Crenshaw's Books & Decks

This is a short story about a cicada who works in a  human corporate building, and feels mistreated and unappreciated.

The way the story is painted and the main character are an example of Tan's artistic mastery.  I love the grey and green main tones of the story, the wondrous Etcher-like settings, and the awesome atmosphere, something that looks effortlessly easy because Tan is a genius at what he does.  The precision of his drawing pen and the artistry of his paintings are totally awesome, as well as his chiaroscuro work. The book has a cinematic feeling to me, too.

The story, though, is simplistic, which is understandable as the target readers are both children and adults.  As an adult who has read almost everything published by Tan, I feel that the story is a bit sketchy and might not resonate with everyone. That's my case. Yes, for sure I can get the story lesson. I'm sure that it will help children and adults see that one can always escape oppressive circumstances, people and settings and fly away, choose how one lives; however, the way the story is narrated feels a bit lacking to me. Put it differently, the book feels more like a sketch of a story to be further developed than a round story.

I love everything that Tan draws and paints, and buy almost everything he publishes, but the storytelling here feels a bit hurried up and not polished enough to me.

Descender 4 is what I expected the story to be when I read the first volume, but took a while to get to. It has paid off sticking to the story because, by now, we have enough context and know the characters well-enough to get fast action without us asking, what what what?!  This volume is indeed action-packed, very engaging and entertaining, with several cool twists, and even a sexy scene.

The overall tone of this volume, as the others, is a mix of very elegant whites, light blues, bright red, dark greys and purplish pink. Nguyen's style mesmerises because of his virtuoso use of watercolour and naked pencil to create futuristic images that have a very cinematic feeling. His rendering of close-ups of human faces is also wonderful. One of the things I liked the most in this volume were those pages in which three different vignettes show parallel action related to three different characters happening in the same page, very cool and cinematic.

The lettering is also great and helps bring to life and give a voice to different kind of characters, and creates a very distinctive ambient noise.

The Kindle rendering of the book is very good, with awesome quality details. The digital vignettes are glorious, with the texture of the paper quite noticeable; in a way it is like having the original vignettes in front of us, almost touchable.Double tapping individuates vignettes and allows readers to swipe between them effortlessly. However, the individuation of the vignettes is not enough at times to read the small letter and, so pinching out solves the problem. By the way, there seems to be a faulty vignette, with most of it missing, as it the image of that only vignette had not downloaded, which is very odd; a bug? 

Overall, this is the volume that got me hooked in the series.

I wasn't sure whether to buy this volume due to the many non-enthusiastic reviews I've seen around, but I'm glad I did. I found some of the events and characters in the previous two volumes a bit unpolished, not well profiled, superficial, a bit silly, but once I read this volume, they all make sense. This is a flashback in time for each of the main characters, in separate chapters, and also a multi-time flashback for each of them, so we get to see and know from where they are coming from. To me that's was the right thing to do to give the story soul and psychological depth. Even the annoying Driller the Killer makes sense once we read the chapter devoted to it in this book.  As a stand-alone volume might not be worth buying, but if you are reading  or intend to read the whole series, this is a must.

 I am always mesmerised by Nguyen masterly drawing and water-colouring. It is a total delight to see each of his vignettes, no matter what he's painting, faces, landscapes, outaspaces, details, anything.  I resented, though, some of the imagery, which was too familiar and associable with characters I've seen in the old Star Wars and Totall Recall movies.

I love the lettering used in this series. Very creative and audible, if that can be said.

The Kindle rendering of the book is excellent, with awesome quality details. Double tapping individuate vignettes and allows us to swipe between them effortlessly; however, some of them do not automatically seize to the preferable reading size when there are vignettes with small lettering, but pitching out each vignette solves the problem.
 
Overall, very enjoyable, and I loved the story between Effie and Andy.   Also, very short and a bit pricey. 

There are graphic books that enchant because of the quality detailed artwork, others because they have one's favourite characters in them, and others because they are like an entertaining movie that one truly enjoys and cannot put down. However, sometimes one come across books that we love despite not having any of that, books that one loves because they are fresh and refreshing, funny and full of wisdom, all at the same time.

The alien in this graphic novel is like a small child with poor literacy skills to whom the world around has never been explained except for a few generic facts, and who discovers it on its own. Its clean eye notices the idiosyncrasy and contradictions of human nature without any judgement, just puzzlement at times. Sadness, happiness, personal identity, and the fear of the unknown are some of the themes posed to the reader throughout this comic. My favourite characters are the egg that wants to be a frog (an analogy for so many existential quests) and Nothing(ness) and its God-like wisdom. The texts are naive, witty, hilarious at time, sweet and wise; the book ends with the cute alien's travel log, which contains some philosophical witty tweets to ponder about. The drawing is simple, purposely child-like. I thought that the book feeds on some premises we can find in some of the stories in Lem's The Star Diaries.

The Kindle edition was not good, at least in my tablet. Images could not be zoomed in or out, and neither was the lettering. One can use double tapping for vignette individuation, but since there aren't vignettes in this comic, what one sees is the letters augmented a tiny bit. Despite that, some of the texts are very difficult to read without a magnifying glass.

This book has been in my must read for a while, mostly because of the high ratings, as I had never read anything by Gaiman. Unfortunately, after this one, I won't be buying anything else by Gaiman.

 The best thing about this graphic novel is the concept behind it, the time-travel alternative historical setting, and the fact that a bunch of known and loved super-heroes are put there. However, I struggled (even forced myself) to finish the book, because I got bored quite often, and annoyed at the pretentiousness of the whole story, the uninspired writing, and lack of tempo. I expected the ending to make up for the previous shortcomings, but alas, it was totally anti-climatic. The story has little action and is mostly a bunch of characters plotting for 200 pages; if you like plotting stories, this is your book! Some of the historical settings are clichéd and full of trite depictions of nations, as well. Most importantly, I could not empathise or sympathise with any of the self-absorbed stilted characters, totally anti-heroes, except for the sweet girl Virginia and for Roojzan, just because he's hot :)). In fact, I would had exterminated the whole bunch if I had super-hero powers myself. Let's be fair. The story was not bad at all, it is just that it was not good either.

 The artwork was good, though: rich atmospheric colours and chiaroscuros, wonderful landscapes and great face close-ups; I especially loved the images used at the start of each chapter, which are among my favourite in the book. The lettering was classic overall, with a few different fonts used when Thor or the the Germans speak.

That was my experience with this book. If yours is different and you really enjoyed it, good for you!

7/10

Everything is Teeth is a memoir of childhood that narrates Evie's fearful obsession and fascination with sharks during her summer holidays in Australia.

Sweet and gory at equal doses, the story transported me to the fears and monsters of my own childhood. In a way, this memoir is also a horror story as Evie had a powerful imagination and a special liking for the gory details of shark attacks.

We see a bit of Evie's adulthood, life goes on, she gets older, her family does too. I found this part beautifully captured on paper, but also a bit hurried; I kept wondering, does she still go to Australia? Does she still have a fear or not? How did her fascination with sharks evolved?

Jose Sumner does a terrific job at conveying Evie's memoir with originality and versatility, using different techniques, styles and colour schemes. Most of the book is drawn in a very sweet mix of black, white and vanilla hues, but Evie's imagination and thoughts are drawn in black, grey and mauve, while the shark attacks are depicted with almost realism in full splendour and plenty of red.

This is an original lovely graphic memoir, and really enjoyed it. I think it is good for teens and adults, and children not so much, but perhaps under parental supervision.

I read this book in the hard copy version. It is quite large in size, very well bound, so one can open it in full without difficulty, and the paper is really thick and strong. A great edition.

I had many expectations about this book, mostly because of the ratings and praise received. I'm a usual reader of graphic novels, of those that aren't of super-heroes, so I approached this book with excitement. Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived.

I love clean imagery, polished drawing, detailed clean scenes and and minimalist landscapes. I like creative lettering and vignetting.  I always  prefer graphic novels with limited amount of words because, when there are too many bubbles in the page, they become overwhelming; one of my joys when reading graphic books is delighting at the artwork, so if there are too many bubbles, my enjoyment decreases.  I love stories that are fun and entertaining, but always favour those that make feel, think or both, and those that have great characters. I love full-colour gorgeous colours, black-and-white, and sepias of a certain hue. 

If you read the above and browse the book you know by now that I was set for disappointment.

Feiffer's is certainly a great artist, and this work has many elements to praise: His ability to do amazing things with simple pen traces and basic watercolour is incredible. He portraits movement with easiness, captures the vibrancy of life in the streets with conviction, and reproduces the ambience of the Noir movies an the  1940s-1950s with accuracy.

Having said that, I had a great difficulty finishing the book. The sketchy jazzy convoluted drawings, the hyper-filled pages, the use of redundant text and bubbles, the overall hues and tones used create a noisy feeling that I did not find enjoyable. The graphic depiction of the characters is confusing, and not polished enough either; most women in the book look alike, who is who? I kept asking myself.

This would have not mattered if the story and the characters had been better. Unfortunately, none of them  is likeable; except for Elsie, they are all really bad people: selfish, angry, manipulative, deceiving, abusive, egocentric, liars,murderers, and so on. there is not enough humour to counterbalance the overall wickedness of the characters, and not enough background for us to understand their erratic behaviour. this is especially the case with the character of Annie because, in the last pages of the book, she comes with an explanation for her behaviour with her mother, the explanation and her sudden change of heart felt psychologically and narratively is not credible. Needless to say, some of these characters are quintessentially Noir, but the balance between hero-villain is missing. I watched tons of American Noir films in my youth, read classic Noir novels, and in them there was usually a sort of soulful human being; when there was none, some of the bad guys would show a bit of soul, or we would learn something that helped us to understand why they turned out to be that bad. This does not happen here. Elsie is a naive good-hearted character, but she is the only good person in the story.  

The Gigantic Beard that Was Evil is an awesome comic book. It has all those elements that make any comic to need of capitals because it has high standards regarding the quality of the Art and an unusual but poignant story. 

Stephen Collins has a great drawing technique that mixes naturalistic drawing, illustration an vector-like images with cartoonish characters. Everything is drawn with precise lines, very tidy even when the story gets messy, but the use of charcoal pencil gives it texture, softness, chiaroscuro and warmth. I absolutely loved the framing and compositing of the vignettes and lettering, and how the text spreads organically throughout the page and the vignettes in unconventional ways. 

What makes this book special to me, is that it has that little-something that elevates any graphic book from the cute and fun quality on to the excellent and timeless quality, and that's the story and the narrative. The book is well written, with a very concise and precise style, and takes readers into a humorous slightly Kafkaesque ride.  

The Gigantic Beard... is a wonderful brilliant fable about how Society and Culture react to change, differences and "the other". It shows how Society fears people who are different because, by being so, they question the values and ways of life on which the majority stands; so Society will react badly to any person who deviates from the standards regarding behaviour, sexual orientation, gender role, or religious beliefs.

At the same time, it shows how Society hates and fears any transformation that shakes its core and questions its foundations. Surprisingly enough, History proves time and time again that, once those changes occur and the interrupters provoke the change, Society will come to recognise how important their disruption was for Society to advance; yet, Society criticised, ostracised, mocked, persecuted and/or killed those very people who were the engines of social change. Just two examples. The impressionist painters of the 19the century and the cubists and abstracts painters of the early 20th century were heavily criticised, disregarded and their talent questioned,  but hey are the masters we all admire nowadays. The suffragists of the early 20th century were ridiculed, jailed and considered crazy for saying that women had a brain and were perfectly able and capable to decide and cast a vote on their own. 

Finally, the story also tells us that, at times, change begins with one person changing, the rest will eventually follow up. 

I read this book in the hard-copy edition, which is great. Very good quality thick grainy paper, well bound so one can openly comfortably without worry, and it's really durable.

I loved this book and the artwork. Original, enjoyable, thought-provoking and wonderful black-and-white Art.

This is a graphic adaptation of L'Engle's classic book, originally published in 1962. It tells the story of siblings Meg & Charles who, with their recently befriended Calvin, start an unintended time-travel adventure in search of the siblings long-time missing physicist father, Dr Murray.

If you grew up with this novel, you will certainly approach this graphic adaptation and the whole reading experience very differently from how I approached it, as I read this novel as an adult and have no childhood emotional attachment to it.

The first thing I noticed about this novel, unaware of the original publication date, was that the kids and society shown in the story don't know the Internet, don't have mobile phones, tablets or super-duper  gadgets, something that millennial kids might find odd. However, this novel is wonderfully imaginative, fun, and is embedded with values and lessons of which any pre-teen or early teen will benefit: 

> It is OK to be different, you have to accept yourself the way you are right now. 

> You should not care about what other people think of you, and don't give them power over your own inner voice to dictate your self-worth. 
> Having a family that is different from the norm is OK, as long as the family unit is filled with love and the right values.   

> You have to learn to accept your part of responsibility for your own actions.

> Part of growing up involves you loving your parents but also finding a voice that's distinct and separate from them.

> Sometimes you have to trust people who are more mature than you, and need to believe that they know better.
> When you grow up, risk-taking is unavoidable. 

> You have to learn to be an individual, still being part of a community without giving too much power to your individuality or the power of the community.
> There are things in life that cannot be explained, but are real.

The novel also captures things that are very important when  growing up and approaching adulthood: the power of mateship, the value of trust, the first love, the importance of having a father and/or authority figure in your life. One of the most interesting parts of the novel is the visit to Planet Camazotz, as it teaches young readers important lessons: the difference between individuality and selfishness, the difference between a society in which the individuals are equal and have the same rights, and a society in which everybody is demanded to be and behave the same without deviation from a standard imposed over them; there is also a nice reflection on what true happiness is.

This is a science-fiction fantasy novel, so if I had read this in the 1960s, I would have been thrilled. However, this is year 2017 and it is a bit dated, to me. Science-fiction has had an amazing development and revolution since the book was written, mostly due to the proliferation of amazing original films, of our gaining knowledge about what is possible and impossible in Science, and because of the unbelievable world changes derived from the digital revolution. Modern readers have a more-scientific accurate idea of what time-travel implies, what makes possible life on other planets, and of other scientific facts that were unknown or poorly known at the time L'Engle wrote this book. Having said that, I found the concept of a five-dimensional Universe really brilliant. In the end, this is a fantasy novel, so let our imagination go wild and imagine the impossible.

I enjoyed the graphic adaptation of the book. I cannot comment on whether this is a good adaptation or not as I haven't read the original. The graphics are rendered in black, white and sky blue, which is a pity, because I thought this would have been a wonderful book to have it full colour, as the characters' facial expressions would have benefited and be more powerful, and some of the landscapes depicted would have been awesome  in colour. However, Larson has captured the spirit of the novel, the characters' personality, and the 1960s flare. I especially loved Larson's rendering of Aunt Beast, the in-between time-travel transitions, and the depiction of events happening in the narrative past.

Overall, this is a lovely book for children approaching adulthood, as it is  both fun and wise. As an adult reader, however, I found this graphic book OK, not too exciting and a bit outdated. If your experience is different, well, good on you :).
 

A feature film based on the novel will be released in 2018.