Trial and Error: The Aviated Efforts of Jean Babtiste de Bomberaque

Øivind Hovland is a Norwegian artist who has earned a living illustrating book covers and magazine articles.  Obviously with ambitions to create something of his own he has produced his first two books, released by Tabella Publishing. 
 
Trial and Error: The Aviated Efforts of Jean Babtiste de Bomberaque, his debut work, is a wonderfully whimsical look at aviation in all its forms seen through the eyes of an ambitious (and fictional) Frenchman who, since he was a young boy, has been dreaming of powered flight.  In the 32 pages we see his various disastrous attempts via balloon and airplane. 
 
Knowing full well that the Wright Brothers got there first and that Jean Babtiste de Bomberaque doesn't exist doesn't stop this from being a funny and involving experience that is mainly to do with the wonderful illustrations rather than the minimal text which appears as writing on Jean Babtiste's sketches.  It's the sort of book that you read through and then turn immediately back to the beginning just to soak up the beautiful chiaroscuro illustrations.  I did exactly the same thing with 300 which I read and then revisited for no other reason than to marvel at the artwork by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. 
 
This is the sort of book you will find yourself buying several times as you will lend it to a friend and then forget and want to look at it again , or it could become a semi-permanent fixture on your coffee table as you can pick it  up and read it in the space of a commercial break.  I thought it was a fantastic book, a graphic novel with the emphasis on graphic. It's charming and endearing and I feel like picking it up again!