Review of the Day: The Professor’s Daughter (Part Two)

I’d not seen Guibert’s art before, but after reading this book I feel I should seek him out. For example, I enjoyed how the colors in this book shift at the most interesting moments. At first, everything is all brown sepia. As if we’re watching a photograph from the time period brought startlingly to life. It’s only when Imhotep has his first dream that colors begin to seep in. A series of blue panels comes first. Later, when mummy and maid escape to the sea, the palette is all midnight greens. Then, as the book goes on, colors mix and meld more and more. A sepia scene on the ocean features a bright blue pea coat. A hospitalized mummy in blue pajamas gets red roses from a friend. By the very last panels, all the colors come into play. It’s as if watching the history of Lillian and Imhotep has gone from the distant past to the present through the use of color alone. Most clever.