“Alfred’s charming, emotional color art captures wonderfully Ollie’s youthful joy and psychological turmoil. Sensitive. Recommended for older teens and up.”

So says Library Journal of Why I Killed Peter about the author’s experience with abuse at the hands of an otherwise cool priest.

This only adds to the great press this book had gotten, including The Onion, a starred review from Publishers Weekly, the Miami Herald and many prominent websites.

It should be noted there is little in this book that could prove visually offensive.

The latest issue of Comics Buyers Guide makes Why I  Killed Peter a pick of the month, gives it a full 4 stars and calls it “One of the best autobiographical graphic novels. In fact, it may actually be the best.”

If you haven’t checked this out yet, it’s a very sensitive rendering of a fairly shocking experience.

“If there is a healing process, this unforgettable graphic reminiscence is surely its catalyst. Collaborator Alfred evocatively illuminates Ka’s memoir of childhood innocence and grown-up pain. Special mention must be made of his extraordinary use of color and photography as magical elements to convey the emotional ambiguity and banality of evil.”

So said Richard Pachter of the Miami Herald on Tuesday of Why I Killed Peter.

CBR adds its rave for this book:

“This is an excellent work.

Recommended.”

Reviews for this book are rolling in at quite a clip!

“Highly successful both as literature and visual art, this is a book to recommend to abuse survivors as well as readers who appreciate exploring life’s difficult realities.”

Booklist

“touching story of trust and betrayal.”

Litmob

“It’s a strong and important book, and above all, yet another testament to the power of this medium.”

Daily CrossHatch

From Terry:

We’ve just shipped a book I fell in love with.

Oh, it’s hard love, ’cause it’s about a thorny issue but it’s done so sensitively and the art rendered so beautifully in simple comic form, I just thought we have to see this in the States.

“Why I Killed Peter”, by Alfred and Olivier Ka, is an autobiographical book where the writer (Ka) had a mentor, a role model, a man he looked up to fondly, a priest. A very liberal priest who did not proselytize. Then, one day, he asked something of the kid that was improper. We’ve seen the news, a lot of this happening in many churches here. Well here’s the living of it.

BUT, before you go “Oh, God, I can’t read that”, what’s remarkable about this book is how the author does NOT get up on a soap box, or beat his breast looking for your pity or especially excoriate the priest as total evil. As a kid, the incident did not happen again, he continued to look up to him and continued to go to his summer camp for years. It’s absolutely remarkable that we can actually almost understand the priest’s point of view as ill-advised as it was.

However as he grew up the resentment and anger built up in him and he finally after many years gathers the courage to visit him with his friend, the artist (Alfred) of this graphic novel, and confront him, only to find a shriveled old little man crushed by his anger.

It’s just incredibly insightful and remarkably carried off. Another book NBM and its ComicsLit imprint likes to publish that moves this artform we all love forward. See the book here.

Hey, when you read it come back here and tell me what you think!