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bookblogging
Jul. 21st, 2008 12:19 pmGraphic novels:
Campbell, Eddie: The Black Diamond Detective Agency
(I found it a tad confusing, I think more from my having read it in three parts and forgetting people's names than from any flaw in the writing. Well-illustrated; the first few pages in particular are beautifully paced; if you read it, you'll see what I mean. First Second).
Kochalka, James: Quit Your Job
(wow, but I liked that more than I thought I would. It's the cat calling the guy, "Daddy," I think, very sweet and a little affecting. This is not one of those comics where everybody is a jerk! By the way, the cover claims there's an intro by Jeff Smith, and there isn't. There's not even anything on the copyright page to indicate that the publication was supposed to have a Smith intro. Weird).
Morse, Scott: Soulwind Book 1: The Kid From Planet Earth
(what a change from Magic Pickle! Morse demonstrates an nice range of black-and-white art styles in the different narratives, which by the way, are fairly engaging. I'd like to read more of this. Oni Press).
Doherty, Catherine: Can of Worms
(I bet thirty years ago, nobody would have been interested in publishing a B&W autobiographical graphic account of Doherty's childhood discovery that she was adopted, and subsequent search for her birth mother. I'm glad I'm alive and reading comics in a decade when this not only exists, but exists in a field full of similar things. It's just cool).
Bourne, Malcome, writer, Mike Allred, artist: Tales of Ordinary Madness.
Jason: Tell Me Something.
Jeffrey, Gary & Kate Petty, writers, Sam Hadley, illustrator: Julius Caesar: The Life of a Roman General
(I realize that this is the origin of the phrase, and yet I can never read the phrase "cross the Rubicon" without a little thrill running down my spine, because it reminds me of John Adams' line in the musical 1776: "They want me quit; they say, "John, give up the fight! / Still, to England, I say: "Good night: forever, good night!" / For I have crossed the Rubicon / Let the bridge be burned behind me / Come what may, come what may--commitment!" He's singing about the choice to continue supporting the movement for independence from England, even when it looks like the independence faction in Congress is losing, and the actual battle is going so badly that Congress will shortly be in danger from British troops.
It's a reference to Caesar's historical choice to move his army across the river Rubicon into Roman territory, which will make him a traitor to Rome, unless he can win the subsequent battle and capture the city; the line is also a reference to an imaginary conversation John had earlier with his wife Abigail (all such conversations are drawn heavily from the many amazing, beautiful, and very literate letters exchanged between the real John and Abigail during the years they spent apart from each other), in which she reminds him that he's always said that there are only two kinds of people of worth in the world--those who have commitment, and those who require the commitment of others. It's a fantastic scene, and solidified my early and enduring crush on John Adams as portrayed by William Daniels.
Anyway, this an okay history-themed non-fiction graphic novel about the life of Caesar, but the real gist of all this is that you should totally check out the movie version of the musical 1776, which is a wonderful, wonderful, fairly historically accurate account of the writing of the Declaration of Independence, in which several of the Founding Fathers sing and dance).
Campbell, Eddie: The Black Diamond Detective Agency
(I found it a tad confusing, I think more from my having read it in three parts and forgetting people's names than from any flaw in the writing. Well-illustrated; the first few pages in particular are beautifully paced; if you read it, you'll see what I mean. First Second).
Kochalka, James: Quit Your Job
(wow, but I liked that more than I thought I would. It's the cat calling the guy, "Daddy," I think, very sweet and a little affecting. This is not one of those comics where everybody is a jerk! By the way, the cover claims there's an intro by Jeff Smith, and there isn't. There's not even anything on the copyright page to indicate that the publication was supposed to have a Smith intro. Weird).
Morse, Scott: Soulwind Book 1: The Kid From Planet Earth
(what a change from Magic Pickle! Morse demonstrates an nice range of black-and-white art styles in the different narratives, which by the way, are fairly engaging. I'd like to read more of this. Oni Press).
Doherty, Catherine: Can of Worms
(I bet thirty years ago, nobody would have been interested in publishing a B&W autobiographical graphic account of Doherty's childhood discovery that she was adopted, and subsequent search for her birth mother. I'm glad I'm alive and reading comics in a decade when this not only exists, but exists in a field full of similar things. It's just cool).
Bourne, Malcome, writer, Mike Allred, artist: Tales of Ordinary Madness.
Jason: Tell Me Something.
Jeffrey, Gary & Kate Petty, writers, Sam Hadley, illustrator: Julius Caesar: The Life of a Roman General
(I realize that this is the origin of the phrase, and yet I can never read the phrase "cross the Rubicon" without a little thrill running down my spine, because it reminds me of John Adams' line in the musical 1776: "They want me quit; they say, "John, give up the fight! / Still, to England, I say: "Good night: forever, good night!" / For I have crossed the Rubicon / Let the bridge be burned behind me / Come what may, come what may--commitment!" He's singing about the choice to continue supporting the movement for independence from England, even when it looks like the independence faction in Congress is losing, and the actual battle is going so badly that Congress will shortly be in danger from British troops.
It's a reference to Caesar's historical choice to move his army across the river Rubicon into Roman territory, which will make him a traitor to Rome, unless he can win the subsequent battle and capture the city; the line is also a reference to an imaginary conversation John had earlier with his wife Abigail (all such conversations are drawn heavily from the many amazing, beautiful, and very literate letters exchanged between the real John and Abigail during the years they spent apart from each other), in which she reminds him that he's always said that there are only two kinds of people of worth in the world--those who have commitment, and those who require the commitment of others. It's a fantastic scene, and solidified my early and enduring crush on John Adams as portrayed by William Daniels.
Anyway, this an okay history-themed non-fiction graphic novel about the life of Caesar, but the real gist of all this is that you should totally check out the movie version of the musical 1776, which is a wonderful, wonderful, fairly historically accurate account of the writing of the Declaration of Independence, in which several of the Founding Fathers sing and dance).