I first reading Teresa Wong's Dear Scarlet, her memoir about navigating post-partum depression, which I really liked and learned from. Wong continues I first reading Teresa Wong's Dear Scarlet, her memoir about navigating post-partum depression, which I really liked and learned from. Wong continues her life story through a story about the always divide between an immigrant family and her children. Wong never spoke much to her parents, but wanted to have a better relationship with them. Generational divide. They are so different! Of course, all children do not fully know their parents. Sure, you can create a ten-hour oral history about your parents as I did, finding I still did not know much about them, as they had lived decades before me, of course.
One of the things Wong wanted to know about, especially as she got older, was the dramatic story of how her parents escaped China, but they really never wanted to talk about it. Wong's mother seems to fend out approaches left and right; they were never close, and she resisted Wong's efforts. Wong, ever the dutiful daughter, nevertheless forgives her parents for their emotional neglect at every turn. This made me sad, though as a dutiful son denied access to his Dutch roots by my parents--who feared refugee backlash and discrimination, as others had experienced--I understand these complicated feelings.
In many ways thi is a kind of typical story of generational divide, but meticulous in trying to fill in gaps everywhere, taking years to complete with all her research. Surely this is an even better story than Dear Scarlet, with better drawing and more sophisticated cartooning skills. Thanks to Goodreads pal and comics artist David Bruggink and the author for sending me a copy t0 review. ...more
Chrysanthemum Under The Waves by Maggie Umber (October 22. 2024) is her first long form work, weighing in at 300 pages, though it is also a collectionChrysanthemum Under The Waves by Maggie Umber (October 22. 2024) is her first long form work, weighing in at 300 pages, though it is also a collection of nine pieces (some very short, some a little longer) she accomplished for over 6 years, mainly from 2016-2021, during which her marriage ended, the foundation for the anguish and melancholy beauty of this book. She calls it a book of mourning, which also speaks to the loss of her health and the end of her working with her ex at a comics press they helped develop together. And the physical/psychic conditions imposed by the pandemic figure in as well.
But the book began with an appreciation of horror, as she is a Shirley Jackson fan, among other artists, with a focus on the mythological tradition of tales about James Harris, also known as the Daemon lover. Then, as she writes in her afterword, she began to realize it was also about herself, her marriage, her work, her life. For someone as young as she appears to be (I met her as I had before at CAKE, the 2024 Chicago Alt Comix expo), I would hesitate to suggest it might be her “life’s work” but I’ll propose that it is that so far for two reasons; 1) this is a deeply personal project, dealing very much with her “life’s work,” at least the work of her life, until now, and 2) it is her most ambitious work, by far. I’ll call it art comics, too, to distinguish it from alt comix, as the painterly image is central here. And it’s most often wordless, or privileging the image. The fact that it involved linking so many separate pieces and many of them wordless, it could be challenging to many readers, for sure. It was for me, but it pays off for the work I invested. I can’t wait to see it in paper next month. It’s tremendous.
The cover sets the tone and speaks maybe to grief, with smudging here and there of words perhaps connoting grief and the disorientation that sometimes accompanies it with tears. And the wet rotting decay that is associated with gothic horror? Water, under water, under waves
Epigraph: “I sought my image in the scorching glass, for what fire could damage a witch’s face?”--Sylvia PLath
Sections: *Introduction: in which Umber names and identifies the central figure of the Daemon Lover, a popular ballad dating from the mid-seventeenth century, aka "James Harris," "A Warning for Married Women", “The Man in the Long Black Coat,” and others, where a woman [including Umber herself] succumbs to this tempter (not a femme fatale, but a homme fatale).
*Those Fucking Eyes is wordless, depicting mainly a woman with eyes closed, perhaps seduced by Harris’s eyes. Mysterious, passionate, then a disturbing photo where the image of a figure is obscured, severely smudged, maybe pointing seduction/trauma. Watercolors. Theme of forties gothic romance, forties films begins, wordless.
*Rine features drawing, a big house in the woods, trees, isolated images, the gothic contemplative, chrysanthemum theme, distorted face of Harris, haunting, wordless
*Intoxicated depicts more delirious dangerous passion, featuring usually a ghostly pale face without distinct features, a punchbowl, with alcohol one, presumes, the place (or a bar) where fateful meetings between future lovers takes place, often leading to a kiss, a stage in a relationship… again, vague perhaps daemon-ish features or lack thereof. With an overlay of sort of sepia-toned, old photo wash. . . creating a sense of ambiguity. And maybe these folks are from the Victorian age, as this daemon lover is timeless.
*The Devil is a Hell of a Dancer features a poem about a woman setting foot on a ship with no mariners on it. . . until we meet the devil:
“Oh yon is the mountain of hell/where you and I will go.”
The words as always are smeared (under waves, tears, rotting gothic. . .)
“Old saying: when you dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change, the devil changes you."
To “dance with the devil” is to engage in risky, reckless, or potentially immoral behavior. And she does, with this Harris.
*Chrysanthemum (formerly The Daemon Lover): Again, forties noir film vibe, Katherine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Vertigo’s Kim Novak? … forties and fifties Shirley Jackson and Hitchcock fashionable and well-dressed women, surrounded by Chrysanthemums, Psycho hotel tryst?
[Chrysanthemums are generally associated with happiness, friendship, and well-being. However, yellow chrysanthemums can also be used to express neglected love or sorrow.]
Again, in Chrysanthemums, it’s a feature-less-faced man, with one even creepier frame of a man with two black dots for eyes (yikes). He leaves, she goes out to get groceries and returns to an abandoned apartment, in ruins, he’s gone.
To prepare for my reading of this chapter, I reread Shirley Jackson’s “The Daemon Lover,” on which Umber’s story is in part based. A story of a woman abandoned on her wedding day, the Harris guy nowhere to be found, a true real life horror, standing at the altar (and I have been to a couple of these events that were not finally weddings, everyone in shock). Fundamentally about a man’s lack of commitment to her and the devastation that entails.
Daemon mythology: a supernatural being whose nature is intermediate between that of a god and that of a human being.
*There is Water: Short, elliptical, watercolor washes, under water, waves, drowning, Hitchcock’s Rebecca, or maybe its this physical sense of Vertigo as in Hitchcock's film
The text: Blood displaces slumber/if the desert dominates Somewhere else there is water
*The Witch: A castle in the clouds, where a witch lives, ominous dark scenes--a reversal or inversion, maybe, where a woman is a dark figure, but there’s a mysterious dark man here, too, and dogs… The Innocents based on Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, or any gothic mansion in Jackson… a horse drawn carriage… the man meets the woman in the woods . a kiss, passion taking her down, down. . . and later, rowing in a boat. . .two terrifying frames of an open, toothy mouth
*The Tooth: A wordless comic also collected in Rob Kirby’s The Shirley Jackson Project: Comics Inspired by her Life and Work, a rendering of her story. So yeah, rabbit hole, I actually reread “The Tooth” from Jackson, and Umber’s rendering is maybe her least ethereal drawing, more of a pretty straight interpretation or Jackson’s story, but capturing the unsettling vibe. The woman is controlled by her tooth, and with the pain killers she takes, disoriented, increasingly in body horror.
“Her tooth, which had brought her here unerringly, seemed now the only part of her to have any identity. It seemed to have had its picture taken without her; it was the important creature which must be recorded and examined and gratified; she was only its unwilling vehicle”--Jackson
The tooth is about Umber’s own physical/psychic “demise” (that forties word) that she went through, that dissociating, isolating occurrence of ill health.
*The Rock: Layered, shadowy, in a boat again, a woman in a long gown, with a man; , he touches her lower back. The rock is an island of rock where she goes to meet him, and again, to meet her demise.
Afterword: In the afterword Umber says she had beenwriting about James Harris, the daemon lover figure, highlighted in Shirley Jackson and elsewhere historically, then was left by her husband, and then realized, “The more I plunged in the darkness, the more I saw myself.” I am reminded of Yale psych literary critic who said your favorite stories are always to a great extent autobiographical. True here! Hauntingly so!
The best way to read/experience this collection is to just experience it before you read anything in the intro or afterwords, where certain things may become clearer, and then you can do as I did, reread it with her words as a guide. You see mirrors, water, decay, duplications, repetitions.
Umber says at one point as she was working she played the soundtrack from Hitchcock’s Vertigo sound track on repeat. Yeah, Kim Novak haunts this text as much as Shirley Jackson and James Harris:
“As I layered the woodblocks, sorrow mixed with sweetness”--Umber, somewhat restored in the process of her work, healed by it to some extent.
Fabulous project, one of my faves of the year, without question. Get it when it comes out, and see a book rollout event if you can here in Chicago or across the country. Thanks, Maggie, and congrats, and sorry to all readers for this erratic pile of notes toward a review. ...more
I am a huge Roca fan and I am glad he is trying different things, and since there is a kind of melancholy air to a lot of his (excellent) work I get iI am a huge Roca fan and I am glad he is trying different things, and since there is a kind of melancholy air to a lot of his (excellent) work I get it that he would want to try something more personal and humorous and self-deprecating. This book is about him as middle-aged cartoonist, as in he gets to stay home in his pajamas drawing and storytelling all day, but it also has fun with his encounters with people, his wife, fame, and so on. it reminds me of Adrian Tomine's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist, also funny and self=deprecating and insightful on the day to day work of cartooning they both know people ask about all the time at book roll-outs and comics expos.
Because of the format--densely packed panels, too many per page--I was a bit overwhelmed and tended to skim, which I have never done with his work. I might have trimmed the book by at least a third if not half, as the pay-off for the insights and humor is not all that great, usually. But hey, he's trying to make himself more accessible and human here, and I appreciate that. And he's also becoming more and more accessible and admirable through his better and better artwork....more
An engaging and ambitious coming-of-age graphic novel that is based on the memoirs of three girls/women, each of them Asian, at 16, tacking back and fAn engaging and ambitious coming-of-age graphic novel that is based on the memoirs of three girls/women, each of them Asian, at 16, tacking back and forth between their stories, though focused on what it might have been like for them at the iconic age of 16, one in Guangdong in 1954, one in Hong Kong in 1972 the third in Toronto in 2000. Besides facing concerns about looks, relationships, career hopes, the book also looks at how war at the time impacted the girls. Accessible, with humor and compassion. Recommended!...more
I think this may be my sixth graphic novel by the great Paco Roca, Return to Eden (2024). He wrote a kind of tribute to his father, and now this one iI think this may be my sixth graphic novel by the great Paco Roca, Return to Eden (2024). He wrote a kind of tribute to his father, and now this one is in tribute to his mother, to his larger family, to post-Dranco Spain, to the poor who survived these times--the constant hunger, the victim-blaming, and the joys--the Edenic moments--as captured in photographs, in particular family moments. Many of us have these photographs that we cherish. One photograph in particular encapsulates best her past is one of her family at a Valencian beach in 1947. So Roca takes this photograph and looks at each person and all that is buried in that photo to look at his mother’s, his family’s, and Spain’s history.
I loved the model it provides for writers/artists. One photo embodies a world, so much complexity behind those smiles. And there are other photographs, too, in the book, that resonate for him. Like me, Roca is getting older, a time when you maybe reflect a bit more. I love his tribute to his mother and his complicated family, and a chronicle of post-Franco struggles. Roca also focused on Franco in Winter of the Cartoonist, powerfully as well. Here, it is onene photograph, a time of possibilities and hope where some of the faultines become clear. For me this was an event of the year. I think young people might not appreciate it as much, maybe, because of the focus on family member, but that is the very reason I loved it. It's complex, layered, and has much tenderness in it. ...more
I picked this up from the new graphic novels shelf at my library because of the title, which I assumed to be some kind of punk rebellion story. It is I picked this up from the new graphic novels shelf at my library because of the title, which I assumed to be some kind of punk rebellion story. It is actually a coming-of-age story about an Israeli woman who grew up on a settlement within an Orthodox community and family. The central theme seems to be her rejection of her religion, in conjunction with her exploration of sex, body image, alcohol, tattoos, all the things her family and faith would strenuously reject.
Givne there's a violent war on, I wish she might have spoken to the fact that she grew up on contested territory, as this is released in 2024. The publisher's description of the book speaks of her having lived in "a region split by religious tensions and sometimes violent conflict," but she largely skirts these issues compared to the time she spends on sex and religion. She doesn't focus too much on her family, either, really, though she dedicates the book to her parents (but that title must have rattled their conservative foundations a bit? Ouch, for them).
Sherman-Friedman seems like a talented artist; I'll read other things she does, likely....more
You may know Edel Rodriguez through his political covers, such as ones on Time Magazine re: Trump. I didn't think I knew who this guy was until later You may know Edel Rodriguez through his political covers, such as ones on Time Magazine re: Trump. I didn't think I knew who this guy was until later in the book when I saw the covers, very familiar to me. Now I know his story. "Worm" is what Castro called the folks who fled Cuba in 1980 as Edel did when he was nine as part of the Mariel Boatlift.
I'm not Cuban, and have not yet been there (though plan to go there with a class studying popular education there in June 2025) but am well aware that Fidel Castro (and Che Guevara and others exiled by Castro's predecessor Batista) remains a controversial figure in Cuban (and world) history. Cubans seem to be split (and I don't really know how evenly) on his legacy. People seem to agree that the (brutal) dictator Batista needed to be replaced, and welcomed Castro, initially. He and his compatriots put in place universal and free education for everyone, that remains in place today.
In Edel's account, Castro became a dictator, siding with Russia and Communism over connections to the US, prompting the US to create an embargo, denying US citizens the right to visit (and of course, create business connections). There's still a lot of poverty there. I'll leave it at that and not get into the debate, and continue to read about Cuba from all perspectives). Edel's story has it that his father was making money in lots of clandestine ways and not hiding his work well enough, warned the family had to leave.
The last part of the book makes the link between dictator Castro and presumptive dictator Trump, both making totalitarian moves Rodriguez finds similar, and we see how Rodriguez developed into a leftist political artist and now cartoonist. His work is striking and impressive, standing against facism of all stripes. ...more
My fourth Julie Delporte book, a break-up diary or journal. I went through it pretty quickly; she makes it easy to connect through her cursive letteriMy fourth Julie Delporte book, a break-up diary or journal. I went through it pretty quickly; she makes it easy to connect through her cursive lettering (okay, sometimes the letters slow me down) and colorful, loose drawing. This she says is an experiment in new colors for her, lighter, brighter.
One key thing here is that this journal came out in 2013 and it depicts the end of a relationship with a man. In Portrait of a Body (2024) she comes out as a lesbian, realizing that this has taken many years and many relationships with men to realize this. In this 2013 journal she says that she thinks she no longer wants relationships with men, only friendships. And then it takes a decade for her to finally realize she is gay. But hey, there are myriad routes and pacing for some people to come to know who they are, it's a process, and not just a coming-of-age teen process, of course....more
Portrait of my Body (2024) by Julie Delporte is my third experience with her graphic work, and once again I am seduced by the intimacy of it; first, tPortrait of my Body (2024) by Julie Delporte is my third experience with her graphic work, and once again I am seduced by the intimacy of it; first, the colored pencil and watercolor washes, the looseness and emotional register of it, all the contemplative white space to breathe and feel, and second, her honesty, her forthrightness. Portrait is a kind of personal essay about her coming out as a lesbian--a “late-life lesbian--at the age of 35, as she just begins to make sense of her past and present life. It has sexual trauma in it and dissociation and friendship/sex with many men, and then, a shift, wherein her life begins to make sense for her (and others). And is not now suddenly Nirvana, of course. But it's an important step in her understanding herself, and so inviting to read.
"What didn't kill me didn't make me stronger. Time hasn't healed all wounds. And yet here I am, still very much alive."
The drawings are in part inspired by this shift to appreciate her and other women’s bodies, lots of Georgia O’Keefe flowers, and so on, but “the point” of the art is never pointed; it tells a related but often peripheral story of who she is and what she values in the world. A range of beauty. She quotes lots of reading she is doing. And she never makes it seem like she is “one thing,” but complicated, as with respect to her epigraph from Adrienne Rich: “If you think you can grasp me, think again. My story flows in more than one direction. A delta springing from the river bed. With five fingers spread.”
I liked it a lot; I read it once in one sitting. Then read it again, mainly looking at the “story” the images seemed to tell me. I think this is not an uncommon story, to come out late. I have family members that did this, and others who I expect still will. Many friends I know. Many will read and relate to it. I think she'll write more and more about this process of coming out. ...more
Middle grades graphic memoir. The hook for me and probably others is this: When Liz Montague was a senior in college, she wrote to the New Yorker, askMiddle grades graphic memoir. The hook for me and probably others is this: When Liz Montague was a senior in college, she wrote to the New Yorker, asking them why they didn't publish more inclusive comics. The New Yorker wrote back asking if she could recommend any. She yes, me.
So shetalks of her dyslexia a bit, how she came to art as a better form of expression. It takes us through the story of her life step by step til age 22, and is not all that memorable imo, but may be inspiring for young ones who like art/comics, want to know how one comes to a career. Like: How did I become a comics artist? And how do I actually get published in the New Yorker, a publication not recognizable to the average middle grades kid.
Intending to be more funny than provocative on issues of race and what it meant for her to grow up in a majority white community/school. I'd rate it 2.5 stars, rounding up for the nudge to promoting greater representation in publishing....more
An exuberant and highly engaging graphic memoir weighing in at 496 pages, and I read every page, in spite of the fact that it is essentially a coming-An exuberant and highly engaging graphic memoir weighing in at 496 pages, and I read every page, in spite of the fact that it is essentially a coming-out story, but get this: Maurice Vellekoop grew up a decade after me in the (Dutch) Christian Reformed Church in a suburb of Toronto. This is a smallish Calvinist sect I also grew up in, but my early life was in Dutch western Michigan. And what he establishes is still true, that the church condemns homosexuality, and is fracturing today as a result. My family fractured over these issues a decade ago and are now very much fracturing again over this very issue, I sadly report. Making profession of faith, Calvinist Cadets (like Boy Scouts but with The Bible as guide, instead of the Boy Scout Handbook; I was allowed to be in the Scouts, because the Cadets would not allow Sunday camping and my parents agreed to allow me, though the kids in my family could not swim or bike on Sundays; movies were frowned on by the church, no dancing, and so on).
VelleKoop loves three women more than anyone in the world, his mother--featured with him on the cover--his sister, and Carole Burnett (where his title comes from, the closing of the Carol Burnett Show). A lot of love and energy in his early life, in spite of his father's raging.
Maurice/Mo manages to leave his gray CR life find color as an illustrator and lover of the arts--films, opera, art museums, fine food, travel, a successful career in illustration--and the vibrant colors are splashed throughout his book. It ends with a pretty moving series of therapy epiphanies with regard to his mother and father that reminded me of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Are You My Mother? There's a parade of friends and laughs throughout and some depression that requirestherapy, but ultimately he celebrates his life and honors his family....more
A collection of nine stories the author illustrated relayed to her by adults with developmental disabilities such as adhd and asd. The sad thing aboutA collection of nine stories the author illustrated relayed to her by adults with developmental disabilities such as adhd and asd. The sad thing about the stories is that so few family members or teachers were supportive of these individuals as they grew up. Some 0f this may have to do with perfectionist, mono-cultural Japan where everyone must try has hard as they can to be successfuly at everything they do. Little tolerance for differences.
Most of the authors confess they often blamed themselves for failing to meet standards set by teacher sand parents, but the bullying by peers and teachers and parents was just maddening, devastating. One father with obvious disabilities fails to support his own daughter who exhibits similar traits. Such societal struggle to be to be tolerated, to be understood. So much depression and anxiety in so many as a result and not surprising.
But another thread is the resilience of those who shared their stories. Meds helped many. Some found a single counselor or teacher or family member who supported them and tried to work with them instead of constantly against them. I am reading this with a young person close to me, recently diagnosed, sometimes bullied, much supported and loved in his family but misunderstood and under-appreciated by others over the years. But we are working especially hard to create safety nets for him as he approaches adulthood....more
An engaging tale of Thien Pham's family's escape from Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam war. He and his family get to a Thai refugee camp by boat (andAn engaging tale of Thien Pham's family's escape from Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam war. He and his family get to a Thai refugee camp by boat (and had all their money robbed by pirates)--we came to know these fortunate folks who survived as "the boat people"--and eventually to San Jose, California. One point he makes is that most people welcomed them and supported them and did what they could to help them find them resources and jobs. Churches sponsored refugees at that time. As I said, it's completely engaging and inspiring, and unsurprising in many ways, but still very good.
Food--the taste of a rice ball on that boat still stays in his memory--and the change in diet, the importance of family and eating, all permeates the story. He came to love potato chips!
Near the end of the book he compares the attitudes his refugee family faced versus what is going on now, as fewer and fewer people support refugees.
One thing I loved was the appendix, where he answers reader questions: What did your parents think of the story? "I like that you depicted your mom as the hero," Dad tells him. "I AM the hero!" Mom says. What kind of games did you play in the refugee camp? Do you still see Dick (the first guy who took them in). (yes, he does!).
I began teaching high school English in Holland, Michigan in 1975, and was completel y unprepared as area churches lovingly sponsored Vietnamese refugees. Few of the kids that came to the high school knew any English at all, and I had no ESL experience, so we had to invent a curriculum, which was exciting for a young teacher, though I was not centrally involved in all the planning. I was myself a newbie as a teacher, making up teaching as I went along, teaching courses I had never taught before. So I could (a little bit, at least?) relate to the shock of the new, but I soon realized my challenges were nothing like theirs....more
I am not always sure why I keep reading the horror story that is Kabi Nagata's life, laid out for us in what she calls diary comics--I expect it may bI am not always sure why I keep reading the horror story that is Kabi Nagata's life, laid out for us in what she calls diary comics--I expect it may be serialized in Japan?--but comes to us in thr west as a memoir of a particular aspect of her troubled life: Lesbian, lonely, mentally ill, eating disorder, alcoholic, socially anxiety, and internationally known manga artist chronicling all of it. Her first (?) published work, in her late twenties, documents in somewhat sensational fashion, herself as a lonely and sexually inexperienced woman visiting an escort service: My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness.
My Pancreas Broke continues her struggles with alcoholism, leaqding to severe bouts of pancreatitis and hospitalization. The book agonizingly and with brutal honesty details her "slips' on the road to health. At the close of the book it appears she has been sober for awhile, and in an appendix she urges others with addiction issues to seek the medical help she shows herself resisting for much of the book. We are sympathetic about Nagata's struggles, though our hearts also go out to her paranets, who continue to seek ways to love and support her. At one low point in the book, her father says he sees her as a "treasure," which is very moving.
So why read this horrific train wreck of a life?
1) Because Nagata helps us see herself clearly, in all her struggles, and helps us to see the state she is in; she is honest and writes clearly; this can only be helpful to those millions with similar struggles; 2) Because Nagata is not a "train wreck," but a human being suffering as may today are; 2) Because Nagata is a very fine artist, who manages to entertain even as we agonize for her; I never feel like I don't want to read; I read it in one sitting; 3) I have family members (and students) with mental health and addiction issues, and I am sometimes impatient, lost about what to do, facing the limits of my empathy. I look to Nagata's parents for guidance, just parents who don't know how to help their kid, but do what they can. 4) I have gall bladder issues, and her discussion of eating with pancreatitis is actually relevant for me. ...more
Congrats for the Eisner 2024 Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia: My Picture Diary, by Fujiwara Maki, translation by Ryan Holmberg (DrawnCongrats for the Eisner 2024 Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia: My Picture Diary, by Fujiwara Maki, translation by Ryan Holmberg (Drawn & Quarterly)
Fujiwara Maki, a sixties avant-garde actress in Japan, was the wife of manga-ka Yoshiharu Tsuge whose The Man Without Talent was based on the same period Maki covers in her Picture Diary, the early eighties, when Tsuge’s mental health severely deteriorated as they both raised their daughter. Maki’s diary came about at the suggestion of her husband, and it is basically a “mom” journal, with her taking care of her daughter and husband, cooking and cleaning, as the money dwindled.
The diary itself is fairly simple drawn, with a simple text on each facing page, opening each entry with the weather for the day. And it’s not every day for the year or two it covers. But if you slow down you see the “creative solutions” to food prep they had to take as money was tight, and social challenges. It’s not all that interesting as an artifact except in that it broadens our sense of that time, two struggling artists, raising a toddler, facing mental health issues of Tsuge seen from her perspective, with very little art getting done.
And Tsuge is occasionally abusive, discouraging her theater work, and they both seem sometimes helpless, needing extra care, obviously. I’d say three stars for the actual diary itself, if you just picked it up and didn’t know anything about this artist or her husband.
But this is yet another amazing contribution to our understanding of Japanese manga with yet another fine essay by translator and comics historian Ryan Holmberg, curated by Drawn & Quarterly. This is the first English translation of a book that has never been out of print since it was first published in Japan in 1982. So with the framing essay it could well be a 4 star book....more
A big graphic memoir by comics strip and editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell about his navigation of racial politics across the span of his life. EngaginA big graphic memoir by comics strip and editorial cartoonist Darrin Bell about his navigation of racial politics across the span of his life. Engaging and troubling, it opens with an early encounter he has as a kid with Dobermans that symbolize other aggressions he faces as a bi-racial (Jewish white mother and black father) American. His parents have "the talk" with the young Bell early on about how white people will treat him differently, a talk the adult Bell still must have decades later with his own son.
Bell creates a successful career in spite of the challenges he faces. The art is, in the manner of a lot of editorial cartooning, focused on key dimensions of the action with sparse backgrounds. A big book that doesn't take long to read, and introduced me to a guy whose work I didn't know....more
Roz Chast is a kind of national treasure. So you know, even though I almost never recall my dreams and don’t relish morning renditions of dreams by otRoz Chast is a kind of national treasure. So you know, even though I almost never recall my dreams and don’t relish morning renditions of dreams by others (just jealous, I know), I of course raced through this for the laughs. And there are laughs of course. This is Roz Chast.
Chast frames the book as research, citing various experts on dreams, and I know all that from my own previous explorations (I kept a dream journal to help me kick start my dream recollections, hoping to mine them for fictional ideas, but alas, not much came of it; I have dusty books here on dreams by Freud and Jung and so on), so I zoomed through those sections (the Kabbalah says. . ) to get to the jokes.
Chast organizes the book into different kinds of dreams she has: Recurring dreams, lucid dreaming, dreams of celebrities, cartoon/comics-idea dreams, nightmares, and tells funny stories of dreams about Ted Lasso, her body, teeth, green beans, messages from God.
She dreamed that a new word for penis was "sharon"?!
There are serious dreams, too, such as one where she gets a call from her crying (deceased) mother. Yeah, some are a bit disturbing, sad.
Short book, pretty fun, a foray into the absurdity of dream logic. Maybe time to restart that dream journal. ...more
Picture book icon (the now eighty-sic year old) Allen Say's new (2023) memoir about how the eight-year-old Allen saw three bullies holding a sparrow aPicture book icon (the now eighty-sic year old) Allen Say's new (2023) memoir about how the eight-year-old Allen saw three bullies holding a sparrow and bartered all his treasures for it, raised it and made it his friend. You don't know Allen Say?! Read Drawing from Memory, Miss Irwin, and so many others. Sweet, thoughful, humane. Lovely, delicate drawings, with gentle, inviting colors. And I like the back matter and back cover where you see the early pencil sketches he did for the book....more
A comics artist who often writes with perfect candor about her life looks back on a key broken friendship. Why did it happen? Later, she finds out andA comics artist who often writes with perfect candor about her life looks back on a key broken friendship. Why did it happen? Later, she finds out and finds it hard to forgive, but there is finally some resolution. Maybe it's the teacher in me, but I was less interested in the relationship itself--we all have broken relationships and pain and regret--than the artistic process she went through to get her loss and grief. It's a kind of model for anyone how to dig into your past.
The artifact is not really comics; it's more a collage or multi-genre project involving scraps of emails, texts, letters, photographs against differently colored backgrounds (f they were similarly colored, it would have sent a message of coherence and resolution, but it is jarringly varied in effects, reflecting the fractures. Fracturing). But a fine piece of personal art founded in anguish....more
A difficult read about a difficult subject, Hayley Gold's severe struggles with anorexia nervosa. Family dusyfunction, multiple hospitalizations whereA difficult read about a difficult subject, Hayley Gold's severe struggles with anorexia nervosa. Family dusyfunction, multiple hospitalizations where her angry is not quite balanced out with her sense of humor, though there is some bleak humor throughout. Gold doucments terrible experiences at hime and in medical care, and she's hard on everyone, including readers. She's not a warm person, even yelling at her readers at one point. She ios hard on mpst people, actually, so she doesn't always go for the entertainment or deep connections with her readers.
Of course a story about a still common disprder like this will be hard to read, though I do think it will be uesful for people suffering with this and related disorders, and for families living with these folks. I was not a fan of the art, even the coloring pushed me away, and she writes panels with a lot of words in them. Too many words, I say! So I have had it around for a while and was not inclined to read it many times because it was physically as hard to read for me as was the hard sad angry story itself. I just know she is calling me an asshole as she reads my review! I actually imagined it! So let me quickly say I wish you well, Hayley, and I hope you get better and people get better because of your book. You've had a hard life. And you are really smart and articulate about what you have experienced.
One thing I found weird is that there is only one image in the book of her emaciated self, in a mirror. Mis-seeing yourself, your body, is part of this (obviously neurological, so misperceptual) disorder, I know. So that is an interesting part of the book, as is a shadow/doppleganger Hayley that we see with her everywhere. This wil be a useful part of the literature of graphic medicine....more