Graphic Novel reviews

[felis_ultharus]

Well, my graphic novel course is starting, soon (Wednesday). These last few days I've been semi-comatose and just reading, and I've actually finished most of the works on my syllabus.

A Contract with God: Will Eisner's very good, very powerful series of short stories that have to do with growing up in the ghettos of New York in the 1930s. Visually, it's extremely old-fashioned, which works with the monochrome sepia. The stories are very honest, in a way Eisner probably couldn't have gotten away in the 1930s, when he started writing comic books. Highly recommended, and a very quick read.

The Watchmen: One of the best treatments of the superheor genre, it really tries to grasp what it would mean to live in a world where superheroes exist. Naturally, it's parallel history -- the story's equivalent of Superman wins Vietnam for the Americans, and Nixon has rode the boost of popularity into an unprecedented third term. It comes to grips with these heroes in ways that most comics don't even touch.

What would mean to be a media star? What are the political implications of being a masked vigilante, above the law? What happens when people start to decide they're so far above the human race that they have the right to make decisions for them? Again, highly-recommended, intelligent, disturbing.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: In some ways, it's a bit of a rip-off of the The Watchman (or vice-versa -- I'm not sure which came first). Batman, now middle-aged, comes out of a 12-year retirement, which he went into when the second Robin died. Gotham City has gotten a thousand times more brutal, and is tipping over into world-war-three. Worse, President-for-Life Ron Reagan is using Superman to win the Cold War.

Deals with Batman as a controversial vigilante, as a media personality, and as borderline psychotic. Also includes the final battle of Batman and Superman.

Summer Blonde: By the little-known Adrain Tomine, this is a colection of short stories. Let me say that sex and violence have never been so boring as they are in Tomine's plotless (and pointless) short stories.

The Golem's Mighty Swing: Another by a newcomer, James Sturm. It's a fairly sweet story, but a little two heavy on the nostalgic Americana. I don't like baseball stories, though this is better than most.

The Summer of Love: Fairly good -- not fantastic, but a very good story (and a very twisted colour scheme of green, orange, and white only) about a girl's coming of age and suburbia, and how she gets fucked over by all the guys in her life, and some of the girls. One of those rare stories that captures the nightmare that is high school without the nostalgia.

Persepolis: What Maus is for Nazi Germany, Persepolis is to the Iran of both the Shah and the Ayatollah. Highly autobiographical, it's the story of the author, a girl from a politically-active family that's despised by both regimes. Captures life under an extreme political regime without becoming black-and-white (well, except for the colour scheme).

Other than that, my grades came back for my last class. That makes four A's, in classes where no one got higher than an A -- where teachers have sworn off giving A+'s. I'm pleased of course. And it was a lot of hard work in terms of sitting up all night reading and writing.

But not in terms of intellectual challenge. Frankly, it feels so effortless in terms of actual thought that I'm already starting to get bored -- like I got in high school, and then in my undergrad. I was hoping it would take longer than this.

I feel like I'm sleeping through this degree, and the only challenge is to find time to dutifully slog through the material -- thinking about it is not required. I guess this sounds really conceited, or something. But it's how I feel.