The translation felt off in this comic and the ending felt rushed and explained nothing. The art was the only thing that salvaged this.

OMG what the heck? What was UP with the ending to this? It explained NOTHING, resolved NOTHING and made no sense whatsoever! Sometimes I wonder about some of the Europe Comics, if maybe they just have terrible translators or they are just this bad in their original languages!

The graphic novel "The Danes" is a piece of speculative fiction. It is mainly set in Copenhagen, Denmark, with mention of similar events happening in other Western European nations. The plot starts off with a young black, Muslim immigrant giving birth to a blond, blue-eyed baby girl. To protect her from her husband's family's wrath, the social worker from the hospital conducts a paternity test, and to the family's dismay the baby is, in fact, his. This seems to be the case with many babies born across Denmark and other European countries, and with racial, cultural, and political tensions raising because of it, this quickly becomes an issue in the European Union and a lot specialists become involved.

The premise of this graphic novel, along with its beautiful cover, is what drew me to it. It is very short ( about 100 pages) and action packed, and it held my attention enough to finish it in one sitting. The art was also very nice, which is always a plus for a graphic novel. So then why only 3 stars?

The problem with this graphic novel, in my opinion, is that it tries to convey too much in not enough pages. There are a lot of characters who play an important part in the story, but we don't get to spend enough time with them to get to know them and get to care about them. There are a lot of social issues themes that are very relevant to the world today, like refugees coming to the EU, cultural identity versus assimilation to the European culture, the pharmaceutical companies and the run for money over the well being of the people, and so many more, but neither receive enough attention. I think this would have packed a much heavier punch would it have been a series, where each story line received its own issue and got more in depth dialogue around these themes.

Despite all this though, I really enjoyed it and it definitely left some food for thought. It's a quick read with a good message ~ one that the world today may benefit from hearing.

I love the idea of this book. I love the pacing because it reads like a thriller in graphic novel form. However, race is such a delicate issue that I feel the execution of the message was lacking a bit.

Very interesting concept! This will appeal to readers interested in sci-fi, immigration, racial tension, and vaccination. I would love to see a second installment.

This wasn't what I expected it to be at first, however I did not like the overall pacing and the story did not latch on to me that much. Overall it was a satisfying read but wasn't fit to my taste

An interesting premise that becomes bogged down in an overthought multilayered sci-fi cliche run.

The opening idea presented here is unique and could have made for a good look at how we view race and religion across Europe. Instead, this ends up being a bit of a confused and directionless mess.

I thought this would be interesting in the beginning but I quickly lost passion in this book and felt that it would be better for a different reader.

This was an interesting read. The cover really had me intrigued. I think this graphic novel would be great for group discussions. This near science fiction conspiracy will defiantly have you asking questions. I also thought the content of the book was something that could really happen in the world we live in today.

The premise of this graphic novel may seem fantastical, but the appeal is in the realism of both the pictures and the plot. After all, mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus can infect pregnant women causing their babies to be born with the birth defect microcephaly. The drug Thalidomade, touted to ease morning sickness in pregnant women resulted in more than 10,000 babies worldwide to be born with malformations, bone hypo plasticity and congenital defects before it was pulled off the shelves in the early 1960s.

It is not far fetched, then, to imagine a world where a retrovirus in pregnant women might produce blond, blue eyed babies even when parents are ethnically different. It is also not far fetched to imagine that the outward appearance, rather than the paternity test markers would cause ethnic unrest, disbelief, racism and chaos. Nor is it implausible that the pharmaceutical companies would race to try and create a vaccine for such retrovirus.

This story does a realistic job of imagining such a scenario, clearly playing out the stakeholders and balancing the unrest and corruption with a human story of love and family.

Ironically, I had a job working in South Africa in 2014 and I rented a movie to watch in the B&B called Skin which told the true story of an Afrikaans (Dutch that settled in South Africa) girl born in South Africa in 1955 to two white Afrikaners. Sandra, the daughter looked coloured, or part black, but genetically she was the product of these two white parents. How ironic that this true story and this made story are both about the Dutch. To be fair, though, Sandra Laine is a product of a genetic case of atavism, which basically is that a gene from a very distant ancestral traits resurfaces after generations. I feel like Skin predicts the kind of life that Sorraya and Ibraham's baby will go through if this story were also a memoir.

The Danes was really interesting and kept my attention through the entirety of the story. I would definitely recommend it to my customers!

Very interesting and thought provoking, had me in tears several times the characters where we'll fleshed and believable.

art - 2,5
plot - 1

This book piss me off. Even with the best of intentions, if that, I don't think it was treated as intended or more probably it was bad elaborated since the beginning. I am a gut-feeling ranking-based reviewer, so this is what I feel. Even when the book wanted to deliver a message of unity and blah, it totally failed of its objective.

The plot? It start with a black muslim woman giving birth a blond blue-eyed baby. (Yeah, seems like a soap opera once I watch at tv). Infidelity is not the case, because DNA test said soAnd more and more blond blue-eyed babies are birthed to different race families, like a epidemy. Infidelities cries are shouted and violence explode among inmigrants.
If this is really a virus, a disease, who started it, why, and how can be contained it?There is no clear answer in the novel.

We follow two women with their babies, and a troupe of journalists, and some pharmaceuticals, and a runaway biologist.

Sadly it was not even Village of the Damned.

This could be a good thriller. It was not. Motives and characters fumbled by the book with unclear motives, and often confusing more the reader.

Star Trek made it better with the half-blue guys. Hell, Gulliver was more subtle with the egg thing.

I don't buy the color-race thing. We comment about this every time we gather, having a lot of teachers in the family. Humans don't need an excuse, the children are cruel to each other over the most stupid things: the way they laugh, they sit, they jump, dance, cry, shout, whistle, talk, writte or pay atention. It not just a physical thing. I often hear people bad mouthing people 'race' and it is really a country thing even when phenotypically are the same.

In another hand a reviewer commented about another issue that I agree - it rub the wrong way that all the people tryng to solve or prevent the violence are white blondish male guys, and the violence come from 'foreigners'.

I think the film Il a déjà tes yeux made a much better work of this racist theme. I love the final poster in the adoptive agency.


---------------------------------------------

Este libro me cargó. Incluso con las mejores intenciones, si es que ese fue el caso, no creo que se haya tratado el tema como se pretendía o, más probablemente, haya sido mal elaborado desde el principio. Soy un crítico basado en la clasificación intuitiva, así que esto es lo que siento. Incluso cuando el libro quería entregar un mensaje de unidad y bla, falló totalmente su objetivo.

¿La trama? Comienza con una mujer musulmana negra dando a luz a un bebé rubio de ojos azules. (Sí, parece una telenovela que una vez vi en la televisión). La infidelidad no es el caso, porque la prueba de ADN así lo dice. Y cada vez nacen más y más bebés de ojos azules y rubios para diferentes familias de otras razas, como una epidemia. Hay gritos de infidelidades y estalla la violencia entre los inmigrantes.Si esto es realmente un virus, una enfermedad, ¿quién lo comenzó, por qué y cómo puede contenerlo?
Cosas que nunca responde la novela.Seguimos a dos mujeres con sus bebés, una troupe de periodistas y algunos productos farmacéuticos y un biólogo fugitivo.

Tristemente, ni siquiera es Village of the Damned.Esto podría haber sido un buen thriller. No lo fue.. Los motivos y los personajes pasan a tientas por el libro con motivos poco claros y, a menudo, confunden más al lector.Star Trek lo hizo mejor con los tipos medio azules. Cielos, Gulliver fue más sutil con lo del huevo.

No compro lo de la raza por color. Comentamos sobre esto cada vez que nos reunimos, por tener muchos maestros en la familia. Los humanos no necesitan una excusa, los niños son crueles entre sí por las cosas más estúpidas: la forma en que ríen, se sientan, saltan, bailan, lloran, gritan, silban, hablan, escriben o prestan atención. No es solo una cosa física. A menudo escucho a la gente hablar mal de la 'raza' de la gente y es realmente una cosa del país, incluso cuando fenotípicamente son lo iguales.Por otro lado, otro reseñador comentó sobre otro tema que estoy de acuerdo: me causa mucha irritación que todas las personas que intentan resolver o prevenir la violencia son hombres blancos y rubios, y que la violencia proviene de "extranjeros".

Creo que la película Il a déjà tes yeux ("Él ya tiene tus ojos", Francia, 2016)hizo un trabajo mucho mejor de este tema racista. Me encanta el póster final de la agencia de adopción.

A socially-minded thriller, but one that doesn't quite hit enough nails on the head, and fails to give the relevant answers when needed. In Copenhagen people of colour are suddenly finding their children to be too Caucasian for their tastes, so do the obvious thing – take to the streets and riot. They riot about a conspiracy of Europeans to bleach immigrant culture (not proven), they riot because they can't go back home to protect their identity (which seemed to be a bit sudden to my mind, as if these children were instantly malleable teenagers and not babes-in-arms who should not face such influence anyway), and they riot, just because… The engine of the plot is the necessary search for patient zero in the case, for this is proven to be a virus and Big Pharma might get a vaccine to stop the bleaching effect.

The book is a bit too much of a melange – it tries to have high drama, and it tries to have heart, with a sappy romance between the guy that found the virus' potential in the first place and one of its early 'victims'. It tries to point out anti-white racism, but fails to get the target fully in sights. Several times the script feels as if we have jumped a page, and lost some telling detail. And as for comments about ''that ending'' – well, it's just one more aspect of the book that could have been hit home a lot more effectively (especially as I had to read the key scene twice to work out what the point being made was). All in all, a concerted effort to get important themes onto the page, but not a completely successful effort. Three and a half stars, to be generous.

A very interesting graphic novel. The art style is alright and the story line is interesting. Not quite a fit for our library, but I'll recommend it to certain patrons.

After reading "The Danes" I was struck with the feeling that a virus could be something that could be viable in the future. I don't think it could control everything that it intended to do. I think that it would have people rioting in the streets if it were possible. Clarke set up his story so that all the people in it found out what it means to have their ethnicity changed. It's a story of fiction and I hope it stays that way. I think Clarke was very good at Illustrating his ideas and put a thought provoking story together which will make people think of their biases.

'The Danes' with art and story by Clarke tells an interesting story about race and genetics and does it in a somewhat thriller based way.

When a very blonde baby is born to a Muslim immigrant family living in Copenhagen, it creates a stir amongst the married couple, but it's proven that she is faithful to her husband. When it starts happening on a wider and wider basis, it creates a crisis. The immunologists and geneticists label the weird outbreak 'the Danes.' A reporter tries to uncover the larger plot which ties in a young unemployed man and a pharmaceutical company. Could this be a racist plot?

I liked this story of race and the lengths that some will go to remove race. The story takes place now, and I liked the ending. The art is also good. This was a thought-provoking read.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.