CHALLENGE: Graphic Novels

Vasilly is the new host for the 2011 Graphic Novels Challenge, hosted on a dedicated blog. As always, the goal is to read graphic novels.

The level of participation: Beginner (3 comics or graphic novels), Intermediate (3-10 books), or Expert (10+)

There will be no mini-challenges this year, but there will be a monthly spotlight on one book or author every month, along with a guest post every month and with monthly prizes.

For more information, visit the dedicated blog. To sign up, visit the sign up post.

There are still a few graphic novels I'd like to read, so signing up for this will remind me about the books I want to read. 

Here's the list from the library:

Essex County Vol 3: Tales of a Country Nurse - Jeff Lemire
Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
Birth of a Nation - Aaron McGruder
Che - the graphic biography
Tricked - Alex Robinson
The Fate of the Artist - Eddie Campbell
City of Glass - Paul Auster
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl - Barry Lyga

The books I read:

1. Essex County - Jeff Lemire
2. Anya's Ghost - Vera Brosgol
3.

BOOKS: several graphic novel reviews

Blankets by Craig Thompson, 377 pages

graphic novel challenge

First love and coming of age in a midwestern high school, set in a strongly religious home. Church camp has the same bullies and outcasts you'd find at any camp. Thompson's autobiographical memoir was a good read, but not one that I identified with, but I imagine there is a demographic that would love this one. I have a younger male cousin who lists this as one of his favorite books. It is impressive what can be conveyed in this format; the feelings and experiences are presented in such a novel way.




The Arrival by Shaun Tan,

graphic novel challenge; Australian author challenge

No words on the pages at all, but stunningly beautiful drawings to chronicle the experience of an immigrant to a strange land. I kept thinking the surreal world would begin to resemble something familiar, but it stayed strange. The world is meant to symbolize the unknown of all immigrants. I'm in too much of a hurry and I have always read too fast to appreciate a book like this that needs to be savoured and studied.




Pyongyang by Guy Delisle, 176 pages

graphic novel challenge; North Korea

Guy Delisle is sent to North Korea and this book is his account of his time spent in the very isolated country. I liked parts, but then the story would jump suddenly as if pages were missing, although they weren't. I found the book interesting by parts, and confusing by parts. I'm not planning any trips to North Korea any time soon, that's for sure.

(I read this quite a few months ago so this was my lasting impression)

BOOK: Tales from Shakespeare by Marcia Williams

Tales from Shakespeare by Marcia Williams, 36 pages

graphic novels (children's comic); Four Month Challenge: a book about/by Shakespeare

I'll confess, I'm not much of a Shakespeare fan. I studied some plays in high school, and I didn't hate them, (my favorite Shakespeare story is Cue for Treason, a great story about life in Shakespeare's time, kind of like the movie Shakespeare in Love) but I am decidedly unaffected by the plays. I do feel a bit of a lacking in my reading history however. I picked up this children's comic version to fill in some gaps. This wonderful book is just the thing for slackers like me who want to read the plays with out actually reading the plays. Six plays are presented here, over a couple of double spread pages each - Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, MacBeth, Hamlet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Julius Caesar.

There are three parts to each play - the story or plot is told under the pictures, actual Shakespeare words are used in the pictures, spoken by the actors, and the spectators are seen around the edges of each story. Queen Elizabeth I and Will Shakespeare are present at most of the plays, with the rich people seated near the top of the page and the peons at the bottom, planning when to throw their tomatoes. It was a humorous, nice touch, and led a historical feel to the plays.

I really liked that the famous lines are included for each play when possible, but the plot is told in regular English. I read Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth in high school, yet I only remembered the bare essentials of the plays. As much as I'd like to like A Midsummer's Night Dream, since it plays such a pivotal role in one of my favorite movies, Dead Poets' Society, it didn't appeal to me, even here in cartoons. I would be interested in seeing movie versions of Julius Caesar, The Winter's Tale and Hamlet, the stories that I enjoyed the most. I tried to read the book to my daughter, thinking she'd follow along with comic pictures, but she wandered off during the first tale. Oh, well. The only quibble I had was that the character drawings were not easy to differentiate between, and with so many unfamiliar names and such a short format, it would have helped to have more differences between the characters' appearances.

CHALLENGE: Graphic Novel Challenge

Nymeth and Chris are hosting the 2010 edition of the Graphic Novels challenge. There is a blog for the challenge, and different levels of participation.

I'm going with Intermediate (3-10), and we are allowed to start early. I assume this means anywhere between 3 and 10 books. This little extra rule about starting early is what will help me. I don't have a lot of access to graphic novels, as my libraries don't seem to carry a lot. But there are a few that I am interested in reading. I actually have one here that I am hoping to read in the next few days.

After browsing my library online, there aren't a ton of choices that interest me. I'm not into manga - Ramna or Vagabond in however many volumes there are; Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew are in graphic novel form now; I've read most of the classics already that are in graphic novel form.
Here's a list of interesting books, so I'll remember what books to look for.

Pyongyang - Guy Delisle
Blankets - Craig Thompson
The Arrival - Shaun Tan
Ghost World - Daniel Clowes
Birth of a Nation - Aaron McGruder
Che - the graphic biography

Treasure Island, Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz, Bram Stoker's Dracula
Tricked - Alex Robinson
The Fate of the Artist - Eddie Campbell
City of Glass - Paul Auster
Artemis Fowl
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl - Barry Lyga
Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast

The books I've read already and would recommend include:
Maus I and Maus II - Art Spiegelman
The Borden Tragedy - Rick Geary
American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
Pedro and Me - Judd Winick
The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick
Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi

The List

1. Pyongyang - Guy Delisle
2. Tales from Shakespeare - Marcia Williams
3. Blankets - Craig Thompson
4. The Arrival - Shaun Tan
5. Essex County, Vol 2 Ghost Stories - Jeff Lemire
6. Essex County, Vol 1 Tales from the Farm - Jeff Lemire
7. 
   

BOOK: Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale, 144 pages
graphic novel illustrated by Dean Hale

genre challenge: western; herding cats

What a fabulous book! Shannon Hale does a wonderful job of rewriting fairy tales (The Goose Girl, The Princess Academy, The Book of a Thousand Days) and she continues here with the more well known Rapunzel. But what if Rapunzel lived in the American west? And her long hair could be used like a lasso? Exactly, a pretty awesome idea and very well executed. There are some other fairy tales thrown in here for the reader to recognize. I really liked the idea of making this set in the west, with horse stealing, mining, wanted posters, wild coyotes, and ghost towns.

The illustrations by Nathan Hale are also fabulous. I found them very colourful, and crisp, and textured. Rapunzel's red hair ropes stand out perfectly. I also liked how Rapunzel was brave and smart - this was no maiden in distress waiting to be saved by the prince. She takes charge and knows what she has to do.

My only quibble was a line on page 85, where Rapunzel teases Jack, her companion on the run, with, "Adorable, huh? Pretty fruity talk for an outlaw." In school, we try to discourage insults like fruit, or gay because it carries so much more than just that word, and is not inclusive. There must have been another word to use in that situation. But other than that, I very much enjoyed this telling of Rapunzel, both the western telling, and the beautiful illustrations.

BOOK: The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary

The Borden Tragedy by Rick Geary
A Treasury of Victorian Murder, Volume 3

graphic novel

I'm sure I've read a nonfiction account of the Lizzie Borden tale, because this was all very familiar. It was a slim volume, but I love that it is part of "A Treasury of Victorian Murder." Geary takes the account based on a found manuscript of an anonymous peer of Lizzie's. I read it pretty quickly, but it gave a nice visual, and presented a pretty balanced account of what might have happened. Nice map of the house and presentation of possible motives and alibis of several suspects. I think the best part is the back cover, where Lizzie is compared in many ways to OJ Simpson, as a sensational murder suspect.

BOOK: Pedro and Me by Judd Winick

Pedro and Me by Judd Winick

graphic novel challenge

I never watched The Real World on MTV but I've certainly heard of it. Seven strangers are put into a house to live together all the while being filmed 24 hours a day. I guess it is like Big Brother, my summer guilty pleasure, but without the money at the end, which would eliminate a lot of the nastiness. Pedro Zamora and Judd Winick were a part of the third season, in San Fransisco.

Judd wrote this graphic novel in 2000 to document 'friendship, loss and what I learned' during his time in the house. Pedro joined the house as a person living with HIV to educate and provide a face for people to know someone with HIV. Winick describes their meeting, their time on the show, and their friendship and then Pedro's decline. Winick is a cartoonist, so the pictures are great, and the story is very compelling and emotional, and well worth while. I would think anyone who watched that show would very much enjoy this book as would someone wanting a greater awareness of AIDS/HIV, or people who enjoy memoirs.

BOOK: Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman

Maus I and II: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

Graphic Novel Challenge, in their shoes, What an Animal!

Maus I: My Father Bleeds History


Spiegelman tells the story of his father's ordeal during the Holocaust, in graphic novel form. The Jews are mice, the German's are cats, and the Poles are pigs. It's a neat technique, and the story is all too familiar. It is partly Vladek's tale up to his internment in Auschwitz and partly his son's coming to terms with being the son of a survivor. Overall it is very well done and shows the build up during the war of sanctions against the Jews in Poland and the measures people had to take in order to survive.

Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began

The story continues here as Art's parents have been sent to Auschwitz. This part contains a little more present day as Spiegelman gets the story from his father. He includes his own frustrations with his father and the amazing story of both his parents' survival.


Obviously both stories are very moving and at the same time, it was very frustrating to see the level of torture and degradation that occurred in the Death Camps. The comic style makes it very easy to read, other than the content. The art is very well done and any one interested in holocaust stories should definitely read this.

BOOK: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Graphic Novel Challenge

Jin Wang is having a hard time fitting in as the only Chinese-American at his high school.

The Monkey King, ruler of the monkeys in the world, is based on an old Chinese fable. The Monkey King wants to be king of all creatures, not just monkeys.

Chin-Kee is every stereotypical Chinese attribute you can imagine, all rolled up into one. He comes to visit his cousin Danny every year, and completely ruins Danny's life each time.

All three stories are interesting and compelling, and then they come together in the coolest way, with a moral of knowing and liking yourself above all else. There are plenty of other connections with Chinese fables and gods, and regular old teenage angst as well. The first graphic novel I read, Persepolis was all done in black and white, but this was in color and I liked the drawings. I'm not sure how many graphic novels I would ever read, but I did enjoy this one. I gave it to my friend who teaches high school English to see if she liked it. She's not sure yet about graphic novels and I thought this was a good one for her to try. This was a cool book, quick to read, and the winner of the 2007 Printz Honor book for Young Adults.