Above The Timberline by Gregory Manchess (book review)
When I reviewed the latest edition of ‘Illustrators’, I was really impressed by Gregory Manchess’ oil paintings enough to locate this 2017 book, ‘Above The Timberline’. It’s a grey area as to where it should be viewed as a graphic novel though. Its fully illustrated but, in the state of its journals, the dialogue is separate to the action which accounts for the text level. Manchess does both of these.
The story is given part of the time through the 3518 century journals of Wes Singleton as he journeys into the Arctic by plane and crashes as he continues his father’s mission to locate an artefact, the Arktos Device, and all the perils he gets into. His father, Galen, seems to think it’s a star-spanning teleportation device but it’s never proven to work.
Wes’ journey encounters a lost village and monastery, sentient polar bears and leopards. Quite how the latter can live in the Arctic isn’t decided, nor a woolly rhinoceros. Artwise, all the animals are truly dynamic. Wes does have a degree of luck in his journey and there’s a few twists at the end which puts it into spoiler territory.
I’m not saying it’s a perfect story. For such a future it does seem odd that transport technology has a 1940s feel or how Singleton can survive in the Arctic in flight leathers, although he does get a warm coat later, and no food. In many respects, it could be set in any time setting without spoiling the plot.
Manchess as the artist must have been very prolific with the number of paintings here. The technique broadstrokes the colour giving shades and giving effective shape to clothes and textures without going into full detail. The detail on faces is an assortment of colours as is typical of working in oils. Its very effective and if you look at these paintings at a distance they coalesce and work so don’t just read on the table.
It’s certainly a curio and the text supports the art.
GF Willmetts
December 2025
(pub: Saga Press/Simon & Schuster, 2017. 240 page illustrated hardback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-48145-923-5)
check out website: www.sagapress.com
