Another reason writers are drawn to anthropomorphic animals is because of their absurdity. If readers accept the reality of talking animals, where else do they buy? In Matt Phelan’s up-tempo “The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck,” the answer is this: Three 18th-century French animal airmen also happen to be the world’s most extraordinary secret agents.
The premise, absurd as it may be, is rooted in a piece of aviation history. In 1783 Versailles, before a crowd of thousands, the first hot air balloon with passengers took off. As King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette watched, a sheep, rooster and duck floated for 15 minutes before crashing back to Earth. The animals all survived. What they probably didn’t do was advise the Royal Navy, invent more ingenious airships, and prevent a deadly heat ray (invented by none other than Benjamin Franklin) from falling into the wrong hands.
Without breaking a sweat, Phelan (“Knights vs. Dinosaurs”) spins an intoxicating yarn with secret societies, sword fighting and espionage. The reckless rooster Pierre, the inventive sheep Bernadette and the strategic duck Jean-Luc are as engaging and confident as Phelan’s smooth and clever writing. A parade of historical personalities features prominently in the plot and adds to the fun. The author’s note at the end helps separate facts from fantasies. Readers may have heard of Mozart, but they are less familiar with the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, the English spy Edward Bancroft or the book’s colorful villain, Count Alessandro Cagliostro.
Phelan’s Cagliostro claims he is 3,002 years old and possesses “enormous wealth and power.” He plans to establish himself in the New World as “the king of America,” a country “susceptible” to charlatans like him. “The King of Liars,” says Pierre, “is a threat to all beings.”
Unlike Litchfield’s strikingly rendered narrative tableaux, Phelan’s pencil illustrations are drawn in a light-hearted style that isn’t meant to hold us back. Instead, the book’s 40-plus pages of comics have the opposite effect; these loosely sketched but tightly choreographed ‘comic series’ (as the publisher calls them) propel us through his page-turner at an even faster pace. “The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck” isn’t quite a graphic novel, nor is it a straightforward illustrated book; it is not fish or fowl. However, it is sheep and fowl and it will be difficult for young readers to put it down.