The Pride of Baghdad

The Pride of Baghdad written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Niko Henrichon

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Brian K. Vaughan is the best writer in comics right now.  No one else compares to the stories he continues to tell.  Here’s a comic I passed countless times at the library. I would pick it up, look at it, and put it back down on the shelf, never really giving it the thought of day because the premise of the story just didn’t seem to have much there: a group of lions escape their zoo in Baghdad.  That’s it, there’s nothing really more to the premise but that.  But after finishing off Vaughan’s Ex Machina a few weeks ago I told myself I was going to finally read this because every book I’ve read of his has been nothing short of great.  After reading The Pride of Baghdad I’ve got to say Vaughan can do no wrong. 

He takes this simple story of four lions escaping from a zoo and weaves into a vivid narrative, where out of it spring such depth and metaphoric meaning without it becoming pretentious bore.  The main reasons his stories never feel forced or reaching for something beyond what’s there (like most of Grant Morrison’s stories) is that Vaughan never loses focus of the characters of the story.  He tells such a short story, but in that shortness he creates some in depth characters with those lions.  They no longer become lions.  They become characters who think, breathe, have cognitive thoughts, have desires, and have wishes.  They become a live.  His insights into how animals’ think really help to bring these lions to life.  Then he gets into how the animals relate mentally with being in a zoo to finally escaping and their thought process has a genuineness to it that never feels forced.   I won’t talk about the ending but it’s a good ending and faithful to the story. 

Vaughan is supported here by an artist I’ve never heard of before Niko Henrichson who does a great job of drawing the lions and helping to bring them to life also.  Henrichson draws them to a certain degree like the lions from the movie The Lion King.  I think works in his favor as he relies on that familiarity of that movie to help the reader establish them as a character.  One of Henrichson artistic strengths is realism.  His drawings of Baghdad, the animals, and violence throughout, really help to bring the story to life and having the realism of Baghdad surrounding the main characters makes their journey and discovery all the more immediate.