Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how graphic novels present ideas, concepts, or experiences that would otherwise be difficult to portray. Now I realize that this is an extremely banal point, and that one could say that of any creative medium, arguing that the artist chooses the medium that he/she feels to be the best way to convey his/her feelings or thoughts. However, I’ve noticed the way comics or graphic novels are used to explain technologically or ideologically complex concepts. Take for example the comic book on Dialectic Marxism read by young Marjane Satrapi, or more recently, a comic explaining Google’s new browser “Chrome” (here) or this comic by Jorge Cham explaining the LHC, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator complex (here) (Or even a comic book explaining comic books, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, so meta!). The two latter are clearly designed to “dumb down” extremely complex scientific and technological ideas by using visual vocabularies that are easier to understand that the jargon of web programming or quantum mechanics. However, this requires the use of visual metaphor, orbs to represent sub atomic particles or little anthropomorphic windows. What distinguishes these two comics from say, Persepolis, is that they use visual metaphors to portray things, quarks or lines of code, that don’t have any (or barely any) corporeality. This is similar to what David B. does in Epileptic, he creates visual metaphors not only for his brother’s epilepsy, but also for every obscure esoteric concept his family tries out.

This brings us back to the question of why these authors (Google and Jorge Cham included) chose the form of comics. Well, one could easily argue that these comics play off of the age-old adage: a picture is worth a thousand words. One could also say that the “tech” comics are using pictures in much the same way that a children’s book would. As we grow older, we are praised by parents and teachers as we slowly abandon books with illustrations. I’m sure many of us can even remember the first “real” book we read without any pictures. However, it is difficult to argue that the visual language in Epileptic is illustrative in the same way that children’s books are illustrative. So again, why did David B. choose comics? Why did Google and Cham choose comics? Well, here’s what I think: because these are the only way for us, humans, to comprehend these ideas, concepts, illnesses; through imagery, through visual metaphor. Like Nabokov said of himself, we think in images.

However, visual metaphors in comics can also be a powerful tool for making what would be almost too horrible to see in photographs or read in prose approachable, understandable. Satrapi said, she drew what she couldn’t write, and wrote what she couldn’t draw. The images of torture and war communicate the detail and horror of those experiences, but reading them, we are shielded by her cartooning. An even more extreme example of this shielding would be Art Spiegelman’s Maus.

If there really was some magical equation that 1 picture = 1000 words, well then, graphic novels wouldn’t need text. However, the “magic” of graphic novels emerges in that tension, that space between visual abstraction and text. In that space is ambiguity and room for the reader’s imagination and interpretation.

The film includes art by Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotii, and Richard McGuire.

Bourbon Island 1730, part funny animal graphic novel, part historical literature, recounts the story of Raphael Pommeroy who travels from France to Bourbon Island with his ornithology professor in search of a living dodo. On the journey to the French colony, Raphael becomes entranced by pirate tales, and when he arrives to Bourbon Island, he immediately tries to join up with some ex-pirates--unsuccessfully, of course. The French government has offered an amnesty to all pirates, and many have become successful plantation owners. However, their new wealth comes at the expense of the large population of slaves brought to Bourbon Island from Madagascar and Mozambique. The most interesting subplot of Bourbon Island 1730 involves a network of maroons, runaway slaves who have colonized their own villages at the top of the island's treacherous terrain. When the notorious pirate Captain Buzzard is captured, some of the maroons plan to set him free and lead a revolt against the French colonials. In the meantime, the colonial authorities, including the scheming governor and the greedy priest, are trying to get Buzzard to reveal where he's hidden a large cache of treasure.

Lewis Trondheim's art strikes a nice balance between vivid detail and the classic funny animal style, and the book's measured pacing delivers the story at a nice clip. Appollodorus and Trondheim never rush, taking the time to convey the cultural complexity of Bourbon Island--quite a feat, really, when you consider how much is going on here: the end of a pirate age, the horrors of slavery, and the problematics of colonization. Appollodorus and Trondheim envision Bourbon Island as a strange nexus of slavery and freedom, piracy and central authority, of the meeting of the cultures of Africa, India, and Europe. Leading man Raphael is a hopeless romantic who pines wistfully for the absolute freedom he sees as the life of a pirate and the natural right of all men. And yet, as the book makes clear, idealism can rarely stand up to the corrosive complexity of the real world.

With twelve pages of endnotes, Bourbon Island 1730 is just the kind of well-researched historical fiction that would fit neatly into any post-colonial studies course. There's only one major fault with the book: it ends too quickly. Appollodorus and Trondheim have too many fascinating subplots that they don't bother to resolve. While we have no problem with ambiguous conclusions, Bourbon feels simply rushed at the end, as it sprints to a virtual non-conclusion. We would've been much happier with a cliff-hanger and a promise of a part two. Nonetheless, anyone interested in colonialism and post-colonial studies should check out this book.

Bourbon Island 1730 is available October 28th, 2008 from First Second.

These dolls are not like that, though. These are some honest dolls. This is an animated short video by David Heatley, in which he covers a Ramones song, "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down". This is also the title of his amazing new graphic novel, which I'm almost done reading.

He's throwing down, basically. Because while Chris Ware is an amazing piano player, he doesn't appear to have the excellent vocal stylings of David Heatley.

I really want to see them do a duet.

I feel pretty sure Chris Ware can't sing like this, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

I am really looking forward to some movies and cds coming out relatively soon. First off, I've been waiting for Detox for years, and it seems like there's actually a chance of it coming out in the near future. If it's as good as Dr. Dre thinks it is, I may cry. For those of you who don't know, I am a huge Dr. Dre fan and have always maintained that if he met me, we'd be best friends. Haha. Here's what the doc himself has to say about the album:

"I'm not talking about lowriders and blunts and all that anymore… I mean, that's played. As a matter of fact, I'm tired of hearing other people talk about it, to tell you the truth… I had to come up with something different but still keep it hardcore, so what I decided to do was make my album one story about one person and just do the record through a character's eyes, and everybody that appears on my album is going to be a character, so it's basically going to be a hip-hop musical."

Sounds crazy. It also is going to have some live drums and guitar and RZA is producing some of it. Holy crap. You can be sure that I will buy it the day it comes out. I just hope that I have all of my hair still by the time that happens.

What I'm also looking forward to are The Watchmen and The Spirit. The Watchmen doesn't come out until March '09!!! Holy crap! At least it will be a good birthday present. I've seen the trailers and it looks incredibly accurate. A lot of the shots in the movie are pretty much real life versions of specific panels in the graphic novel. A guy named "Crudup" is playing Dr. Manhattan, which made me chuckle. Luckily, we won't have to wait as long for The Spirit, which comes out on Christmas. It looks pretty dark and beautiful visually, although the trailers were sort of general and didn't give much away about the plot focus. Also, Samuel L. Jackson is playing the Octopus, how cool is that? I have to admit, I have barely read any of The Spirit (I know; I'm lame), but I really like Eisner's other stories and plan to finish all of the serials with the Spirit by the time the movie comes out.

Persepolis was one of those books that I heard time and time again,"You have to read this!". I planned to but I didn't make it a priority. There's this awkward thing that happens sometimes  when someone I know recommends a book with gushing enthusiasm. Eventually I read it. Typically, I hate it or at best, feel meh about (yes,meh is a feeling).  The book will come up in discussion with the recomendee at some point and I'll be forced to admit that I hated it and it's just an awkward moment I like to avoid. I could lie and say either that I never got around to reading it or that I did read it and oh,yes...I loved it! but I can't lie to save my own skin, even when it comes to a little thing like that.

I also tend to find that when someone recommends a book ,it's because they picked-up on some esoteric aspect of the book and thought of me. Or just that I'm the only person they know in real life that has some distant connection to the subject of the book.For example, upon learning I was Pagan, a friend suddenly insisted The DaVinci Code be required reading on my To-Read List. Likewise, everyone who learned that I love graphic novels combined with my obvious interest in women's studies, history, world cultures, etc.... Persepolis was the book that suddenly became my new Must Read book.

So,finally...on a whim, I picked up Persepolis at the library one day. That same evening, I tucked the kids into bed and with no intention to start reading that night,I picked up the book and browsed through it. With graphic novels, I really can't help but do this browsing...a quick skim through the pages, kind of as a preview of what I'm getting myself into. The artwork in Persepolis is simple black and white drawings, which I mistakenly translated to mean "easy read". Somehow,I got sucked into Persepolis immediately and read the entire thing that evening, but not at all because it was a "fluffy" easy read. It was just that enthralling.

I did not expect to as emotionally drawn in or affected in any way beyond cerebral but time and time again, I found myself with that choked spot in my throat and eventually succumbing to tears at some points. I would pause and not fully understand why I was so affected.I even wondered out loud, "Is it normal to cry when reading this?".

Marjane Satrapi tells her story as a girl from that childish perspective ,growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The viewpoint through youthful eyes shows the impolite truth of matters and a freshness untainted by pre-formed opinions and ideology. Raised with a backdrop of a country in political and cultural upheaval, Satrapi still had to come of age, regardless of the chaos in her country.

I believe her own personal story itself is not what touched me the deepest. It's the stories surrounding her - the violence and repression against women, the rapes and murders of innocents, the torturous imprisonments and executions of men solely for their political alignments and simply the loss of daily freedoms and of course, the chaos and devastation of war around them. Her family's story is intriguing,yes but overall ,the whole story of Iran's Islamic Revolution is what is more profound. I cannot help but walk away from this book with the feeling that most people here (in the United States) are lacking this knowledge of global events in comparatively recent history and if they did know it, they wouldn't take so many of their freedoms and privileges for granted or carry with them a sense of entitlement.

Certainly, when I was a kid and listening to Kim Wilde, I didn't have to buy the tape off the black market and risk a whipping if caught with it. If I wanted an Iron Maiden poster, no one had to go to extraordinary lengths to smuggle one home to me.

In other news, I mopped my kitchen floor. Onto the bathroom...

This is because Ed Brubaker's Captain America is masterful. This is not a title looking to shock you in one-and-done scenarios, this is a title where each issue builds off the prior and the author clearly has an epic plot in mind. The story progresses organically and logically.

Collecting issues #25-30, Steve Rogers dies in the first installment and then his supporting characters take center stage. Brubaker gives us a level of richness and complexity with Tony Stark, Sharon Carter, the Falcon, Nick Fury, the Black Widow, and Bucky Barnes rarely seen in comic books. The fact he keeps Captain America just as intriguing and captivating without Captain America is proof enough as to why this man won the Eisner award.

Now we all know who the current Captain America is, and this volume, as well as the preceding issues of this series, really sets up the events leading to Barnes donning the Captain America mask. It makes total sense and it didn't feel at all forced.

In fact, I'd like to briefly congratulate Brubaker for reinserting Barnes into the Marvel Universe in a seamless, rational, and consistent manner. Unlike another once-thought-dead partner, Barnes has been handled with care and intelligence.

Furthermore, Steve Epting's art is the perfect compliment to Brubaker's realism. While cinematic in execution, Epting delivers characters and action that are believable yet extraordinary. His angles and layouts please the eye while strengthening the overall story.

Brubaker's Captain America has been a delightful and unpredictable joy from the get-go, and I look forward to seeing where he takes us next!

There's really nothing else to say, but since this would be a weak review without more exposition, I'll keep going.

In my mind, there's no truer paradigm of the mainstream superhero than Johns'. If you want proof, read his entire run of The Flash; or, read his work on JSA; OR, simply read his JSA reboot, Justice Society of America: The Next Age.

The Next Age picks up right where JSA left off. Most of the fan favorites are still around, as well as some inspired choices for new teammates. Furthermore, Johns has found a new mission statement for the Justice Society of America, one that is trying to teach the new generation of heroes how to be just that.

Johns understands the superhero team dynamic. He understands the archetypes necessary for such a team to be charismatic. Johns realizes how to make us care about his characters, how to present edgy--but not gratuitous--stories, and, best of all, Johns comprehends how to manipulate pace, deliver great dialogue, and present captivating foreshadowing.

In The Next Age, the Justice Society of America round up some young heroes who may need some positive role models and training, deal with a mysterious entity killing off the bloodlines of other heroes, and are introduced to an element that forces Wildcat to get out of the ring and into the human race. Since monthly comic books are by nature serialized, it also sets up oodles of possibilities for the months to come.

Consequently, let's not forget about artist Dale Eaglesham. I love comic books equally not just for their stories, but also for their art. It's a visual medium, and Eaglesham renders heroic looking, but not hyperbolic, figures. He chooses gripping angles within his panels, and, like Johns, he seems to have an innate sense of what makes a superhero comic both tense and fun. The hardcover edition of The Next Age even offers some breathtaking pencil sketches from Eaglesham during the design process.

We can debate all day as to whether or not Johns is the best writer in the comic book industry, but as far as pure super heroics and team dynamic go, there is no one better, and Justice Society of America: The Next Age is proof positive of that.

Overall, this volume works to reestablish Murdock's relationship with his wife, Milla. Milla's been in this book for some time, but with everything else going on it was easy to put her on the backburner. Writer Ed Brubaker uses the issues comprising this volume to get everyone on the same page about Matt and Milla's complex relationship as well as set up some conflict involving the two.

It's not all romance, though. Brubaker also has a new enemy (sort of) for Daredevil to combat, one who is going to give the Marvel Universe as a whole some fits. Before we discover this villain, though, Daredevil must get to the bottom of the Gladiator's atypical return to mindless violence.

The art by Michael Lark fits the tone of the book perfectly with a great mix of super heroics and crime noir. And the original covers by Marko Djurdjevic are literally breathtaking.

In summation, this volume was largely a chance to reacquaint the readers with Daredevil's personal life as well as set up some major conflict to come, but at no time did it feel like "filler" material. Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark continue to make Daredevil a must read.

Ex Machina: Power Down is a return to greatness for the creative duo. The storyline deals with Mayor Hundred struggling against a city-wide power outage just as a mysterious visitor takes his mother hostage in order to deliver Hundred an important message. That message has fascinated me and worked expertly as a bit of foreshadowing. In addition, as always, we are given flashbacks to Hundred's involvement with 9/11 as well as some back-story during his training days.

The Ex Machina series started with a bang, utterly captivating me with every panel. However, the last storyline in particular focused a little too much on Hundred's mayoral duties and not quite enough on the more fantastic elements of the series. Power Down is back to what makes Ex Machina work best--an equal blend of the realistic world of politics and the surreal world of super heroics.

Furthermore, let's not forget about the art! Harris' artwork is extraordinary and this series simply wouldn't be as enjoyable as it is without him. He gets better with every issue he draws, and he was excellent to begin with! Moreover, Mettler, the often-ignored colorist, is truly responsible for giving this book in particular much of its flavor. The colors demand your attention in such an unassuming yet powerful manner; it's astounding.

Finally, Power Down also offers a "special features" section in the back of the book with some background information given by both Vaughan and Harris. Very fun stuff if you're into the production aspect of the book.

Ex Machina is a must-read series for all lovers of literature.

Really, if you're not reading Fables, you're missing out on the best series going.

amelia rules superheroes; runes of ragnan; star wars dark times; supergirl; ultimate spider-man; young inhumans; nightmare factory 2; all-star superman; twilight zone walking distance

One thing I should say right away is that this novel is not for the light readers.  This is a complex book that just happens to have pictures in every page.  To call it just a comic, somehow it takes away some of its genius.  This story, which was published in 12 issues from September 1986 to October 1987, now gets compiled with additional dossiers in a book-like format.  It's as thick as a small yellow pages book.  Inside, the writer tries to take us thru a trip where we must use our brains to process some of the data that he provides us.  You can get the cliff notes on wikipedia but you would be cheating yourself quite an adventure.

Now, many people will have different points of views on this story, but to understand how complex the man that writes the story, is to understand that not all of his intents can be easily deciphered.  This novel, which Time magazine has catalogued as one of the top 100 of all times, takes us to a world ruled by fear of nuclear war.  It travels thru the characters life spans and manages to provide us with a human version of gods.  I emphasis in the human part since that makes them imperfect and makes things uncertain throughout the story.

In a nutshell, this is the story of five individuals, which were superheroes until a congress act was passed that banned them from dressing and fighting crime.  For some reason, somebody is getting to them, killing some and conspiring against others.  The characters, most of them retired now and living private lives, decide to track down what's happening and solve a mystery that risks taking a little more than their retirement, but their lives.  During this search, their personal lives receive a background search via the different directions they take to solve this crime.  I say crime because the novel starts with the death of one of them.  A man called the Comedian.  One of the main characters and one of the more complex is Rorschach, the only one that did not retire and continued working in the underground and takes it upon himself to alert the others and investigate.  Nite Owl was a partner of him, the second one to take that name after the first one retired.  He is a rich man, with lots of toys and tired of being retired.  Then we have Ozymandias who is a rich, powerful and the smartest man alive.  He retired two years before the act and decided to play the markets.  Lastly there's Jon, aka Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre.  They live together in a government facility.  She, like Nite Owl, is the second person to use the name Spectre, after her mother retired.  Dr. Manhattan is a blue man, who during an accident in a lab back in the fifties, was disintegrated into thin air and later, he put himself together, molecule by molecule.  In the series he is the only one with real super powers.  He's persona has great importance in the development of the story and its subsequent ending.

There are many themes and morals in this story.  We can start by the apocalyptic fear of a mass nuclear war and how that would affect the world's population and its behavior.  This is an interesting point and the way this people behave on their own and as a collective, tells us a lot about how we work in real life.  Another perspective on a similar note, since the book is based in the 1980's in the United States, the fear of the results of the Cold War cannot be ignored.  Just like in the sixties with the Cuba incident, in the eighties, when Russia invaded Afghanistan, all hell was breaking loose and speculators warned of the consequences.  The power of conspiracies is another theme that is played quite a lot in this book.  Conspiracies inside conspiracies and a bigger purpose behind them that would make people with certain degree of moral feel trapped.  It's a demonstration of the abuse of truth and false premises used to keep people in check.   There are plenty more themes in the book but this I'm not dissecting it, just giving a simple review. 

To briefly talk about the author, Alan Moore is a well established and respected figure in the comic/graphic novel industry.  As creator of some of the biggest books out there, such as V For Vendetta, From Hell, The League of Distinguished Gentleman, Top 10, he knows how to write a good story.  Proof of that is that most of his books turnout as movies, much to his dislike.  He has been known to say that the art of comics is that they can't be properly represented in three dimensions sometimes, and that's why the stories work on paper.  But when they are turned into movies, things have to change, and the stories must change, taking away part of their magic.  Since his big days on DC, he has now dedicated to work on more independent work, and sometimes in a more risqué exotic kind of comics such as Promethea and Lost Girls.  He's dislike of what the owners of his work (DC) is such, that he asked to be removed from the credits of the movie as creator or writer, and if you check on imdb or any other place, you will not find his name nearby the movie watchmen.

David Gibbons also started his career in comics very young in the early seventies.  Participated a lot on the ever long series 2000AD.  Also in stories for Doctor Who, Green Lantern and recently work on a new graphic novel titled The Originals. 

In the end, after just one read, I'm not going to pretend I know what the whole theme is, and I will not go around looking for other reviews to catch them until I read it at least one more time.  I will say one thing though; there are a lot of people expecting the movie version (which should come out in March 2009) that might feel like entertaining the idea of reading the novel.  I'm not a person to discourage reading, but it is not an easy read.  In more than one occasion I started it and felt the need to stop.  Of course, once you get thru the beginning, you get into the story and it becomes easier, but don't expect to read it fast.  There are times when the author tries to combine two dialogues at the same time, which although interrelated, are speaking two different stories.  That happens in the newsstand with the pirate comics and most of the time it's comparison with war.  So if you are a comic movies fan and not necessarily a comics/graphic novel fan, then just sit tight and wait for the movie.  Otherwise, indulge in this maze of lives before you see the movie so we can be disappointed together in how they managed to reduce such a thick and elaborated book into a two hour movie.  But don't despair, not all is lost.  I'm sure the effects will be superb.

Here's the trailer for the upcoming movie.

Additional Links:

Allan Moore Fan Site

Interview to Dave Gibbons about the movie at ComicCon

There are a number of reasons the Strange has proven a difficult character to work with.  First of all magic based characters have always been a problem in superhero comics (for further proof see Dr. Fate, Captain Marvel, Zatanna, the Demon, etc...).  Their abilities are too ill-defined and they don't mesh well with the science based universes they exist in.  To compound the issue in Strange's case he's a character that is linked so strongly to his original portrayal under Stan Lee and Steve Ditko that no one (with the possible exception of the recent Brian K Vaughan/Marcos Martin mini-series) has been willing to modernize him.  Which is a total disservice to the character considering that he's thus been linked to 60's psychadelia for 40 years.

Which at last brings me to this volume that collects Strange's late 70's appearances.  The majority of this book is by Steve Englehart (who is a perfect match for writing the traditional Strange) and the normally great Gene Colan, who is a bit miscast here on art.  The Colan issues tend to take Strange away from the other-dimensional odysseys he usually goes on and instead pits him against foes like Dracula and Satan.  These are by far the weakest stories here.  On the other end of the spectrum you have adventures in which the Universe is destroyed, the history of America is examined, and Strange's girlfriend Clea has an affair with Ben Franklin (yes really).

The book isn't bad, but if you want a classic Doctor Strange book, stick with the Lee/Ditko issues.

Nevertheless, Wolk's pointed connections are clear in the books in question, and I think accurate in many ways. As Wolk notes, Satrapi was a former student of B.'s, and her "obvious debt" to Epileptic is apparent in her "deliberately flat, two-dimensional images" (Wolk, 145). Going beyond Wolk's commentary, there is a lot of shared imagery between the authors, particularly their similarly rendered images of death or battle (see the movie theater fire in Persepolis 1 [15] and the 'abstract' painting in Epileptic [338], or the feeling of pressure created by the walls of corpses on Persepolis 40 and Epileptic 149 and 163).

To Wolk, though, this similarity is a reason to be somewhat dismissive of Satrapi's work. He finds the similarities in their style "distracting," and notes that Satrapi's images are "usually just simplified representations of real perception" [emphasis added], lacking David B.'s "flood of imagination" (Wolk, 145). He is surprisingly bitter about the fact that Satrapi's 'inferior' work has outshadowed B.'s, critically and financially--though he tactfully calls his feeling "ambivalence" (Wolk, 145). For Wolk, who defines the quality of 'art comics' by how well they represent an author's personal style, or expressiveness, having a seemingly derivative style is clearly a not-insignificant crime (Wolk, 30-33).

While I agree that Persepolis bears many similarities to Epileptic, I can't agree that it should be dismissed because of them.  First, I think that Satrapi's style is, in many ways, her own. Her choice to shy away from symbolist and surrealist representation is not a lack of imagination, as many 'imaginative' sequences are present--her conferences with God are one example (P. 1, 13), her highly design-oriented image of her journey to Italy and Spain another (P. 1, 77)--but a conscious decision demanded by the nature of her story. She repeatedly reports that people tend not to believe her past during the book (most notably in Persepolis 2, on page 42), and I think that her simplicity and grounding in realism are essential to an accurate and believable retelling of her history. As in Pyongyang, one gets the sense that only a simple rendering of the events can leave the necessary space for understanding, realism, and belief.

Second, I think that what makes Persepolis important goes far beyond its style. Like Pyongyang (or, indeed, Epileptic), Persepolis aims to tell an important story hidden from the world by force--the force of the Iranian regime in Satrapi's case, the North Korean regime in Delisle's case, and the force of taboo and fear in B.'s case--and even if Satrapi's work neared the quality of illegible scrawl, I think that her contribution to the global consciousness would be important. To dismiss an incredibly refined and elegant telling of such a powerful tale merely because her work was helped along by David B. seems inappropriate.

Persepolis is a highly personal work, unique, as all personal stories are, from even very similar pieces. One gets the sense that, despite the fact that the problems of Iran are a shared struggle, the struggles of Satrapi are her own. It is her attitude, her mode of revelation, that defines the experiences of the book. David B.'s influence served only to help Satrapi fulfill what she refers to many times in the novel as her 'destiny'--sharing her story, on her terms, in a way that aims to make a difference in the world.

For those unfamiliar, the Cybils are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers literary awards.  The great thing about the Cybils: anyone can nominate a title (one title per person, per category) and that makes for some pretty long lists by the time nominations close, which is on October 15th.  More details here.

Yours truly is once again hanging out with the graphic novels crew and am looking forward to seeing what crops up this time.  Once the nominations close I'll post my collected nominees in each category and we'll see if all my taste is in my mouth (where my foot often ends up).

Folks, honestly, if you haven't checked it out, please, do so.

Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar

Manga published all of these plays, including MacBeth, in February of 2008.  I think it's a great idea and wonderful way promote Shakespeare to the general public.

Another excellent graphic novel is Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.  This book really isn't fiction--it's autobiography, but it reads like fiction because Bechdel presents her personal story in comic book form.  The comic book light Bechdel throws on the serious topics she presents in this book lighten the mood and make this autobiography disguised as fiction fun to read.

And of course, there is the classic Maus by Art Spiegelman.  For those readers unfamiliar with this book relates the history of one man's experience in the Holocaust.  Jews are depicted as mice and the Nazis are depicted as cats.  Other nationalities are represented as animals as well.  Per Wikipedia, the reason for using the graphic novel form to relate the history of the holocaust and tell his father's story of survival is this:

The use of animals may also be used in order to detach the reader from real life. This may have been done to appeal to a younger generation of readers, yet still telling a story of survival and death during the holocaust. But instead of fully detaching the reader from the book, he shows a human aspect by illustrating how his father tells his story and by showing the emotions and relationships of the characters throughout. --Maus, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have also read elsewhere that Spiegelman's use of animals to depict people provides detachment so that people who read this story are shocked out of their usual assumptions about stereotypes. Using mice and cats causes readers to pay more attention to the story. I think of his use of animals to tell his father's story of survival as a splash of cold water: why mice? Why cats? And so on. This curiosity draws the reader into the story to find out the answers to these questions.

So all of the above brings me to Peter Kuper's adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.  Random House published this version of Kafka's classic in August 2003.  Kuper uses the graphic novel form to bring an interesting spin to The Metamorphosis.  I have not read this version yet, but I stumbled on the following link and I am intrigued.  Check out Franz Kafka's THE METAMORPHOSIS adapted by Peter Kuper. This link takes visitors to Random House's promotional site of the book and presents the visitor with a short introductory movie version of the story. Keep the sound on while you view the movie--the music adds an extra creepy feel to the story (at least for me it did.) If you visit the site, let me know what you think.  Some people really like the preview of the book and other people believe it's a travesty--that Kuper destroys Kafka's The Metamorphosis.  So far, I find the idea intriguing, creative, and refreshing.  If I can get a copy of this book, I will definitely review it.

BookScan's Top 20 Graphic Novels for September 2008

Manga Strikes Back

Manga took back the bulk of the slots in the BookScan Top 20 Graphic Novel list for September from the American titles which had held a majority for the past two months.  Manga has dominated bookstore graphic novel sales for years, but American titles made a run this summer, fueled by media tie-ins, particularly The Dark Knight.  In September, manga took a more typical 16 out of the top twenty positions. 

Still, with sales driven by the release of the trailer for the upcoming movie, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, which topped graphic novel sales in bookstores for the third straight month, continues to be the biggest phenomenon to hit the graphic novel market in years.  With six months until the debut of the Watchmen movie on March 6th, there is no doubt that it will be the bestselling graphic novel of 2008 in both units and dollars.

Rank	Title	Author	Pub	PubDate
1	WATCHMEN	ALAN MOORE	DC	4/1/95
2	NARUTO VOL. 31	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ	9/1/08
3	VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 5	MATSURI HINO	VIZ	9/1/08
4	BLEACH VOL. 24	TITE KUBO	VIZ	9/1/08
5	NEGIMA! VOL. 19	KEN AKAMATSU	DEL	8/1/08
6	LOVELESS VOL.  8	YUN KOUGA	TKP	9/1/08
7	STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED	HADEN BLACKMAN	DHC	7/1/08
8	THE GENTLEMEN'S ALLIANCE CROSS	ARINA TANEMURA	VIZ	9/1/08
9	BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE SPEC. ED. HC	ALAN MOORE	VIZ	3/1/08
10	WANTED	MATSURI HINO	VIZ	9/1/08
11	NARUTO VOL. 30	MASASHI KISHIMOTO	VIZ	7/1/08
12	CHIBI VAMPIRE VOL. 10	YUNA KAGESAKI	TKP	9/1/08
13	BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS	FRANK MILLER	DC	5/1/97
14	BLACK CAT VOL. 16	KENTARO YABUKI	VIZ	9/1/08
15	WILD ONES VOL. 4	KIYO FUJIWARA	VIZ	9/1/08
16	ROSARIO+VAMPIRE VOL. 2	AKIHISA IKEDA	VIZ	8/1/08
17	SKIP BEAT! VOL. 14	YOSHIKI NAKAMURA	VIZ	9/1/08
18	FRUITS BASKET VOL. 20	NATSUKI TAKAYA	TKP	7/1/08
19	SHAMAN KING VOL. 18	HIROYUKI TAKEI	VIZ	9/1/08
20	DEATH NOTE VOL. 1	TSUGUMI OHBA	VIZ	10/1/05

For more information go to http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13420.html

One of the authors featured in the episode is Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus. For those who don't know, Maus is a powerful story of struggle and survival set during the Holocaust, where Jews were systematically executed by the Nazi regime, and is one of the few graphic novels to have won a major literary award. By using animals (mice represent Jewish people and cats the Germans) to tell the story, Maus is a great example of graphic novels at their best.

With their combination of words and striking images, graphic novels can sometimes convey a message that words alone can't. Graphic novels can also be a great way to introduce yourself to subject matter that can be deep, and sometimes, difficult to get your head around. If you're into graphic novels and feel like a challenge why not try Maus or one of these:

• The complete Crumb comics by R. Crumb
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (recently released as a feature length film)

If you liked these or know of other graphic novels that have sparked your interest, let us know.

For the last 8 days we've been flying daily across Australia through different timezones, then doing shows in the evening. My bodyclock has been in turmoil, havent been able to sleep, digest food properly, and ive been doing the deepest burps. You know the kind where it feels like they have been held back for a few months...anyway. Dizzee is ill, Chrome is ill, but i'm live and back to normal lol!

We did our first show in Sydney at the Metro last night and it was off the chain, i'll post the footage up tonight. 2 more shows then we're back in the UK.

There's a couple of things that have kept my sanity on this tour:

There is a comic shop in Melbourne, and the guy who works there puts me on to the hottest graphic novels that are doing it. This Superman book is very serious, some of the concepts in it are next level; genetically engineered killers, experimental stem cell assasins, sun-eating stars, its pretty deep stuff.

Again, conceptually this book is of the noodles. Written by Ed Brubaker who is like the Timbaland of the comic industry, he's changed the game. Sleeper is like Sin City meets Wanted [the book, not the shit film], definitely worth checking out before it gets turned into a film.

Album of the year! I'm listening to this daily.

Make no mistake: Volume I is mostly setting up things to come. Even so, I am fascinated with the characters they're focusing on. They've chosen to spotlight characters that are not in the upper echelon of the DC pantheon because, after all, 52 is supposed to take place during a year without Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. I love them using lesser-known characters because the reader realizes anything goes, which obviously lifts the level of suspense. But even by the end of Volume I, these lower-tier characters had already won me over.

I also need to tell you that while the writing is rock solid, the art changes from issue to issue (as you can surely understand). I found the art more than adequate, but for some people it may be distracting.

I truly believe you have to put yourself in the shoes of the creators with this work and keep an open mind on some of the production issues that they had no control over. They pulled off an amazing feat, and best of all, the quality is superb!