelling through the artwork alone is worth picking up a used copy. As far as the story and the payoff, that is very subjective and your mileage might vary from mine.

3 people found this helpful

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Words, Images, & Worlds

A Must-Have for Comic Book Lovers

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2017

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Beautiful and amazing artwork, even though its in black and white...plus an amazing story...make this a must-have for any lover of comics and graphic novels.

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Deer In The Xenon-Arc Lights

"...and you'll hear this too much, but you should know it well: War is Hell."

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2012

(Originally Posted at deerinthexenonarclights. com/any-empire )

Any analysis of Any Empire begins at an instant disadvantage, no matter how manically you proclaim that "It's an anti-war book and bloody good to boot!" the readers reaction will always be to yawn, already bored by the now pedestrian political premise. "War is Hell," they'll say, "I get it. How 'bout you tell me something that I don't already know?" The real trick to this tome's success though is that it does just that; hammering home the fact that while war is figuratively hell, literally it is entirely of this plane, an act of and involving people just like you and me. Instead of focusing on the fear and failures of the battlefield like all the tales that have made the position such a familiar one do ( Actual war doesn't even show itself until a few hundred pages in, and even then it is only a snippet in the story) , it takes us to the genesis of violence and conflict, the gensis of war's people - it's soldiers, politicians and civillian casualties - childhood.

We are constantly informed of how influential our childhood is on us, the way it warps and changes our cores into what they are today and it is that process that is at the core of this comic. Where we live, which books we read, the movies we watch, who we hang out with and what we do with them are all seemingly small decisions in the grand scheme of things but it is these external elements that determine exactly what kind of people we are on the inside today. These small town boys read G.I. Joe, watch Platoon and then go out into the fields to play Army or torture turtles and so it is not surprising that some of them develop into soldiers, while the book-smart girl who seek to save and care for the turtles and other creatures turn into a social worker; all the while our protagonist and prism of perspective is stuck in the middle, torn between the two conflicting sides like a civillian in the midst of a so-called civil war.

It is jsut that though, a book and not an essay or stump speech, and so it conveys all of this through the telling of a story. In this way Powell's depiction of childhood is perfect; despite all that potent cerebrality I just spouted about the world that he creates feels entirely natural and without contrivance, it's real childhood captured on the page of a comic. The conversations, the imagination, the emptyness all ring true but it is the much smaller details that make the story sing; the way that you are friends with people that you have to hang out with rather than those that you want to hang out with, because they are all you know, because it's better than being alone. The violence that drives the story is shocking but also innately innocent, there is almost no malice behind it; this is just what boys do, it's in their nature not to respect other lives because no-one ever really respects theirs. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that it is occuring in such a small town; a place where life is just that simple, that black and white.

Speaking of binary palettes, the art in this book - which is also by Powell - is incredibly interesting. The sparseness of the black and white, predominantly full page panels, is shocking to see and initiallly makes reading the book a little too difficult; following the flow of motion is tricky thanks to the common, unheralded narrative jumps and lack of traditional structure. Once you seep into the style fully though you really start to feel just why it is Powell has chosen to picture in this way; the greyscale on display here is ultimately akin to that in great films like The Last Picture Show, in that the town and the life of its people is simple, sparse and colourless so drawing it any other way would be false. The writing takes a similair approach in its style: the dialogue is rare and when we are actually given some, feather light. It's not empty, it's just that these people speak around what they actually mean, saying one thing while their actions suggest another. Neither of these are approaches that I, a fan of scripts and super high concepts, usually like but here they are handled impeccably, reminding yous just why people implement them in the first place.

Funnily then the final part of the book, in which we the reality of the future breaks down allowing the characters to cross paths with every iteration of each other in the midst of a massive conflict, is actually my least favourite, though the images are stunning and what they say so very important. The flashes in this final chapter elucidate my earlier point in a simple, but tragically effective way; simply showing us how small changes in the choices made back then - art instead of anarchy, the tipping over of a box in the wind - could so drastically change everything ten years down the track. We so often forget about where the war came from and focus only on the current conflict, which means that we are missing the most important lesson, something that this book strives to adress. It also hammers home the grand message that each and every soldier in each and every army, past and present is a Purdy and thus a person in a sublime aping of 'The Evolution of Man'. All amazing points that are breathtakingly depicted, but it is the little things that most effected me and will stay in my mind much longer, like the passing of notes and the holding of hands. Maybe i'm just a child? Either way this is a very mature, masterful piece of literature that every reader should rush out and buy, even those who think that they know everything there is about war.

5 people found this helpful

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SPDMSW

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2014

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Awesome story and very high quality publishing from top shelf. Nate Powell is simply awesome with his story telling!!!

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