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CLAN APIS
 Honey
bees up close and personal, without the threat of being stung
Reviewed by Paul Hanna Certainly the industry, as it stands now, has produced a lot of comics that are inspirational, but how many of those are out-and-out educational? How about books that are educational and still won’t bore the reader to death? How about CLAN APIS? Jay Hosler, Ph.D. weaves a tale about a bee colony. More specifically, CLAN APIS chronicles the life of one bee named Nyuki. Through her, we learn everything the reader might want to know about honey bees (and a couple things s/he might not).
What is particularly impressive about the book is that it reworks plot conventions. What moves the story along isn’t an ordinary conflict. It’s something less tangible. Nyuki learns to live in the hive environment, and learns to survive outside of it. It is more a voyage of discovery and learning than anything else. Not only that, but there are no definable "good guys" or "bad guys" in CLAN APIS. Every character within the story simply does what comes naturally. Is bad if a praying mantis attempts to kill another insect? No. It is simply trying to find a meal so that it may survive. Is it bad if a two queen bees try to kill each other? No. Nature is a harsh mistress, but that doesn’t maker her "bad." And if there is a moral message in CLAN APIS, that’s probably it. Expertly, Hosler inserts science-filled tidbits here and there, giving the book an enormous educational value. This is what completely sets it apart from any other comic out there today. Sure, there are comics that chronicle historical events, but nothing is done from a scientific point of view. And it blends wonderfully with the story progression, as Nyuki also comes into the bee world a blank slate. So as she learns, the reader learns with her. Hosler’s illustrations look realistic, but they have a strong cartoon sensibility mixed in. Considering that the bees are shown at 50 times their actual size in the book, this reviewer believes that Hosler may have omitted some detail for the sake of not visually bombarding the reader.
What makes the book ideal for new readers is that it is meant for new readers; Hosler (of course) doesn’t assume the reader knows everything about bees, so the reading is smooth and the panel-to-panel progression is seamless. It is meant not only for comics lovers, but for those scientifically inclined. Nothing is more complicated than it needs to be; Hosler’s tricks are more on the conventional side, and it works. Being overly ambitious in telling a story like this would only risk confusing less knowledgeable readers. CLAN APIS is something new to comics today. Hopefully more cartoonists will take a cue from Hosler. He has unlocked a whole new potential for the medium, something beyond just art and entertainment. Strongly Recommended.
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Writer
and artist: Jay Hosler 
