So lately I've also been read/rereading some graphic novels or comic collections. I have a love/hate relationship with comics because I devour them so quickly that it doesn't seem worth the price unless they are graphic novel sized. Which is the whole explanation for why even though I am a fan of Japanese culture I never have been a manga fan... though I do still want to read Akira.
Anyway, pulled somethings off of my sister's shelf recently the first being Neverwhere based on the story by the illustrious Neil Gaiman, written by Mike Carey, art by Glenn Fabry. I couldn't remember when I grabbed it if I had read it already and by the end of the second page I remembered the rest of it but reread for the details anyway. I have not read the novel but I can see that there are missing depths. That they are all fully formed characters who are just stopping by for this story. Perhaps it is just the speed I read but the whole story seems kind of rushed. The panels are almost all busy, full of action, full of people. The few glimpses of space are either hallways or darkness. I still liked the story but it lacked a certain conviction.
The next was Pride of Baghdad written by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Niko Henrichon. I'd read all of Vaughan's other series Y: The Last Man and remember really liking it but this was my first time to read this one. I really liked the color scheme for this one and the arch of the story was interesting. I liked the twists and turns. The individual character voices seemed a little off to me but I couldn't say why. Maybe something to do with how much personification was going on with the animals. Over all I liked it alot, more for the look and story than for the characters.
The largest one on this pile was Black Hole by Charles Burns. It's a black and white story of teenagers and STDs that show up as mutations of the body. The story tracks over itself some but you can feel the teen angst loud and clear. The insecurities and awkwardness almost makes it hard to enjoy. The one clear voice to me was the girl but then it ends up as another teen boy's obsession. It wasn't a story I would read again but it was definitely worth reading once.
The one I'm really excited about the The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross. I only have the first book which makes me really impatient because there are like six now and I have absolutely no money. Anyway it's about Tomas Taylor who is supposedly the inspiration for his father's beloved novels about a boy wizard but his father has disappeared and he is accused of being a fake son. The most interesting part is some shadowy organization that controls writers over the centuries and Tom's dad is trying to fight them using Tom and his stories. However that's as far as the first book gets me... The storytelling is fun because it uses several media and jumps between perspectives at carefully orchestrated moments and because of the different media and pov's the art gets to be fun as well. Basically I'm languishing till next week when I'll get a little money to read one or two more issues.
Anyways that's that for now, your friend emotional reading-wreak signing off.
Let me know if there's a genre you think I should cover or you have some suggestions or something.
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