I like comic books. There are particular stories that are best told in words and pictures and when those stories are told by great artists and writers they are almost magical. When writers try to tell stories that aren’t suited to the medium, or don’t use the medium well, the result is a train wreck.
Fables: Animal Farm and Fables: Storybook Love by Bill Willingham et al.- Fast and fun reads. I read the first Fables book a while ago and liked it, but didn’t run right out and read the whole series. I’ll definitely keep reading my way through the series.
Ego and Hubris:The Michael Malice Story by Harvey Pekar – I hated this so much. I hated the character, the story and the storytelling – the artwork simply illustrates the narration, without adding to the story. This was my last stab at reading Pekar, I’ll avoid his work in the future.
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware – I have seen raves about this book everywhere and decided to give it a shot. I only got about 30 pages into it before tossing it aside- it was really boring. Like, amazingly boring. Sunday morning newspaper comic strip boring.
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes – I liked Ghost World. I hated this so much I couldn’t finish it. The characters were empty shells, the plot revolved around a variety of women trying to have sex with the main character, and if I had to describe the book in one word it would be “gross”.
Black Hole by Charles Burns – Great story (a sexual plague strikes Seattle teens!), beautiful art, and a real understanding of how to tell a story in words and pictures that is more than the story could be in just words or just pictures – a great comic book, in other words.
No comments:
Post a Comment