Runaway

A cow and a runaway train are on a collision course. How will it all end? The captain is indisposed and there's no one left to pilot the train. But a train mostly drives itself, right? What could possibly go wrong? And with that, Cordell Barker's allegorical tale of greed, ignorance and the social cost of self-importance, is away! Adapted from the 2009 animated short of the same name, Runaway is a rollicking and fast-paced middle-grade comic book that is short on dialogue, big on laughs and ends with a bang. Pleasingly devoid of any pedantic tendencies, Barker's story, expertly adapted for the page by children's author Sarah Howden, comes alive with visual jokes, poignant pauses and just enough room for inquisitive readers to interpret almost anything in that which is left unsaid. Rendered in Barker's signature, energetic illustration style, and set in an era of steam trains and top hats, Runaway is a heavy-duty story cleverly disguised as a simple comedy of errors.