Suffice it to say, Persepolis is quite a work. It’s a testament to the power of the graphic novel. The art’s simple linework helps the story feel unpretentious and direct. Persepolis was adapted as a 2007 French animated film, written and directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud. Among other honors, it was nominated for an Academy Award. Why would someone want to ban such a book?
posted by Artw
on Mar 16, 2013 -
33 comments
The
NYT Book Review just named it one of the
5 best fiction books of the year. The AV Club
helpfully posted a video to show you what happens when you open it. Actually,
lots of folks posted videos to show you what happens when you open it.
Other folks raved in print about the author and his career.
The Comics Journal asked a dozen critics of the author's work to send in reviews;
this one focuses on the role of disability in the narrative.
This one notes the book "is in a very primary sense a comic about women and the private lives they lead, and it investigates more fully than any other comic I have ever read the way they age, fall in love, explore their sexuality, come to terms with compromises they’ve had to make as they’ve grown, accept their limitations, confront squandered ability, have children (or choose not to have children), marry (or stay single), and make sense of the world around them." You might find
Chris Ware's Building Stories worth a look or two. Or fourteen.
[more inside]
posted by mediareport
on Dec 19, 2012 -
28 comments
Larry Gonick is a veteran American cartoonist best known for his delightful comic-book guides to science and history, many of which have previews online. Chief among them is his long-running
Cartoon History of the Universe (later
The Cartoon History of the Modern World), a sprawling multi-volume opus documenting everything from the Big Bang to the Bush administration. Published over the course of three decades, it takes a truly global view -- its time-traveling Professor thoroughly explores not only familiar topics like Rome and World War II but the oft-neglected stories of Asia and Africa, blending caricature and myth with careful scholarship (cited by
fun illustrated bibliographies) and tackling even the most obscure events
with intelligence and wit. This savvy satire carried over to Gonick's
Zinn-by-way-of-
Pogo chronicle
The Cartoon History of the United States, along with a bevy of
Cartoon Guides to other topics, including
Genetics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, The Environment, and (yes!)
Sex. Gonick has also maintained a few sideprojects, such as
a webcomic look at Chinese invention,
assorted math comics (
previously), the
Muse magazine mainstay
Kokopelli & Co. (featuring the shenanigans of his
"New Muses"), and
more. See also
these lengthy interview snippets, linked
previously. Want more? Amazon links to the complete oeuvre inside!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 6, 2011 -
29 comments
Slate magazine has posted an excerpt from Brooke Gladstone's "
The Influencing Machine." It's a reflection on the media done in quasi-comic book form and illustrated by Josh Neufeld. The fairly beefy excerpt is an interesting discussion on the concept, and the history of the concept, of Objectivity.
posted by Trochanter
on May 19, 2011 -
7 comments
Free Comic Book Day is a single day - the first Saturday in May each year - when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their stores. Here's the
store locator.
posted by BlahLaLa
on May 7, 2011 -
36 comments
"To really write for children, you have to think like a child. And to read a children’s book, you probably have to let go of grown-up reasoning. These thoughts occurred to me as I read two newly-translated books about Tintin and his creator, Georges Remi, better known to the world as Hergé. (The pen name is composed of Remi’s initials backwards, pronounced as in French.) There is much to be learned from these studies and others by “Tintinologists”—about Hergé, about the “world” of Tintin, even about twentieth-century politics. But as I read Pierre Assouline’s well-written biography of Hergé and Jean-Marie Apostolidès’s erudite study of the Tintin books, a version of the question we Jews love to ask kept coming to mind:
Are they good for Tintin?" A review of
The Metamorphoses of Tintin or Tintin for Adults by Jean-Marie Apostolides and
Herge: The Man Who Created Tintin by Pierre Assouline at
The New Republic.
posted by ocherdraco
on Feb 4, 2010 -
17 comments
The
Vintage Ad Browser "aims to collect vintage ads from a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, your submissions, book, magazine & comic book scans, and more."
[more inside]
posted by tractorfeed
on Jan 4, 2010 -
15 comments
Stephen King has described The Dark Tower as his
"Jupiter." The epic series, inspired in part by Robert Browning's poem,
"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", has spanned 22 years, 7 books and nearly 4000 pages. The first book in the series,
The Gunslinger, begins with a simple, memorable declaration, "The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."
[more inside]
posted by kbanas
on Apr 18, 2008 -
160 comments
Will Eisner Dies at age 86 The father of the modern Graphic Novel and hugely influential comics figure has died today from heart surgery complications. His concept of
Sequential Art helped move comics out of the idea of being solely "kid's stuff" and was seen as a cannon in the comic art world.
He was working on a book called "The Plot" due out later this year. He will be missed. More info and Eisner Bio at
Newsarama
posted by Jeffy
on Jan 4, 2005 -
54 comments
Bush Junta: A Field Guide to Corruption in Government - A substantial visual document (200 pages of comics from Fantagraphics, fact-checked with an extensive bibliography; the link goes to a number of sample pages) on the Bush Dynasty, from its beginnings benefitting off of Hitler and WW2 (that entire piece, which is printed in english, is posted in its original dutch online
here), to the Bush's connection to Reagan's assassination, CIA and Iran-Contra, ending with the unsettling origins and profiles of the current administration. A great election primer, featuring comics and art by Steve Brodner, Ralph Steadman, Spain Rodriguez and many others. (
Amazon link provided for a better description)
posted by Peter H
on Oct 11, 2004 -
11 comments
Fantomas Lives!
Fantômas is the Lord of Terror, the Genius of Evil, the arch-criminal anti-hero of a series of 32 pre-WWI French thrillers written by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain. He carries out the most appalling crimes: substituting sulfuric acid in the perfume dispensers at a Parisian department store, releasing plague-infested rats on an ocean liner, or forcing a victim to witness his own execution by placing him face-up in a guillotine.
In 1912, Apollinaire founded the
Societe des Amis de Fantomas which included prominent artists and writers.
Magritte considered Fantomas to be a major influence in many of his paintings. Fantomas was not only a comic book but also
spawned films, tv and radio shows and plays. (There is, of course, a modern
band as well)(I read the
Mexican comic book as a child)
posted by vacapinta
on Sep 14, 2002 -
6 comments
