bookblogging
Jul. 19th, 2008 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceruseeSai icon, in honor of Kekkaishi and the awesome ghosts of manga.
Graphic novels/comics:
Guibert, Emmanuel, writer, Joann Sfar, artist: Sardine in outer space
(I like Sfar's writing better than Guibert's, but this possesses charm. Still, it reminds me of something my children's lit-trained sister said about Diary of a Wimpy Kid--that it didn't really feel like a book for kids to her, it felt like a book for adults about kids, with a meta-consciousness of its own cartoony qualities, saying, "look at how childish kids are, look at how childish I am with my simple drawings!" Likewise, this feels more like an affectionate, diminutive salute to the structure of children's adventure stories to me than sincere adventure story that someone could seriously engage with).
Kieth, Sam: Zero Girl
(fascinating and weird, although I can't muster much enthusiasm for fifteen-year-old Amy's efforts to convince her handsome, adult male guidance counselor that he should start a relationship with her. I don't think I'm supposed to endorse it without reservation, but the book comes down much farther down on her side than I'm comfortable with--it's not only, as Kieth comments, a story about an age gap, but also a story about an adult in an institutionalized position of power and influence over a vulnerable, emotionally immature person; that is not eliminated from consideration just because the younger person is doing the aggressive chasing! The age difference skeeves me less than the teacher/student dynamic, and although that is touched on in the story, Kieth glosses over that part in the afterword when he compares the plot to his own experience of meeting his present wife when he was a teen and she was several years older than her. I don't hate it, but I have qualms on that score).
Rucka, Greg, writer, Brian Hurtt, penciller: Queen and Country vol. 2 : Operation: Morningstar.
Johnston, Antony, writer, Christopher Mitten, illustrator: Queen and Country vol. 3: Sons and Daughters
(Ah, the very recognizable Mitten art).
Goscinny, Rene, writer, Albert Uderzo, illustrator: Asterix vol. 4: Asterix and the Gladiator, Asterix vol. 5: Asterix and the Banquet, Asterix vol. 6: Asterix and Cleopatra.
Manga:
Tanabe Yellow: Kekkaishi vol. 1
(I know I'm coming late to the party, but let me jump on the love bandwagon for this manga, which is a particularly likable execution of the shounen exorcist trope. Well-drawn, well-paced, with lively characterization for funny, sympathetic protagonists and amusing supporting casts (props for the wonderfully rounded protagonist Tokine, who has the presence and the fighting chops so many female characters in shounen action manga are denied), coherent and comprehensible action sequences, and good, solid stories in its episodic chapters.
It's a bit ironic that I'm so late on this one, because I actually read a few chapters of scanlations of this back in 2004, at which time I thought it was good, but unspectacular, and lost track of it. I've read a lot more manga and graphic novels in the past four years, and it impresses me more now than it did then, as I've learned not to take the good execution of an old idea for granted. It also helps to have it in book form, as books hold my attention better than the ephemeral matter that makes up the internet. Anyway, recommended).
Graphic novels/comics:
Guibert, Emmanuel, writer, Joann Sfar, artist: Sardine in outer space
(I like Sfar's writing better than Guibert's, but this possesses charm. Still, it reminds me of something my children's lit-trained sister said about Diary of a Wimpy Kid--that it didn't really feel like a book for kids to her, it felt like a book for adults about kids, with a meta-consciousness of its own cartoony qualities, saying, "look at how childish kids are, look at how childish I am with my simple drawings!" Likewise, this feels more like an affectionate, diminutive salute to the structure of children's adventure stories to me than sincere adventure story that someone could seriously engage with).
Kieth, Sam: Zero Girl
(fascinating and weird, although I can't muster much enthusiasm for fifteen-year-old Amy's efforts to convince her handsome, adult male guidance counselor that he should start a relationship with her. I don't think I'm supposed to endorse it without reservation, but the book comes down much farther down on her side than I'm comfortable with--it's not only, as Kieth comments, a story about an age gap, but also a story about an adult in an institutionalized position of power and influence over a vulnerable, emotionally immature person; that is not eliminated from consideration just because the younger person is doing the aggressive chasing! The age difference skeeves me less than the teacher/student dynamic, and although that is touched on in the story, Kieth glosses over that part in the afterword when he compares the plot to his own experience of meeting his present wife when he was a teen and she was several years older than her. I don't hate it, but I have qualms on that score).
Rucka, Greg, writer, Brian Hurtt, penciller: Queen and Country vol. 2 : Operation: Morningstar.
Johnston, Antony, writer, Christopher Mitten, illustrator: Queen and Country vol. 3: Sons and Daughters
(Ah, the very recognizable Mitten art).
Goscinny, Rene, writer, Albert Uderzo, illustrator: Asterix vol. 4: Asterix and the Gladiator, Asterix vol. 5: Asterix and the Banquet, Asterix vol. 6: Asterix and Cleopatra.
Manga:
Tanabe Yellow: Kekkaishi vol. 1
(I know I'm coming late to the party, but let me jump on the love bandwagon for this manga, which is a particularly likable execution of the shounen exorcist trope. Well-drawn, well-paced, with lively characterization for funny, sympathetic protagonists and amusing supporting casts (props for the wonderfully rounded protagonist Tokine, who has the presence and the fighting chops so many female characters in shounen action manga are denied), coherent and comprehensible action sequences, and good, solid stories in its episodic chapters.
It's a bit ironic that I'm so late on this one, because I actually read a few chapters of scanlations of this back in 2004, at which time I thought it was good, but unspectacular, and lost track of it. I've read a lot more manga and graphic novels in the past four years, and it impresses me more now than it did then, as I've learned not to take the good execution of an old idea for granted. It also helps to have it in book form, as books hold my attention better than the ephemeral matter that makes up the internet. Anyway, recommended).
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no subject
on 2008-07-19 05:26 am (UTC)