With gorgeous imagery, visual artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas brings to life the tumultuous history of first contact between Europeans and Indigenous peoples and the early colonization by the Europeans of the northern West Coast.

Yahgulanaas uses a blend of traditional and modern art, eschewing the traditional boxes of comic books for the flowing shapes of North Pacific iconography. The panels are filled with colourful and expressive watercolour paintings. The panels of each page, if removed and assembled into one whole image, form a large image reminiscent of a woven robe.

The story follows several historical figures, including Johan Adrian Jacobsen (JAJ), who comes to the Haida village of Masset to collect specimens for a German museum, through a time span that includes first contact, the devastation of the smallpox epidemic, and the mass resettlement of disenfranchised peoples, both Indigenous and European.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is the creator of Haida Manga, a distinctive fusion of pop graphics, Haida art and Japanese comic styles. His books include A Tale of Two Shamans; Flight of the Hummingbird, with an afterword by the Dalai Lama;Hachidori, a bestseller in Japan; and Red: A Haida Manga nominated for a BC Book Award, a Doug Wright Award for Best Book, and a 2010 Joe Shuster Award for Outstanding Canadian Cartoonist. RED was an Amazon.ca Top 100 book of 2009. Yahgulanaas is also a sculptor and graphic artist whose work is in the collections of the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver International Airport, City of Vancouver, City of Kamloops and University of British Columbia. He pulls from his 20 years of political experience in the Council of the Haida Nation and travels the world speaking to businesses, institutions and communities about social justice, community building, communication and change management. For more, see mny.ca. Yahgulanaas lives on an island in the Salish Sea, with his wife and daughter.

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas' profile page

• Short-listed, Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award
• Short-listed, Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes
• Short-listed, The Doug Wright Award for Best Book
• Winner, Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards - Mosaic Award and Finalist for Best in Adult Non-Fiction
• Short-listed, George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

“This book is a necessary tale told by the perfect voice at the right time. It also uses graphic imagery in a way I've not seen before, and it feels ground-breaking.”

Douglas Coupland