bookblogging
Jul. 8th, 2008 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseeGraphic novels:
Ward, Lynd: God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, Madman's Drum: A Novel in Woodcuts
(the first I found overly simplistic. There is a special level of hell for men who date prostitutes and then whine and mope because the prostitutes continue to earn their living by having sex with other men for money, instead of being Redeemed By The Love of a Good Man and giving it all up to live in even deeper poverty as they cook and clean and keep house for the virtuous starving artist who redeemed them with his pure artistic love. In this level of hell, men who do this are smacked in the face withreality shovels for all eternity, or until they stop being such fucking nitwits.
The second I found overly confusing, but all in all, I'm impressed with the art and the ambition of the books, just not the trite morality play of the innocent male artist seduced and betrayed by the big city and its fatcats and whores, etc, etc, until he throws himself off a cliff and is nursed back to health by The Love of a Pure Woman Who Definitely Does Not Sleep With Other Men For Money, Although If She Did, You Can Bet She'd Only Do It Out Of Love To Support The Virtuous Starving Artist While He Pursued His Art, And She'd Feel Really Bad About It.
Fuck, but the Madonna/Whore complex gets on my nerves).
Gipi: Notes for a War Story
(creepy as hell. Has a really excellent afterword that gives a bit of nice political and artistic context).
Lemire, Jeff: Tales of Essex County vol. 2: Ghost Stories
(equally creepy, and just as dark, in its own way. It's the art; this art would be completely at home in a horror story, and it tinges a story that is essentially peaceful and melancholy with a kind of gnawing fear, like waking up in the middle of the night suddenly realizing that life is hollow and empty and there's nothing after you die).
Geary, Rick: A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Fatal Bullet
(aww, man. I barely knew anything about James Garfield before reading this, but now I feel truly sad for him and his family).
Aragones, Sergio, and Mark Evanier: Groo and Rufferto
(the endless idiocy of Groo never ceases to make me LOL).
Sfar, Joann: Klezmer vol. 1: Tales of the Wild East
(this does pair well with The Rabbi's Cat! And now I can't stop imagining Yaacov as the cat. I did like The Rabbi's Cat better, because it's a warmer, happier place to be, but this is good in a different way).
Ward, Lynd: God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, Madman's Drum: A Novel in Woodcuts
(the first I found overly simplistic. There is a special level of hell for men who date prostitutes and then whine and mope because the prostitutes continue to earn their living by having sex with other men for money, instead of being Redeemed By The Love of a Good Man and giving it all up to live in even deeper poverty as they cook and clean and keep house for the virtuous starving artist who redeemed them with his pure artistic love. In this level of hell, men who do this are smacked in the face with
The second I found overly confusing, but all in all, I'm impressed with the art and the ambition of the books, just not the trite morality play of the innocent male artist seduced and betrayed by the big city and its fatcats and whores, etc, etc, until he throws himself off a cliff and is nursed back to health by The Love of a Pure Woman Who Definitely Does Not Sleep With Other Men For Money, Although If She Did, You Can Bet She'd Only Do It Out Of Love To Support The Virtuous Starving Artist While He Pursued His Art, And She'd Feel Really Bad About It.
Fuck, but the Madonna/Whore complex gets on my nerves).
Gipi: Notes for a War Story
(creepy as hell. Has a really excellent afterword that gives a bit of nice political and artistic context).
Lemire, Jeff: Tales of Essex County vol. 2: Ghost Stories
(equally creepy, and just as dark, in its own way. It's the art; this art would be completely at home in a horror story, and it tinges a story that is essentially peaceful and melancholy with a kind of gnawing fear, like waking up in the middle of the night suddenly realizing that life is hollow and empty and there's nothing after you die).
Geary, Rick: A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Fatal Bullet
(aww, man. I barely knew anything about James Garfield before reading this, but now I feel truly sad for him and his family).
Aragones, Sergio, and Mark Evanier: Groo and Rufferto
(the endless idiocy of Groo never ceases to make me LOL).
Sfar, Joann: Klezmer vol. 1: Tales of the Wild East
(this does pair well with The Rabbi's Cat! And now I can't stop imagining Yaacov as the cat. I did like The Rabbi's Cat better, because it's a warmer, happier place to be, but this is good in a different way).