When Alice runs away from home to look for her lost dog, little she knows that she may never return. She stumbles upon the kingdom of Dog-Land, an alternate world where dogs are the masters, and humans, their pets.
Under the crimson sky of this misshapen realm, the sprightly ten-year-old begins her true journey – of discovering what it truly means to be human – as she seeks a way back to our world.
Seven Years in Dog-Land is a literary fantasy set in a gritty and cruel kingdom of dogs. It is an exploration of humans’ relationship with nature and the human condition itself.
The seven years in this story correspond with the idea of the ‘Seven Ages of Man’…
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.
Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth.
And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.
The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
- As popularized by William Shakespeare in ‘As You Like It’, Act II
To date, Seven Years in Dog-Land has achieved a couple of milestones. When it was first hosted on the online comic portal Smackjeeves, it had a readers’ rating of 5/5 stars. In 2011 it was one of Graphicly.com’s ‘Featured Titles‘, alongside titles from top comic publishers such as Marvel, Image and IDW. The following year, it was the only graphic novel to compete at the Self-Published Author Awards.
Greenpeace is the official beneficiary of Seven Years in Dog-Land. All profits from this title will go to the organization and its pro-environmental causes. Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. It comprises 28 independent national/regional offices in over 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.