The Music Inside us: Yo-Yo Ma & His Gifts to the World (2025) is both a celebration of one of our chief musical and cultural ambassadors and a call foThe Music Inside us: Yo-Yo Ma & His Gifts to the World (2025) is both a celebration of one of our chief musical and cultural ambassadors and a call for fiinding ways (as he does) for bridging cultures art, in this case, music. Ma has a fascinating story, of course, seen as a musical savant already at the age of 4, when he could already play an entire Back cello suite from memory. At the age of twelve he was already in the conversation about the greatest cellists of the twentieth century.
So virtuosity is its own argument for why we might care about Yo-Yo Ma, but he wanted more. He wanted to ask deeper questions such as what music is for, what humans are for, and to explore music from various cultures and create collaboartions with them, something he continues to do. What great classical musicians do or did this?! Some, for sure, but he remains an inspiration for this as much as any skill he has as a cellist.
James Howe (Bunnicula), who has been learning classical violin, creates a passionate texts, honoring (especially) this broader and deeper aspect of Ma's work, and Jack Wong creates a wonderfully warm and inviting artistic depiction of Ma's life, which also involves his extensive work with young people. One of the greatest cellists of all time? Surely. But even better than that, a great human being....more
Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson's family story about her grandfather's being "interned"--imprisoned--on an island as part of the US "internment" of more than Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson's family story about her grandfather's being "interned"--imprisoned--on an island as part of the US "internment" of more than 125,000 Japanese-Americans after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor during WWII. During his time there Grandpa collected seashells that he kept and are being handed down to successive generations of family as a reminder of what happened--never forget--and hope during very hard times. Back section on the internment.
Really good and touching and powerful book I read to prepare for some teaching about the internment regarding a crime story, Clark & Division, by Naomi Hirahara, set in Chicago, where many Japanese were shipped against their will. Shell Song is as much about family as it is about memory....more
I have read abd learned much from British political cartoonist Darryl Cunningham's comics biographies such as his work on Putin and Ayn Rand. And now I have read abd learned much from British political cartoonist Darryl Cunningham's comics biographies such as his work on Putin and Ayn Rand. And now this, of Musk. Reprehensible people. And don't we already know enough about them to have troubled our sleep? And there are other, more comprehensive biographies of these people, of course. But I am not likely going to read them, frankly. Preaching to the choir? Too disgusting?
But listen: Maybe you can learn a little bit about yet another greedy pig and the way money and power bubble, bubble toil and trouble into this apocaluptic stew. Cunningham gives us the short, wiki version of Musk with picshurs? is that fair? Nah. Here you get an accomplished political comicker telling truth to power, connecting the dots. You do learn some things, some of which you didn't want to know, and some of it you might find useful to know.
Alan Moore, a political comics icon, blurbs the book, noting Musk's role in the decline of the American democratic experiment. That fact aloe--that Moore, one of the GOATs of comics--was recommending it--got me to pick it up. I'll admit I skimmed some of the pages about all the women who he's made babies with, many of whom in his harem should have known better, ugh....more
Patchwork (2025) by Kate Evans. Thanks to the author, Verso, and Net Galley for the early look at a work scheduled for release October 28, 2025.
I havePatchwork (2025) by Kate Evans. Thanks to the author, Verso, and Net Galley for the early look at a work scheduled for release October 28, 2025.
I have loved Kate Evans’s work. Her Red Rosa in particular I appreciated as deeply researched, nuanced and beautifully illustrated. Patchwork is just as deeply researched, working hard to get close to our “being there” in the world of a woman we really know little about, in spite of countless biographies. There are really few archival records of her short life. I just read Austen scholar Jeanine Barchas’s graphic novel version of Austen’s life and thought it was good, and I’m a fan of her illustrator Isabel Greenburg, but this is for my money far better, imho. Barchas’s book focuses on Jane’s close relationship with sis Cassandra, and Evans uses that angle, too, because we have more information on that relationship than any others, and it was of course the key relationship of her life. Barchas tries to get in refs to the books when she can, and highlights Jane’s snarky sense of humor, but Evans makes greater strides at linking themes across books, grounding her analysis in a socioeconomic critique of Austen’s England at the time.
So what do you do when you know so little? You create a patchwork quilt of a life. I am no longer a fan of just straightforward chronological renderings of a life, year by year, cradle to the grave, especially for artists. Be innovative if you are writing about innovators! And Evans does. Using the trope of a quilt such as the one Austen spent time making in her later years, Evans allows herself to piece together different elements, without filling in every gap she finds in the life narrative.
“. . . diamonds/compressed carbon/sparkling crystals/formed from the hard facts of Austen’s life. . . snip snip” (a patchwork quilt)
Austen faced poverty at various times in her life. She was screwed over by publishers--Did you know, as a woman in the early nineteenth-century, her name was on NONE of her work!!?--given little money, but with the help of more influential males--Henry, in particular--we do thankfully get to read her books! I like it that Evans critiques the patriarchal limitations of her age, and the economic limitations of the time for lower classes.
*Mom doesn’t come off so warm and cuddly in this bio--we always like Dad more in her bio and as autofictionally depicted in her novels, and in films, though being a mother of multiple children was never easy. Jane was sent off for two early years of her life to be raised by a neighbor. Too many kids at home, okay, but mother rarely visited her! She was sent off to boarding school, too, with Cassie. We meet disabled brother George, without speech. Interesting how disability would have been seen a couple centuries ago.
One example of what some readers may not like but I especially liked is the "linen" section, through which we see how England got its prized materials for dresses, and quilts--by screwing over people from countries they got it from. What’s the point here? Austen cares about class inequities, as seen in her novels, and Evans cares about class inequities, as seen also in her bio, Red Rosa, about Rosa Luxemburg.
I like the fact that Evans deeply researched this book, and illustrates with a period feel in mind. Evans is a great artist, in addition to being a great mind. She also recognizes and illustrates Austen’s great sense of humor throughout! And her wonderful relationship to her sister Cassie, obviously!
*The challenge in a biography that is also comics, is that there is so much text and info to dump, and there is indeed a lot of text, but I'll still say it works very well, is nevertheless impressive. Finally, what all readers want and what we get is a focus on the works themselves, on how they emerged from her life and reading. And that is satisfying.
*I like being reminded of Austen’s struggles to get published, her early failures in writing that she learned from.
*Evans says if you are not an Austen reader (yet), begin with Northanger Abbey and Pride, and then move to Emma and Persuasion. My faves have always been Pride, Persuasion, and Emma, in that order.
*Ah, that mystery man at the sea--Jane’s one short summer romance? Then what happens? No one knows, alas. Cassie burned most of her letters after her death.
*Sick in 1815, dead in 1817 at 42. (Death at 42??!! And still, having written some of the best novels of all time!)
*Austen could have later in her life become a darling of the literary establishment, the opportunities were there, but she wanted none of it, would have felt awkward, so no to all the salons and public festivities.
*Evans says that Deirdre Le Faye wrote the definitive biography of Austen in 2004.
*Finally, at the center of the book visually is Jane Austen’s quilt, the central metaphor or trope of the book.
I say Patchwork is one of the great graphic works of the year....more
Will Eisner was one of the GOATs in comics history, beginning his career already in high school. Hard-working, industrious, with lots of ideas, he wasWill Eisner was one of the GOATs in comics history, beginning his career already in high school. Hard-working, industrious, with lots of ideas, he was an important figure in the establishment of comics as a form and as a cultural phenomenon. From strips to comics to graphic novels, Eisner was there to shape the form and influence the growth of the field. This comics biography shows you Eisner's early life of poverty on the lower east side of Manhattan, in part informed by his father's insistence on a life of theater set painting instead of house painting. Always broke. His parents thought Will was selling himself short but doing comics instead of some higher calling.
This volume (2025) by Steve Weiner and illustrated by Dan Mazur feels like the first of what should have been a two-volume work; in other words, the pacing of the early life seems right, about his early comics, his publishing work, his production line for comics, leading to his independent work on The Spirit, his struggle to create a personal life (with women, in particular). The work that many of us today know, such as the classic The Contract With God, the storytelling of the lower east side Jewish neighborhoods, the personal stories, this gets short shrift, imho. Since this is how I was introduced to Eisner, I was a bit disappointed that this later period feels rushed, with little attention to what this work was really about compared to The Spirit and those kind of strips and comics.
Mazur's art style perfectly connects to the intimate and loose and warm work that Eisner was known for. Over all, we get to know a lot about him and his life and that business/invention of the field aspect of his life. Eisner did finally marry and have a bit more of a life outside comics, but the flurry of ethnographic-oriented works at the end still kept coming! This is a very good comics biography, worthy of attention, especially for comics history buffs....more
Guy DeLisle, formerly of Montreal and now of France, produces his best and most serious graphic novel thus far, a biography of a nineteenth-century phGuy DeLisle, formerly of Montreal and now of France, produces his best and most serious graphic novel thus far, a biography of a nineteenth-century photographer in the context of a wide-range of other inventors, scientists, and artists. No other work from DeLisle approaches this depth of research, this sweep of history. Most of his work is autobiographical, light, often snarky, and always beautifully rendered, but this one honors a guy most people may not have been that familiar with (me included) in a biography that is also art history, a wedding of science, technology and art as a precursor to the art and science of film.
One central event that is focused on is his work with rich Leland Stanford, who wanted to prove that horses sometimes leave the ground entirely when they run. So they devised a series of experiments that required pushing the technological advancement of photography to capture moving images. You may not think this is a big deal, initially, but the story of how it gets accomplished by Muybridge with the financial backing of Stanford, that partnership and passion, is seductive and convincing and finally, in DeLisle's hands, impressive. One of the best graphic works of the year and DeLisle's best work so far.
The book includes many of Muybridge's early photographs, as well as photographs from others of the nineteenth-century, and an impressive appendix....more
I read this graphic biography written by Austen scholar Janine Barchas and illustrated by Isabel Greenburg because I love Jane Austen, once wrote an eI read this graphic biography written by Austen scholar Janine Barchas and illustrated by Isabel Greenburg because I love Jane Austen, once wrote an essay in three of her novels, and also because Isabel Greenburg illustrated it. We don't know lots of details about Austen's life, but a lot of it makes its way into this book that invents on the basis of surmise what might have transpired in the Austen house, especially focusing on Jane's lifelong relationship to her sister Cassandra.
I liked it, though it is pretty crammed with information/words, and so the rather (fittingly) whimsical illustration style of Greenburg doesn't get much chance to breathe. I liked the connection for Greenburg to her own work on the Bronte sisters in Glass Town! I liked the way Barchas works the ironic, wise-cracking sense of humor of Jane into the manuscript, and drops a few Easter eggs about the novels here and there. An extensive glossary gives Austen fans a lot more info. I dunno, maybe 3.5 is closer to my ratijng than a mere 3....more
Adrift on a Painted Sea (2024) by Brit cartoonist and illustrator Tim Bird is a tribute to his artist/librarian mother Sue Bird, some of whose watercoAdrift on a Painted Sea (2024) by Brit cartoonist and illustrator Tim Bird is a tribute to his artist/librarian mother Sue Bird, some of whose watercolors appear in this graphic biography. Tim is a professional artist; Sue gave away her paintings. So this is a family artifact about Tim's mother but is also a tribute to every day people who just do art as part of their lives without concern for fame or livelihood. Good people who observe the world closely and celebrate it.
The art styles and approaches of mother and son are very different. Tim's is digital, cartoony, brightly colored, contemporary; Sue does watercolor landscapes that appear sort of faded or sepia in comparison., unfortunately. Or maybe that's just the approach needed, as they are like memories? But in places Tim does seascapes to get the feel for his own rootedness in natural habitats. He's learned from his mum. But this is not a sentimental text; Tim seems to acknowledge he struggled to know what to say in visiting his mum in the final days, making him somehow more human to me. A sweet tribute, over all....more
George Sand: True Genius, True Woman (2024) by Seeverine Vidal and illustrated by Kim Consigny is one of these big (326 page) graphic biographies, thiGeorge Sand: True Genius, True Woman (2024) by Seeverine Vidal and illustrated by Kim Consigny is one of these big (326 page) graphic biographies, this one of female novelist George Sand, whose life and work championed women’s rights, gender expression, and sexual liberation. What does the average reader know of her? She dressed in men’s clothes from time to time, and assumed a man’s name. She wanted the freedom men have to move in the world!
George Sand is the pen name of 19th-century French writer Aurore Dupin. She wrote a number of literary works, some of which are excerpted in places here, but in general, the focus is on her libertine “romantic” (sexual) life. I’ll confess I am not sure I ever really read Sand, growing up, but the focus here is less on her work, the substance, her intentions in it, than her Life as a Woman and Writer. And resisting the trends of the times as limitations for women. Feisty, resistant, since a young child, which we frankly spend too much time on; that should have been a short section, imho. Spend more time convincing us of her “genius.” But I don't thnk it nevcesaarily convinces on that point.
Overall, the biography is straightforward, well drawn, of interest to Sand fans for sure. ...more
"All I can do is be me, whoever that is"--Bob Dylan
See Amanda's review for how well this book does in capturing Hibbing, Minnesota, where Bobbie Zimme"All I can do is be me, whoever that is"--Bob Dylan
See Amanda's review for how well this book does in capturing Hibbing, Minnesota, where Bobbie Zimmerman grew up, and Dylan's upbringing there, which is to say not bad, not great. And this "origin story" has it that he came up wanting to be like his heroes Lead Belly, Elvis, Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, on the way to meeting Woody Guthrie. An American folk hero, this book sets him up to be, which until he went electric, seemed to be largely true. Some of his early music was protest music, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Oxford Town" and "Hurricane."
"Bobby Dylan is a folk singer. . . He's a folk singer all right"--Woody Guthrie
and then he shook off that activist mantle to do whatever he wanted to do, which he has done ever since.
"Folk singers are just a bunch of fat people"--Dylan, turned electric
So this book is in keeping with that Pete Seeger hope that Dylan would lead the people into social justice, fight racism and war, which he did, but which was a short-lived period in his career. He invented his name, his pseudonym, Bob Dylan, after a favorite poet, Dylan Thomas, and became the musicologist/archivist he remains today, a student of American music and one of the greatest songwriters of all time.
Nominated, 2025 Eisner, Best Adaptation from Another Medium: The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien (2024) by John HNominated, 2025 Eisner, Best Adaptation from Another Medium: The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien (2024) by John Hendrix.
This book is the story of the relationship between two of the most influential and most popular writers of the twentieth-century. They both served in WWI, they both taught at Oxford, they shared a passion for mythology/legend/fairy stories, and so on, and were the best of friends who helped each other develop their most iconic works, The Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
The Mythmakers is a great story of a friendship, with strong research into their relationship and their views on literature, and as someone very familiar with their biographies and their literary works, and knowing they had been friends, it was worth the read. It is not really to my mind a graphic biography--not comics, really; it’s more an illustrated biography with more written text than images, but that aspect is not a real problem, I suppose. It’s a personal preference for presentation, I guess.
A thing I liked less was Hendrix’s use of two avatars to tell the story: 1) for Lewis, a lion, and 2) for Tolkien, a Gandalf figure. Those avatars are central in their greatest works, but why use them at all? They mostly relate the information, and never uncritically. This is--admittedly--a fan’s project, which is fine, but the avatars lead me to think the audience level is toward the juvenile level, whereas the information seems directed to an older audience of long time fans? These characters are sometimes a little silly for my taste. The talk is obviously made up in most places, but I can't imagine it would be that goofy.
But over all, I did like the story Hendrix tells, and I learned some things about their friendship and artmaking and their personal lives. I like these guys, so that part of it is still great for me. And the production in general is colorful, with lots of resources and notes. I think it deserves that recognition by the Eisners, and recommend it for fans. In some of my nit-picking, I'd still say 4 stars. ...more
I was glad to get to know the artist Ruth Asawa and her work in this short graphic biography that I could see both young adults and adults learning frI was glad to get to know the artist Ruth Asawa and her work in this short graphic biography that I could see both young adults and adults learning from. Ruth's family was "disrupted" (scattered, lives devastated) by the terrible Internment horror this country perpetrated in vengeance on Japanese-American families in response to Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Asawa always wanted to be an artist; she never wanted to be a farmer as her parents had been and expected her to do. Still, she was influenced by her family--as so many artists have been--to do something more "practical," so enrolled in an art education program in Minnesota until the director of the program refused--to protect her, he told her--to place her in student teaching because of the virulent anti-Japanese racism at the time.
So sometimes things work out for the best, and without options in MInnesota she decided to follow her most desired path to get a degree in Art at Black Mountain College, where she worked with such geniuses as Josef Albers, Buckminister Fuller, and Merce Cunningham, and later Imogene Cunningham. She became a great artist, following a path she had always been interested in, focused on design, shape, space.
Here's some of her art, if you want to check it out. She's best known for her work with wire sculptures, shaping them, as you see on the cover of the book, but here's more if you are interested.
I am the first in this cat-loving family to read this book I waited a long time for from my library, but everyone will read it in this house, I am surI am the first in this cat-loving family to read this book I waited a long time for from my library, but everyone will read it in this house, I am sure of that. Nothing is entirely surprising about it, if you own a cat (or two, and in this house there have been many more at the same time, and always a cat). It's the story of the life and death of a kind of grumpy cat, Linney, in a two-child family. We have two cats in this house now, one of them grumpy (to me, at least) and we had another grumpy cat die last year. We fostered kittens for years, when the kids were little. Adorable.
I am sort of like the husband in the story, though, resentful of the (a----ole) cats for various reasons, in that they are not as warm and appreciative of my allowing them space in my world as I would like them to be. The neighbors have two warm and cuddly and sweet cats! Why not us?! Waah! (Woe!)
You can't dislike this book even if you never read a word in it, because Knisley's coloring is as usual spectacularly seductive. Apricot-hued, as Linney says, against sky-blue. And then all the other warm colors in the universe. And the page layouts are great. And there's some inevitable cat humor about this woeful, despairing cat (that they got from a shelter when he was four).
I was reminded of the life and death of another sad pet, recounted in The Diary of Edward the Hamster, 1990-1990, by Ezra and Miriam Elia. ...more
The third in a series by Mikael about Harlem, this one focusing on Stephanie Saint-Clair, aka Queenie—the infamous criminal who made herself a legend The third in a series by Mikael about Harlem, this one focusing on Stephanie Saint-Clair, aka Queenie—the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in Harlem in the 1930s. Born on a plantation in the French colony of Martinique, she rose to power as a bootlegger and racketeer, mainly known for her control of the numbers racket. Like her better known NYC Godfathers, Queenie became rich and powerful but also supported her community, supporting people in need, giving loans, and so on. Dutch Schulz saw the kind of money she was making and wanted to strong arm her into turning over her operation--I mean, come on, she was a woman, and black! what can she do against the mob?!--to him, which set off a war.
I just read another book about Queenie: Godmother of Harlem by Elizabeth Colomba, which is more factual and less of an engaging story, so it would be good to look at them together if you want some background on this fascinating history. That one is black and white and more intentionally journalistic in illustration style.
Why did you know about the Five Families, and not Queenie? Well, you tell me but at one point she was among the richest women in the country. Some of this story deals with romance, and gets more deeply into her independent and fiercely committed character. Who wins in the fight between Schulz and Queenie? Read to find out, and you'll find some terrifically romantic thriller artwork, sepia-washed and beautiful....more
An introduction to an acclaimed and controversial figure, Stephanie Saint-Clair, aka Queenie—the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in HarlemAn introduction to an acclaimed and controversial figure, Stephanie Saint-Clair, aka Queenie—the infamous criminal who made herself a legend in Harlem in the 1930s. Born on a plantation in the French colony of Martinique, she rose to power as a bootlegger and racketeer, mainly known for her control of the numbers racket. Like her better known NYC Godfathers, Queenie became rich and powerful but also supported her community, supporting people in need, giving loans, and so on. Dutch Schulz saw the kind of money she was making and wanted to strong arm her into turning over her operation--I mean, come on, she was a woman, and black! what can she do against the mob?!--to him, which set off a war.
There's a lot of historical research that went into this black and white graphic novel, but it privileges information over story, unlike Mikael's Harlem, which is also a graphic biography of Queenie. I think if you wanted to know about a black woman crime magnate in NYC, I would read both of these graphic novels. You get a better sense of Queenie as person (and others as persons) in Mikael's book, but this is good!...more
Little People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling biography series for kids that explores the lives of outstanding people, and this contribution, like the oLittle People, BIG DREAMS is a best-selling biography series for kids that explores the lives of outstanding people, and this contribution, like the others, is written by Mª Isabel Sánchez Vegara, focused on British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, who fought for women's rights. I thought I would review this during the lead-up to the 2024 US Presidential election, the day after the first "debate," which was disappointing for all sorts of reasons. One guy was raging and lying, the other shaky, but a good man and a good President, so you know I am voting for good vs. totalitarianism and vengeful chaos. . . and f0r the guy who is most likely to help protect women's rights! Be the change that Pankhurst modeled for us!
The story is engaging, and important, and I like the similarly engaging/inviting illustration work of Ana Sanfelippo....more
"An historical and emotional journey through my family and my roots that are grown between Europe and Asia. A personal narrative that needs to be shar"An historical and emotional journey through my family and my roots that are grown between Europe and Asia. A personal narrative that needs to be shared and hopefully arouses empathy in the reader." -- Elisa Macellari
Thai-Italian Elisa Macellari publishes her first graphic work, more or less a biography of her grandfather, whose circuitous journey from Thailand to Italy to study and meet his wife during WWII is beautifully drawn and (especially)invitingly colored, an amazing tale or series of tales (a kind of papaya salad of interconnected stories) as improbable as they are engaging.
Reminded me (a bit, but with less anguish and without Holocaust horrors and narrator complications) of a similarly improbable and romantic thriller about WWII, Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Luckily for the family Macellari's grandfather skirts the edge of Hitler/Mussolini fascism, but it also seems a little peripheral to the main action, except Americans in Italy mistreated Thais and other Asian as if they were also responsible for Pearl Harbor, spitting on them, and so on.
I thought, too, of The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Fleming, another graphic biography detailing all sorts of family secrets about her grandfather, who also suffered from racism as a Chinese performer in the first half of the twentieth century.
I like the wordless ending, where grandfather and author connect. It made me think: How important it is that we write down all our family stories and share them with our grandchildren. ...more
I just reread this impressive collection of the three Richard Stark Parker novels Darwyn Cooke adapted for comics ebfore his untimely death. Ed BrubakI just reread this impressive collection of the three Richard Stark Parker novels Darwyn Cooke adapted for comics ebfore his untimely death. Ed Brubaker takes the lead in this tribute, a slipcased collection with lots of new pages and covers and a story and panel discussion on Cooke. It's a tribute and mazing collection. I read and reviewed all the Parker novels and each of the the adaptations. I highly recommend you get it from your library! Amazing artifact!...more
Sunday is a graphic novel by Belgian comics master Olivier Schrauwen I was lucky to find on Net Galley in progress Nominee for Eisner Best Album 2025!
Sunday is a graphic novel by Belgian comics master Olivier Schrauwen I was lucky to find on Net Galley in progress initially. Thanks to the author, Fantagraphics and Net Galley for the early look of a book published 19/15/2024. I should say I am a big fan of Schrauwen's work, so I was excited to read it, inclined to like it. And I did, or do! The book is like much of Schrauwen's work, formally experimental, an investigation of how story can happen in a comics medium. This story is a fictionalized version of one day in the life of his cousin, Thibault. It's not a remarkable day; rather, it is a typical day for this loner. Not much happens. The mundane happens, as Thibault thinks, listens to music, does a bit of work, checks his phone, drinks coffee, watches tv. He's vain, not particularly interesting, so this is finally hilarious, in a way. Or if you are looking f9r engagement with fascinating people, it just may be boring (Rod Brown, I'm looking at you).
Se we know books that try to "capture" human consciousness. Think Joyce's long Ulysses as an attempt to detail one day in the life of a Dubliner. Proust's' autofictional story dealing, for instance, in something like 50 pages, a couple hours of a boy thinking and feeling as he goes to bed. In comics we have daily diary comics; you catalogue whether anything remarkable happens or not. A commentary on life: it's mostly mundane and not epic for most of us every day. Joyce calls his novel of a mundane Dublin day Ulysses, which is to say a mock-epic title. The same title would work here, in a way. A quest!
Thibault listens to James Brown, drinks coffee, works a bit, thinks about sex quite a bit, masturbates, listens to music, obsesses about a relationship. Many small panels, highlighted by color. Otherwise, mostly random thoughts. One story is a little more surreal tha many stories, but it still feels "real" to human experience. Would it appeal to folks who just like to read stories to be entertained? Thrillers? Probably not. But you get some insight into "the human condition" and comics here. I really like it....more