Enjoyable, and an extra star for how passionately the Wings of Fire series has ignites the imagination and hearts of my nieces and nephews. They've evEnjoyable, and an extra star for how passionately the Wings of Fire series has ignites the imagination and hearts of my nieces and nephews. They've even formed their own Dragon Den, complete with a rigorous governance structure. <3...more
I'm biased because Fred is my friend : but his book really is a great collection of his imaginative, fun, and well-told comics. Look for its new publiI'm biased because Fred is my friend : but his book really is a great collection of his imaginative, fun, and well-told comics. Look for its new publication by a larger press (Tor) next month, with books two and three coming in the future!...more
What makes this world so utterly consuming, so glaringingly immersive, is that it does not make sense. This is a world that is unexplained. Symbols will catch your eye, but have no apparent follow-through. Storylines flow deeply, but take abrupt turns, loose threads a-flying. There is no here-to-there narration. There are no instructions on how to make sense of these strange places, and the creatures in them. This, then, is what makes the weird Finder comics an ultimately realistic story: you must take what you are given. It is as it is. Move forward, and fall in love all the same....more
Beautiful art, and I like the graphic short story collection concept. But the stories themselves, as narratives, were uneven and not particularly memoBeautiful art, and I like the graphic short story collection concept. But the stories themselves, as narratives, were uneven and not particularly memorable....more
There's a lot going for Bluesman, including woodcut-style art that often bends out of the box. The thick, exagerrated lines and heavy shadows hit justThere's a lot going for Bluesman, including woodcut-style art that often bends out of the box. The thick, exagerrated lines and heavy shadows hit just the right note for a story about roots musicians. And there's a fearlessness in how the book faces the Gothic mythos and religiosity that informs so much of the blues. I was interested, too, in how the story sync-ed up its fable with mid-century journalism about traveling bluesmen that's quoted in the text when the chatter of the characters quiet down...but that device fell away for no particular reason
Ultimately, though, this book felt thin. What was probably intended as archetypes felt like caricature. Characters were drawn simply -- which is right for a fable -- but when they take the shape of, say, the portly racist Southerner, or the strong, self-sacrificing "negro," it just feels too familiar. Moments in the story that might shock you out of the pattern--for example, in the multiple scenes of violence--don't quite have the follow-through to work. The inherent energy of violence is lost in predictability; just about all the characters who are victims of violence die, and quickly.
I love mythic stories, which tend to be rife with violence and extreme characterization. But there's a difference between a story that is mythic and a story that is romanticized. It bothers me when one is mistaken for another; it seems like an insult to the real power of myth. Maybe what bothered me about Bluesman comes down to perspective. For me, the blues has potency because of its fiercely first-person vantage. The "I" voice is essential -- though the "I" also carries a collective set of "I's" behind it; the first-person is both singular and plural in those songs. Stories about the blues, like this one, overlay not just a third-person perspective, but a third-person that aspires to grand omniscience. Rather than having the cumulative power of "I," the omniscient story settles for "them, within a universal scale." Even if the omniscient story is basically true -- as in Bluesman, which celebrates these musicians as meaningul, even prophetic, voices -- the contrast to its content is just too sharp. Because of that basic lack of reconciliation, the core power in the blues is undercut, and its native mythos, diminished....more
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