“Trumpets of Death”
by Simon Bournel-Bosson
translated by Edward Gauvin
published 05-Aug-2025 by Lerner Publishing Group
Publisher’s Summary:
One rainy night, Antoine gets dropped off at his grandparents’ remote house in the middle of the woods. He’s stuck between a doting grandmother and a grandfather openly hostile to his presence, and time crawls by while he waits to hear from his parents. When Antoine ventures out with his grandfather to forage for mushrooms, intergenerational conflict and mysterious forces of nature culminate in a fearsome hunt through the forest that will resolve their differences once and for all.
YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens Nominee, Nominated, 2026
Review:
A couple times a year, there are comics that smash through my heart, take a hold of my soul, and runaway. TRUMPETS OF DEATH is one of those comics. What Simon Bournel-Bosson did in 232 pages is pure magic.
Antoine is a little boy whose mother is missing and whose father needs to leave him with grandparents. The mystery of what exactly happened to his mother is not spelled out, but there’s room for speculation. Her disappearance is the core.
Antoine tries to navigate his days with no friends. He has a single action figure to play with which his abusive grandfather hides. He wants to love the family dog, Bullitt, but the grandfather, Gilbert, keeps the dog at his side all the time as a hunting and working dog. There’s a good chance that Bullitt is another victim in the household. Antoine’s grandmother ignores the abuse in her household and tries to keep the boy away out of “trouble,” meaning away from doing innocent things that irritate his grandfather.
The mountains have a small village, but it doesn’t offer much in terms of giving Antoine any means of escape from his days. There are scouting troops in a huge camp who can be seen testing their survival skills mostly through hunting. It’s obvious most of the children shown in the scenes don’t even want to be there except for Jeannette, the prize marksman.
Jeannette and Gilbert aren’t brought together as interacting characters, but they are both examples of bloodlust. They’ve seen the bright white stag in the mountains and both have chosen to target the beautiful animal as a trophy. In Europe, the white hart as the deer is called, was the heraldic symbol of King Richard II. Because it was his ruling which allowed pubs (publick houses serving alcohol) to open, there are hundreds of such taverns named The White Hart Inn. White harts are historically leucistic red deer in Europe. We do have some white-tailed deer that can exhibit more white than usual called piebald coloring. Due to the rarity of the experience, spotting a white hart has been considered something significant. Depending on the culture, this doesn’t necessarily mean good luck. It could be a harbinger of death. With the connection to kings, some see a white stag as a sign of the true ruler of the land even leading knights. Seeing one can be a sign that you are on the right path.
Without giving away any spoilers, Antoine finds a temporary means of escaping his grandparents’ house. There is an important showdown between Antoine and Gilbert at the climax. As a character, he goes through remarkable changes and personal growth. He returns more mature and confident. By the end, readers can get a sense of relief that Antoine won’t be a victim anymore.
Don’t let this English translation of French bédé pass you by (It’s probably even better in French!).
Rating: 5 stars
Preview:
Resources:
Wild Being: Meeting the White Stag
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.