I was provided an e-arc from netgalley to read and review

I unfortunately missed the opportunity to read

Thank you to Europe Comics for making available a digital edition of ‘Cigarettes: a filterless report’ written by Pierre Boisserie with art by Stéphane Brangier in exchange for an honest review. It was translated from the French by Tom Imber and published on 12th June.

This highly informative work of investigative nonfiction utilises the graphic novel format to deliver a powerful and compelling message about the tobacco industry. Boisserie uses satire and dark humour very effectively. His narrator, Mr. Nico, appears to be on the side of the tobacco industry cynically celebrating its world domination as he moves through time from the beginnings of tobacco production to the recent responses to anti-smoking campaigns.

I certainly learned a great deal about the history of tobacco and the corporate greed that has fuelled it despite the long known health risks. The role of advertising, product placement, and later sports sponsorship was something that I hadn’t really considered. The huge sums of money spent on lobbying was also deeply shocking.

It concludes with ‘The Filterless Files’ providing a short report of facts and figures that again were very eye-opening. There is also a list of documentary sources. The artwork is striking and works well with the text.

This is a very serious topic and I would hope that this will become an accessible resource for schools and libraries. The importance of its subject matter and the innovative way this serious issue has been presented earns it an unreserved 5 stars.

Not really for me but very educational. The artwork was ok and conveyed the message clearly. Definitely would be good to have this availble in public libraries.

This is unlike any graphic novel I have read. It takes a very serious topic (the tobacco industry and how they have influenced consumers' lives, and the tricks they have used to manipulate people) and given the reader so much information in an easily digestible format.

The illustrations are fascinating and inject some humour into what could be a dry and uninteresting topic.

I learned so much from this graphic novel but it wasn't the light entertainment that I tend to prefer in this format. That said, I think I'll get a copy for my school library.

A polemic against smoking could have been a brief, unsubstantiated and frankly uninteresting read. This is a polemic against smoking, but it's a lot longer than the publisher's usual graphic novel, is fully backed-up, and is completely interesting. From the generation of the Virginia leaf for smoking, caused by a victim of one of the industries smoking helped sustain – slavery, no less – to the mass production of fags, to the Hollywood go-betweens who would vet the script before production in order to get product placement front and foremost. There is so much interesting detail in this fabulous read, long before they start to suppress the long-known health problems. The visuals are ever interesting, as well – while we have an ever-present narrator, he's always found in a new pose, a new conversation, or placement – even water-skiing behind a WWII landing craft, of all things.

This book is clearly but a small piece of oil dropping into a large pond, and one hardly like to quell any ripple they might put out in return. This isn't a hole in Big Tobacco's wallet, more of a micro-hole (see inside). If just one ciggy brand can spend $70 million on motor-racing sponsorship in one calendar year, and that at 1997 rates, then it's on a hiding to nothing. But it remains a perfectly cogent book, and one worth putting in any school library, and referencing on any psychology-of-advertising module. Hopefully, alongside plastics, the environmental problems the tobacco industry causes (in conjunction with their consumers) will be a big social marker in the near future, and this book could be a pioneer where that is concerned. Thoroughly relevant, and essential reading.

"Cigarettes" is a fascinating graphic novel about the 'history' of lighting up. The artwork is interesting and the story is compelling to the end.

Not only the story is hysterically funny and uniquely told, but also the artwork fits the cynical theme like a glove.