The Troublesome Cloud (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9798348557645)

The Troublesome Cloud, is a four-act illustrated poetic allegory from the mind of artist, author, and English/History professor Ryan Minor. The story, which is both whimsical and touching, features a lovable, yet melancholic, creature as it navigates the arrival of a pesky and unrelenting raincloud. As the pages unfolds, readers follow this unnamed creature across a variety of settings, as it attempts to shake its unwanted companion through one ridiculous scenario after another.

Minor's background art, which is made up of thousands of mostly black and white scratches, lines, and crosshatchings, creates a stark, rough-around-the-edges, world that is both haunting and inviting. Minor builds on these bleak, monochromatic land/sea scapes, with a rich tapestry of humorous, yet somber, rhyming poetic vocabulary that describe the often-thwarted endeavors of the creature itself (who appears in colorful brown and orange tones throughout the pages). The combined result of these images and words is a fantastical journey that feels surprisingly relatable to the very real universal human experience of dealing with, and attempting to find a way through, unexpected, and often unwanted, change.

Overall, The Troublesome Cloud is a funny, somber, and thought provoking fable in the tradition of authors / illustrators Edward Gorey, Dr. Seuss, and Shel Silverstein, that resonates with a wide range of readers across all ages.