Alex Alice’s. The French cartoonist behind Castle in the Stars, the graphic novel series at First Second that follows a collection of adventurers as they race to master a substance called aether and become the first to the Moon and beyond, is a unique talent. Few people would be able to deliver a story that could most easily be described as “what if Hayao Miyazaki and Jules Verne collaborated?” and live up to that kind of buildup. And yet, Alice does, and does so in brilliant fashion.