Crenshaw's Books & Decks

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.
 

Miss Don't Touch Me is a four-part   full-colour noire graphic novel first published in France by Hubert and Kerascoet. The novel, is made of four chapters, the first two (The Virgin of the Bordello & Blood in the Hands) narrate a murder story, and the last two (Prince Charming & Until Death Do us Part) are a follow-up and development of the main character.

 Miss Don't Touch Me is set in Paris in the 1930s. The city is in turmoil because the wrongdoings of a serial killer called The Butcher of the Dances, who has a liking for young liberal women. Blanche, a prudish maid, lives with her sister Agatha in an old abandoned penthouse; Blanche witnesses a murder through a peep-hole in the wall and tells her sister that it is  the Butcher's work. Agatha is killed and Blanche tries to convince everybody that The Butcher was the murderer; however, her sister's death is considered a suicide and the investigation closed. Blanche loses her job. With no home to go, she does the unthinkable, she joins The Pompadour, a posh and reputed brothel, where the last victim worked, to try to investigate who the last girl was and to unveil the Butcher's identity. The second part of the story is devoted to Blanche's personal and work life, still working at The Pompadour, and her relationship with the charming, wealthy but elusive  Antoine.
Miss Don't Touch Me is, in a way, a very musical piece but with the music in mute. I see a clear relationship between  the story, settings,  tone and type of story and two theatrical musical genres that were very popular in the 1930s, the vaudeville  and the operetta or comic opera, especially Offenbach's works. Thus, the novel has a mix of burlesque, comic stage piece, social satire with a common link, in this case the character of Blanche. This could have been a terror novel and Blanche a depressed overly dramatic character, but the story is told in a light-hearted way, sprinkled with light humour, grotesque and erotic elements, still keeping a strong social satire.  

One of the downsides might be the different tone, mood and tempo in the two different parts of the novel,  as we go from the mystery and the murder to the exploration of Blanche's character. Personally, I liked both parts and I thought they made sense together and one comes to understand who Blanche really is and what she really wants in life. To be perfectly honest, this second story could have been presented at the beginning of the book with some modifications and the murder story presented afterwards and the story would have still made sense. 

The main downside to me is the ending. Truth be told, it has artistic and narrative integrity. Although I found it a bit vague and abrupt, and totally unfair, it makes sense taking into account the nature of the main characters and the era where they lived.   

Hubert and Kerascoët make a great artistic combo., They understand each other and create amazing colourful elaborated pieces of art that are very thought-provoking, stories pregnant with meaning, but presented in fun light-hearted entertaining way. 

Hubert, is a master at creating characters. They are complex, utterly charming and interesting, but also deceiving and full of flaws;  they  surprise the reader every time. In that regard, all the characters in Miss Don't Touch Me aren't what they seem to be at first sight, not even Blanche. Moreover, there is a clear digging into the individuality of each character, and the secondary characters are not presented as story-fillers or accessories, they are fully-constructed individuals who have a purpose in the narration. 
Hubert is also the colourist of the book. He has a great knowledge of lighting and how colour work and use them with naturalistic but cinematic precision. His trademark is flamboyant intense vibrant colouring and toned up pastels. So the novel doesn't have a specific or overall dominating hue, but the requirements of the narration dictate the colour. He does similarly in his graphic novel Beauty. 

The lettering by Ortho (an American lettering studio that also did the lettering for Beauty) is classic. This is a graphic novel that is as verbal as it is graphic, so there is quite a of text, but it is cosily located in rectangular balloons and economic captions lines. The lettering is appropriate and not invasive, but not specially expressive either, except for some of the balloons turned into spiky ones when the characters are shouting. And there are very few kapows as the drawing is particularly expressive.

Overall, Miss Don't Touch Me is a great entertaining and satiric novel that goes beyond the murder mystery and digs into social conventions and double morals  in  society and shows how the hunger for life plays a role in the survival of people who have had  to endure much in life but never present themselves as victims.

 

WARNING
The novel has explicit sex scenes, nudity and graphic violence. Not for children! Although by looking at the book's cover you might have guessed so :).

NOTES
> First published in French between 2007-2009.

> First published in English in 2008 and all the volumes collected in 2014.

Plot from the Editor
 "When the repulsively ugly Coddie unintentionally saves a fairy from a spell, she does not understand the poisonous nature of the wish granted her by the fairy. The village folk no longer see her as repulsive and stinking of fish—they now perceive her as magnetically beautiful—which does not help her in her village. A young local lord saves her, but it soon becomes apparent that Coddie’s destiny may be far greater than anyone ever imagined."

Recipe for a Hubert Kerascoet graphic casserole for grown-ups

BASIC INGREDIENTS

>>> A piece of new Old-style fable.
>>> A small piece of a modern strong moral lesson.
>>> A children-books graphic style verjus. 
>>> A bunch of spices. Please include the following:
~~ A pinch of strong coloured darkness.
~~ A tablespoon of sex.
~~ A teaspoon of nudity
~~ A handful of war and fights.
~~ Outrageously good but smoky heroes.
~~ Outrageously bad but funny disgusting villains.
~~ A sachet of naivety.
~~ A sachet of human stupidity.
~~ A sachet of wisdom.
 ~~ A pinch of good common sense.
>>> Cooking oils
~~ A tablespoon of love-yourself oil.
~~ A tablespoon of personal-epiphany  oil.
>>> Full-colour colouring.
>>> Seasoning to your liking:
~~ Clear lettering.
~~ Flamboyant vignettes.

MARINADE

Put your fable to marinate in a container, together with the moral lesson and verjus. Stir through. Add now half a litre of adventure, half of litre of children-book graphics and the bunch of spices. Stir the fable trough, and let it stay overnight so the flavours get through.

PREPARATION

Take the marinated fable out of the fridge in the morning, put everything in an earthy casserole, add the two types of oil and the colouring. Now is the time to add, raw, the different sorts of  beautiful stuff. The recipe recommends those from the brand Food for Thought:
}~Mind what you wish for.
}~Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
}~Beauty ideals vary from culture to culture. 
}~Beauty is in the inside.
}~Kingdoms were lost because of a woman's beauty.
}~Unless you don't see yourself beautiful you won't believe you are. 
}~ Beauty is not what you wear is what you are.
}~Beauty halo, also called halo effect.
}~ What you see in the mirror and what other people see are different things.
}~Only brutes put beauty at the top of women's qualities.

Let the whole casserole simmer slowly for a few hours and until Beauty is ready. Before retiring from the stove, increase the heat for five minutes  more.

Season. 

Voilà, the Hubert Kerascoet casserole for grown-ups is ready. What a tasty gorgeously presented plate of food for thought! 

Enjoy!

TYPO IN THE SAUCE!
"Beauty, you will be my Queen, and nothing can SEPERATE us."

The city of Ember is the first episode of a series of four novels narrating the adventures of Lina & Doon. They are two teenagers who live in a mysterious and isolated city-state called Ember just assigned their profession at the end of their school days. They start to question whether the life in the city is good for them and become unhappy when the power outages and food shortage become increasingly frequent and they discover that the mayor is involved in some serious activities. After finding and deciphering a broken note with instructions on how to exit the city, they decide to escape. 

THE STORY
 The novel has the format of a traditional serial novel, with a lot of slow pace that builds up to the end, when the real action commences and a cliff-hanger is provided for you to hold on until next episode. I have never heard of read the original Jeanne DuPrau's novels or seen the movie, so I cannot comment on Dallas Middaugh's adaptation. However, I expected, a priori, a bit of chopping off for having done for the graphic book. Although I enjoyed the graphic novel, I felt that the story was a bit hurried at times, a bit too slow others, and a bit superficial others, especially with regards to the relationship between the characters.

Although I enjoyed the novel, I felt that the story was a bit hurried at times, a bit too slow others, and a bit superficial others, especially with regards to the relationship between the characters.  Also, I found some of the "next morning" text unnecessary, as the story itself and the images tell you that without the need to write it all the time.

The City of Ember, nevertheless, is a delightful science fiction story that is not just what it looks like. 

EXPLORING THE BOOK 

Many themes are touched in this novel and you can use the book to start a conversation with your children or with your students on different subjects. Some of the questions that came to mind were:
~~ Is it OK  to question authority?
~~ If affirmative, in which circumstances?
~~ In which way/s can a Government keep its citizens in the dark? Any examples in your country, region or the world nowadays you think of?
~~ Do you think of any circumstances when keeping somebody in the dark about something could/would  benefit them? 
~~  If you are kept in the dark, how do see what is real and what is not?
~~ Which government system does build a better society and makes individuals happier?
~~ Why do we fear a future of doom instead of dreaming of  a future where society is better?
~~ Can individuals help change society?
~~ Which things would surprise you in your daily life if you didn't take them for granted?
~~ How would you describe the things that surround you if you saw them for the first time ever?
~~ What is needed for any person to *see* the world for what it really is?

~~ Would society be better if instead of choosing our professions, the Government randomly assigned those needed and available?
~~ Would your life be different if instead of following a profession of your interest you were assigned another for life? Could you still develop your talent and qualities in any circumstances and profession disregarding which one is?  Could you still be useful or more useful to society?  Could you be happy?
~~ Do the plot, themes or characters in this book remind you of any others you have previous read?
~~ In which way does this novel relate to the Platonic allegory of the cave?  
~~ In which way is the escape of the womb of a city similar to leaving the parental home when you become an adult?

Niklas Asker is the illustrator of this graphic novel. I love his artwork. He has created an expressive world and a visual narrative that doesn't need of much text to be understood. I never take that for granted. The book feels very cinematic, the composition and arrangement of the vignettes and visual frames is varied and interesting, with interior, exterior and landscape scenes that are always appropriate and feel right to me. I especially love the indoors images as they feel warm and cozy, like a real home. The characters are very expressive as well.

The colouring by Niklas Asker & Bo Ashi is wonderful. The shadow work is amazing and very detailed, and helps tremendously to create ambience and mood. Ember is an underground city so one expects the images to be dark and lighted at the same time. This sort of colouring and lighting is always my cup of tea.

Chris Dickey's lettering is quite classic and, mostly, non-invasive. Dialogues are included in classic balloons, and narrative references in square marquees at the top or bottom of the page; the start of a chapter has a lovely broken piece of paper that mirrors the broken instructions sheet in the story. On the contrary, I didn't like the noise and ambience lettering, which was invasive, too bold, too large, and too much of a fracture. Although it has a narrative value and captures well what is happening in the scene, it is out of tune with the rest of the book's imagery.
  
THE NEXT GRAPHIC EPISODES, ARE THEY COMING  OUT ANY SOON?
There is nothing that I find more frustrating and irritating that  realising that a book I'm reading is just the first part of something that we don't know if is ever to be continued. DuPrau published the other three books in the series a while ago, so I wonder why making a graphic novel just out of the first book and not out of the whole series, or why not publishing the other volumes at a reasonable pace? Is this an ongoing project and other volumes will see the light (pun!) soonish? Or is this just an isolated graphic book that will never been continued? 

RENDERING FOR KINDLE
I am quite happy on how this graphic novel works on Kindle, the quality of graphics and colours in my tablet, and the fact that the size of the downloadable file is reasonable. There is no index in the lateral bar, something that I don't see why not and that could be easily fixed in the electronic edition.  


MIND
This graphic book is just an abridged version on the first book of the series.  This book is mostly for mid-grade children and young teens. If you want to read the whole series you better grab the written books.

What What What?! WTF!

If I had to make a list of the weirdest more shocking books I have ever read, this novel would definitely be one of the top ones.

The Squirrel Machine is a B&W graphic novel set in 19th century New England. It narrates the artistic life of the brothers William and Edmund Torpor, who live out of their father's inheritance with their mother. The Torpors are talented musicians, hyper-creative guys, with a hunger for exploring the unexplored to create unique musical instruments and sounds, which turn out to be quite macabre. The novel is structured in four parts, through which we see the boys go from teens to old people in a non-linear narrative.

This novel has everything I want in a graphic book to be memorable: good graphics, great dose of imagination, uniqueness in style and story, they tease my emotions and/or my intellect, and the story keeps me thinking well after I finish the book. The Squirrel Machine has all of that, but it is not the usual moderate dose, it is the baddaboom dose. This novel is fast, slippery and naughty as a mutant squirrel. The Squirrel Machine is provocative, weird, macabre, disgusting, shocking, erotic, gory, trippy, disturbing, dark, irreverent, thought-provoking, deeply oneiric and sweet and funny at times. All of those ingredients are given to the reader with generosity, not a pinch of spices, more like a whole tin  of them. Can you stomach it? Can you forget the pungent flavour of the spices to discover the ingredient that lies underneath?

MAIN THEMES AND MAIN SUBJECT 

The reviews I have read about his novel, are a mix of enthusiasm and perplexity. What is the novel all about? Is there any story at all? Is there anything to be understood, or just a collection of odd images? That is perhaps what makes the reading captivating, because even if you don't like this book, you want to know, to dig and take out the hidden secret, to "get it".  

To me, this novel is a triptych that creates a whole. The three main panels or themes are: The interrelation between oniric and awaken state, the communication between the conscious and subconscious, and the process of creating Art. They are all linked, I guess because they reflect the kind of artist Rickheit is. Of course, I am just guessing, I don't know the artist and I stumbled upon this book more than I sought it. The written introduction gives many clues about what this book is about, it is just that one forget the words easily, and here one should not.

1/If you tend to your dreams or a dream-worker you will find easier to go through some of the pages in this book. Rickheit might not be a dream-worker but he knows dream language and transposes into his images and story, and I find something amazing. There is a fine line separating the real world and the oneiric work and Rickheit gives readers several clues, first in the written introduction and then in some of the images that directly connect both words. It is raining, Edmund is sleeping and his dream reflect how the exterior world affects the story going in the dream. Most importantly, the world of dreams is symbolic and metaphorical and none of the images and words said is literal, and what is literal is like you have it in front of your nose and cannot see it. The world of dreams is a world of constant puns and metaphors, sometimes very obvious, others very hidden. For example, the erotic scene in the snails is apparently nonsense, but is it? What is the imagery telling? Doesn't intercourse feels like a constant generation and expulsion of slimy juices coming out of the body? Many of the scenes in the book can be read that way. Instead of seeing what you have in the vignette and taking it literally, ask yourself, what would be the message the image is conveying if translated, literally, into words? Is Edmund entering a secret world underneath the bed, or underneath the blankets? Is the image of William's empty skin a way of saying that he is a hollow man that has been discarded and whose life has been shattered into pieces? Is the image of a man falling from a cliff when talking about his love of a woman, a way of depicting the saying "he has fallen for her"? I read many of the images in the book this way and they seemed to make more sense than in an other way. It is also more rewarding, because it forces one to see reality for what is removing the lens of perception. It also forces to properly look at things for what they are not for what they provoke in us or the way we see them.

2/ On the other hand, this novel felt quite Jungian to me! The squirrel seems to sending messages from the upper or conscious world to the underground or the world of the unconscious, from the upper awaken world to the underground world or vice versa. The underground world is always the world of the unconscious, all our hidden self is: the surprising, the shocking, the trauma, the repressed stuff, the genius, the creativity, the fear, the wholly-molly of our inner world, a world that we don't know anything about but influences how we behave in the world. The Squirrel Machine is a constant going and coming to the underground, to the unconscious/subconscious, and the dark stuff comes from there. The relation of the unconscious & the irrational v. the conscious & rational is also exposed in the images and story in ways that aren't apparent either. It shows in the relationship between the Torpors and Emma the pig-keeper, who looks and behaves mostly like an animal, moves and acts out of her basic instincts, the animal part in all of us; however, Emma is also the owner of the book on the Squirrel Machine. She and Edmund connect directly themselves and what Edmund sees made him sick for days. Like looking inside ourselves and seeing our inner monster, our basic animality. The play of conscious/unconscious and rational/irrational are constantly used in the novel. Mrs Torpor, seems to be the only person among the main characters that has some sort of equilibrium.

3/ The exploration of the oneiric, the conscious, the unconscious, the rational and the irrational are are not the subjects of this book, they are as aids to the main subject of the book -- the artistic creative process, the way artistic creation works, the things that artistic creation brings up for the artist, and for society, and what needs to stay and what needs to be destroyed or will destroy the artist. In a way, the artist is presented as a constant explorer of the inner world, an explorer of the unconscious, the explorer of the irrational, the magician that confronts face to face the psyche and its monsters and gets its secrets out. What are the Torpor boys dreaming of? It is mostly of Art, even though their creations turn out to be monstrous and socially unacceptable. It came to me that some of the biggest artists in the 19th and early 20th century, those who revolutionised the world of Art and whose Art creations are now called masterpieces, were considered mad men at the time, their Art was considered disgusting, revolting and monstrous in a way. Like these artists, the Torpor boys have a hunger for creating, for creating something different, for experimentation and for accessing that magic well (pun!) from where inspiration comes from. The creative world has no end, keeps growing and growing, yet it is not a matter of growth, is a matter of the creative side being organic, healthy and beneficial mostly to the creator.

WHAT IS THE SQUIRREL MACHINE? 

What is the Squirrel Machine and what does it do? To me, it is that magic "thing" that connects the inner and outer self, all the parts that form who we are as persons and as human beings. he main question is not what the squirrel machine does, the question is that is beneficial to you and to your Art. Is beneficial for the Torpors? Can they stand it? What does to them? Are they ready to face the machine? There are things inside us that should never been seen by any other person, or just for those who are willing and ready, things that we are not even prepared to face without losing ourselves in them and losing who we are.

FUNNY MOMENTS

The book has also some very funny moments, which serve as a sort of release of the accumulated dark tension. Some of the scene sex are very comic, as are Mrs Torpor's paintings, and the use of the word torpor as surname. Torpor is "a state of mental or physical inactivity", which is the contrary of which these guys are, even the mother is far from torpor. There are little elements depicted in the backgrounds that are really cute.

THE ARTWORK

I have a natural preference for minimalist B&W images and lines, and for gorgeous coloured drawings, for which very busy vignettes, as the ones in this book, are never going to be my cup of tea. However, I cannot but recognise Rickheit's visual talent, and the way he is able to create amazing detailed indoor images, baroque surrealist images, cityscapes and a bit of country escape. I found that facial expressions are, on the contrary, a bit loose or not fully detailed. It might be intentional as most of the characters look a bit under the effects of hallucinogens or just hyperventilated. I like Mrs Torpor, she is balanced and has a face :)) 

WARNING

Despite the cute title and intriguing book cover, The Squirrel Machine is not a a book for children, and certainly not for most adults. Gory, violent, sexual and everything you want your children not to read until they are mature enough to understand it. Strictly for open minded adults, as well.

If you have the stomach, this is an awesome book. I found it equally repulsive and amazing. It is just me and the way I am. But I have read it twice. That is something!

The Sculptor tells the story of David Smith, a young sculptor struggling in his personal life and in his professional life as an artist as he is short of money, has no family and, despite its undeniable talent, his work is not being shown or showcased by any important art gallery and this despite his best friend Olly being part of the Art Gallery network.. He is at breaking point when his deceased uncle Harry visits him  and offers him a solution to solve his struggle with Art, and the lovely cheery young actress Meg crosses paths with him.

The book is drawn in a beautiful evocative duotone in indigo blue hues that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also the perfect tone to create the mood that this story needs, a mix of blues song with an underlining and sometimes upfront sadness and personal stress, and also the magic of this indigo child, indigo child understood here as a gifted guy with supernatural abilities and enhanced ways of perception.

McCloud artwork is really that of a Master regarding use of colour, composition, framing and style.

McCloud depiction of New York urban area is absolutely glorious and masterful. He looks at the city as both as an insider and an outsider, because some of the images are really those that anybody visiting the Big Apple for the first time would take with them, the overwhelming but thrilling presence of concrete, steel and skyscrapers. On the other hand, MCloud knows the city and is also able to depict its more rural or parkland areas with freshness and a great bucolic feeling, which is used as an emotional counterpoint to the urban settings, where most of the story happens.

As an insider McCloud shows the New York of the New Yorkers, the ambience of the city, but also the city of the people. Every secondary or tertiary figure and passer-by character depicted in the streets is fully there, even those in the background. Their body language, clothing and attitude tell a story of who they are and we can look at them as individuals that happen to cross the vignette, not as mere accessories to the main character or the image. This is one of the reasons I love reading comics on digital format as the zooming allows us to do that easily, and fully be there within the image, and notice the tiniest scratch or detail.

There are a few surreal  images depicted in the book, many of them truly impacting and beautifully drawn. There is a strong presence of oneiric elements as well. I one of my previous reviews, I mentioned the fact that Magic Realism can be easily mixed up with fantasy and surrealism to describe Latin-American novels as deniable part of the genre. Here we have the contrary case, this is, to me, an undeniable Magic Realism work, even if North-American, and not many people are focusing on that. So, which elements are part of the Magic Realism genre in The Sculptor?
> Fantastical elements (levitation, premonitory dreams, etc.), TICK
> Real-word setting, TICK
> The story is told as is nothing extraordinary was taking place, magical events are accepted in the same plane as those that aren't, TICK
> Use of multiple planes of reality, in this case the oneiric and the awakened state, TICK
> Metafiction, that is, the narrator intentionally exposes themselves as the author of the story, TICK
> Heightened awareness of mystery, TICK
> Social critique, In this case about how the art market works, TICK

On  the other hand, there are important literary connections the reader will make at the beginning, or at least I did, that of the Faustian-like plot being the most important.

I thought that the narrative and characterisation of The Sculptor did not match the finesse of the artwork. Although I liked the overall plot and ending, some characters are a bit clichéd, like Olly and Finn.The character of Meg seemed me a bit non-believable, a good-Samaritan Lolita, but it turns out that the character hides some surprises and is based on MCloud's wife and on their own love story. Ouch! However David and Harry's characters are roundly profiled and created.

The beginning of the book was exhilarating, witty and interesting, then turned into a boring immature love story to gain momentum again and end brilliantly.  The book mixes dialogues that deal with what Art is and is not, how Art is produced, how Art is sold and marketed and what makes a successful artist. On the other hand we see how life and Art mix in intricate ways, how the artist's life and the artist' art feed each other, and how most talented artists would not make it.

The ending was genuine and the one that I wanted to see. Some rules can't be broken ever, some thing simple are that way, as the character personifying Death would say. And changing the end to please readers would have been an artistic betrayal to the author's own vision and the inner logic of the story.