bookblogging

Graphic novels:

Shaffer, Neal, author, Daniel Krall, artist: One Plus One
(Oni Press. Honestly, I was underwhelmed. The three male main characters are all black-haired white guys, and I could barely tell them apart. There are two significant female characters, both blonde and white, and I could barely tell them apart. Everything was stiff and ugly, and the plot was simultaneously depressing and inane.)


Manga:

Mizuno Tokho: Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time vol. 1
(I definitely prefer the Watase version of this story. It's funnier, more dramatic, more romantic, and much better drawn).

Kanari Yozaburo, story, Sato Fumiya, art: The Kindaichi Case Files: The Graveyard Isle
(I am so confused about the Saki character. A character exactly like this one--same name, same design, same camera--was killed off in The Santa Slayings, which was #7 in the numbering sequence assigned by Tokyopop; this is #15. I wouldn't even have noticed this, however, had they not referred to him several times at "Saki#2." Is this a running gag, or otherwise an indication that the different stories are not actually supposed to take place in any kind of timeline at all?)

Mihara Mitsukazu: Haunted House
(it's like The Wallflower in reverse! I love this author. She's a kick in the pants. I think Sabato actually had a valid complaint--his family really was sabotaging his life by pulling pranks on him--but they were quite right in not taking his girlfriends seriously, since Sabato's only criteria was whether or not the girl would say yes to a date).

bookblogging

Graphic novels:

Nibot, Root, author, Colleen Coover, artist: Banana Sunday
(what's better than scientifically enhanced monkeys? Divine monkeys! I am positive that this is somehow a comment on evolution vs. creationism in public schools. It is also cute beyond the telling of it. I hope Nibot and Coover collaborate on a million graphic novels, so I can keep reading adorable work like this in the future).

Hartzell, Andy: Fox Bunny Funny
(the church sequence made me misty. I cannot add anything intelligent to the existing critical praise for this book, so let me simply say that I agree with it).

O'Malley, Bryan Lee: Lost at Sea
(I've avoided Bryan Lee O'Malley work--despite nearly universal praise from people whose taste in books I respect highly--because an art snob friend dislikes O'Malley's style so much. I actually don't think much of my art snob friend's taste in books, which just goes to show you how irrationally stupid people can be sometimes.

Anyway, I fucking loved this book. Goddamn fucking loved it. It's a wonderful book, well-written and...the art conveys the story and does it well. Everything else is just toppings).


For those of you waiting in breathless anticipation--yes, the Nishi Keiko magazine was still there, and I bought it. Woo!

in which I get ticked off by the par of the course

I applaud the intent, I really do. And I am happy to witness another case of comics/graphic novels/manga etc succeeding in bringing young readers to the table where other kinds of reading material are not presently working. I believe comics/graphic novels/manga etc are valid forms of reading in and of themselves, and therefore people sharing my interest in those forms make me happy; I also feel that they need no defense.

But this has been eating away at me all day, because it's flat-out wrong. The graphic novels that are bringing all the kids to the yard do not have "more words than, say, The Green Lantern." If anything, "Naruto. One Piece. Shojo. Manga," have far FEWER words than the superhero comic books that the reporter probably didn't actually grow up reading, and although I know that cannot be the only factor involved with the boom of comics/graphic novels/manga today, I remain firmly convinced that it is an important factor.

I am annoyed because, even though I am a serious bibliophile and fluent reader of prose books, I am not comfortable with the implicit value system assigned to the ratio of words to image in a words/art fusion, with the most words being the best, and the fewest words being the least worthy of consumption by teens and other living things. It's patently ridiculous in the article itself--note that Marvel Zombies is included in the group of graphic novels with "more words than...The Green Lantern"--and teeth-grindingly obvious that the "more words" value system has been externally applied to justify the popularity that the reporter can't actually understand.

Why would librarians endorse these new-fangled "graphic novels," when everyone knows that comics are trash? How can these graphic novels have merit as reading material? They must be "a hybrid of novel and comic book," which is to say, comics with extra words. Words are good. Art is bad. Remember this value system, folks; we will be quizzing you later.

It narcs me off because it's a stupid value system, and a snobby one, particularly coming from someone with such a hideous and stiff writing style. It also narcs me off because it's not true, and no amount of incompetent and uninspired reporting is ever going to inure me to media falsities.