My second Mat Johnson read and review. I picked this book up for my Black comics TBR and Vertigo TBR.
Content notes for fatphobia, guns, character deatMy second Mat Johnson read and review. I picked this book up for my Black comics TBR and Vertigo TBR.
Content notes for fatphobia, guns, character death, pregnancy, mercenaries, extreme flooding, water scarcity, corpses, dead kids and pets.
Keywords that came to mind reading this volume: parole, family, community, mercenaries, heist, abandonment, segregation, disaster, and death.
Looking at the writing I think perhaps the most important thing to highlight about Dark Rain is that it is very genre and is a heist adventure story not a literary novel sort of story. For something more along the lines of the latter you might be more interested in **AD New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld**, which I reviewed all the way back in 2019. That said, if you've been watching Literally Graphic for any amount of time I hope I've made it clear that genre fiction is awesome, and I think there are a number of key things that Johnson is saying through this particular kind of story that I really appreciated. Most central to the story I think was a real exploration of key buzzwords such as looting, and an examination of who is good and who is bad.
Following this story we see a lot of stigmatized people, poor, black, and/or criminalized by the so called justice system being caring, limited, selfish, selfless, noble and many other things that push back against the one note dog eat dog sort of narrative that often gets centred in post apocalyptic stories. Digging just beneath the narrative that says "civilians should be shot for looting", a story that persists to this day every time there's a disaster where we see people, trapped and abandoned trying to survive. We see a world that I find to be much more genuine; a world of violence orchestrated to keep people trapped and the violence that keeps resources on the shelves of capitalism rather then in the hands of people who need it.
Scrolling through the small number of negative reviews I could find for this title people felt like the pacing was off, which is fair, and/or that it was too political, which is less fair. Life is political lol.
Moving on to the artwork; it wasn't super distinct, which is fine and did not detract from it's intrinsic goodness, and there was a nice use of limited color scheme.
Moving along to the different kinds of people we find represented in this story, as we do in each review...
Race was obviously pretty central to this story alongside class. Das Capital it is not, but it does illuminate a bit on the restrictions on a person's life when they are poor and caught up in the correctional system. A striking example is why people can't evacuate in the face of a hurricain.
Disability vs ability did come up a bit, largely in the character of Emmit's cousin Speedy who faces a lot of derogatory/fatphobic comments about his body and does run into some limits as to his own abilities. Kind of a mixed bag to my mind because while we do see him as capable of important plot needed things, and generally deeply respected by Emmit it felt like I was supposed to find that a bit too surprising. Obviously I read plenty of books where bad people do bad things, but it felt like this was laid on thick enough to make it that much more difficult for people who have experienced this sort of discrimination to enjoy it?
Similarly, I was actually a bit relieved for the eye rollingly heterosexual/cis one noteness of the story because in Incognegro... Inclusion of more diverse characters did not go well in my humble opinion. But yeah, our main hero does get the girl in the end.
Wrapping things up, a book with lots of pluses and a smattering of minuses, I guess I would say it's a three star read. Pick it up if it sounds interesting but certainly not a must read....more
today's pick is Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel by Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudlin and Kyle Baker. Published by Three Rivers Press in 2005.
This book today's pick is Birth of a Nation: A Comic Novel by Aaron McGruder, Reginald Hudlin and Kyle Baker. Published by Three Rivers Press in 2005.
This book was part of my Black comics reading list for 2023.
Content notes for n word, sex, air fights, and Muslim caricatures.
What kinds of keywords came to mind reading this volume: speculative political fiction, suppression, Bush, independence, president, banks, military, satire, Jesus and assassination.
Chris Rock apparently describes it as "Makes the art of War seem like the Art of Bore."
An interesting art style and page layout. It's definitely more of a political satire sort of style and not something I would generally see as nice. I was initially a bit surprised by the story board like page and text layouts, but Nat Turner also didn't include speech bubbles and was a similar sort of style, so maybe not so surprising.
The writing style is pretty funny. Over the top and yet really intriguing to think about. I was a child at the time of publication, but it was a time when I started becoming more aware of the world around me. It was interesting to look back and add this to my overall understanding how people saw the world in the early 2000s.
Gender was binary and pretty weighted in the cis male direction. There were a few times when women felt like they were active participants, but were often discussed pretty objectively by our main characters.
Sexuality was similarly overwelmingly hetero.
Race was obviously outside of the majority of stories that centre whiteness. Which is generally good enough for me, but I definitely felt like the creative team threw Arabs/Muslims under the bus that was bulldozing over them at the time. McGruder's comments about 9/11 do make some sense of this for me, but it certainly does not excuse joining the dog piling that was happening at the time. Made the focus feel that much narrower.
Class felt like the second most important focus for the book. As politically speculative satire fiction, there is a lot of discussion of the ways that the intersections of being Black and being poor impact East St. Lewis aka The Republic of Blackland.
I did not find any representation or discourse about the impact of not being fully able bodied can have on a person in our ablest society.
Wrapping things up. As I already said, a fairly interesting read that expanded my understanding of the time period. Many things have changed since then, but many things remain the same. I think I'll give it three stars....more
Content notes for body horror, nudity, cop rep, and exposed brains.
This graphic novel was published in 2021 by the Abrams Comic Art Megascope Imprint.Content notes for body horror, nudity, cop rep, and exposed brains.
This graphic novel was published in 2021 by the Abrams Comic Art Megascope Imprint. "dedicated to showcasing speculative works by and about people of color, with a focus on science fiction, fantasy, horror, and stories of magical realism. The megascope is a fictional device imaginged by W.E.B. Du Bois that can peer through time and space into other realities. This magical invention represents the idea that so much of our collective past has not seen the light of day, and that there is so much history that we have yet to discover. Megascope will serve as a lens through which we can broaden our view of history, the present, and the future, and as a method by which previously unheard voices can find their way to an ever-growing diverse audience."
Keywords that came to mind reading this adaption: horror, purple, mutant, crucible, family, and Nigeria.
The synopsis over on Goodreads was "The drama takes place in a small Nigerian town during a violent and unexpected storm. A Nigerian-American woman named Chioma answers a knock at her door and is horrified to see a boy with a severe head wound standing at her doorstep. He reaches for her, and his touch burns like fire. Something is very wrong. Haunted and hunted, Chioma must embrace her heritage in order to survive. John Jennings and David Brame’s graphic novel collaboration uses bold art and colors to powerfully tell this tale of identity and destiny."
And the artwork was a really strong point for this particular adaption. The use of colour was indeed powerful and very expressive. The character designs were also very distinct and page layouts easy to follow but still creative and interesting.
Writing and story wise, After The Rain is equally well done and it's not spoon feeding you what is going on.
Looking at representation, After the Rain is an intense and focused look at Chioma's transformation. So not a whole lot of diversity per say, but definitely ticks a lot of boxes for under represented characters....more
I was initially going to read the entire series, but I'm trying to force myself to do less, so I decided to just focus on the first volume. I picked iI was initially going to read the entire series, but I'm trying to force myself to do less, so I decided to just focus on the first volume. I picked it up for the Realm of Comics club.
Content notes for blond dreads, cartoon gore, lots of murder, loss of family member, children in danger, and queer villains.
And looking back through all my saved video transcripts over on Wordpress it appears that the last time I shared my feelings about Lovecraft pre-date this practice. So here we are again; I'm not going to let the name go by without commenting on it. Even if its much less of a hot take these days.
TLDR, A huge influence on swaths of modern horror, it's hard for me to feel anything but disgust for a man who thought the scariest thing in the world was anything not purely anglo-saxon, able bodied, straight and male etc etc. Very shallow and hateful to say the least.
But moving on to new to me creators we have the incredibly popular Joe Hill, who according to his wikipedia is described as "Joseph Hillstrom King, better known by the pen name Joe Hill, is an American writer. His work includes the novel Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2, and the Fireman; the short story collection 20th century ghosts and strange weather... He has won awards including Bram Stoker Awards, British Fantasy Awards, and an Eisner Award. King is the son of authors Tabitha and Stephen King, and the brother of writer Owen King."
Which I think covers most of the basics. Well besides the fact that while this is my first written by Joe Hill read, much more recently he had the opportunity to work on an imprint for DC Comics... Which resulted in The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado and DaNi. I read and reviewed that book just this summer and ended up rating it five out of five stars. So definitely check that out.
Looking at Rodriguez' wikipedia page, apparently Hill and Rodriguez co-spawned the series of Locke and Key. He also won an Eisner for Best Limited Series in 2015 with fellow Chilean Nelson Daniel for their work Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland. Also published by IDW.
Keywords that came to mind reading this book: legacy, family, teenagers, death, supernatural, and betrayal.
But moving along to how I feel about the writing and art, etc etc I am unsure of where to start.
The art style was not my favourite. Technically speaking it's probably fine, and scrolling through reviews (much like everything to do with this book) my opinion is one of the minority. It's not a style I feel like I run into very often, or at least in a very long time... and while it doesn't appear that any of these other books that I have previously read that this art style reminded me of were actually by Gabriel Rodriguez, I didn't like them. So it's a sort of gut level reaction.
Story and writing wise, I find myself in a very similar minority opinion. Technically and craft wise fine I suppose, this story was actually kind of offensive. So proceed with caution; I know many of you are potentially fans. If the goodreads stats are anything to go off of. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Anyway, I disliked this book so much it actually had me doubting whether I actually like horror at all. And to be fair I am rather picky, because while horror can be really fun and subversive and empowering, it can also just further stigmatize people who are already being shit on by the entire world already. Much like comedy I guess there's punching up aspects and there's punching down aspects. And maybe in the larger context of the entire series or whatever there's more of a balance, but for this volume it definitely felt like it was really punching down.
To be somewhat fair, the way that characters were introduced, there are many flawed people in this book. Particularly when it comes to adults, there are no perfect people. But that isn't to say there is not a wide gap between the people we are supposed to root for and those we are clearly not to feel sympathy for. Because there is, and a lot of it seems to start with the patriarchal concept of the nuclear family.
On the one hand we a father, brutally murdered, of three children and the husband to a wife. Traumatized, the family comes even closer together and retreats to an old family home where there is magic that also has very strong family legacy bloodline vibes. Which are also things, going on a bit of a side note, that I have become much more suspicious of in stories as I've matured, seeing as I'm not a fan of the monarchy or eugenics.
In contrast our initial baddy comes from an apparently "broken family" that played some part in creating the murderer who we spend most of the comic with. Violent, both of Sam's parents are coded as poor, trashy, brutish and stupid in their own way.
Of course we eventually meet the actual big bad of the volume, perhaps the series IDK; a magical creature of some sort they use many of the characters to their own ends, yet unknown. Oh and guess what, they shift their gender at the end. Isn't that just peachy?
And queerness really is something that only the bad guys have in common. Because everything is heteronormative except for that gender presentation shift and the survival sex work that Sam engages in to get himself across the country... Only to murder the client in the end. Really putting the cherry on top, as it were, sarcastically speaking.
Looking at ability vs disability.. the "deformed" character, who also probably has the most mental health stuff going on, is also the bad guy. How avant guard.
This volume was fairly devoid of any sort of racial diversity.
So yeah... I did not like this at all. If people feel like the series eventually becomes a bit more self aware I guess let me know. Meanwhile I'll be re-watching the purge or something.
I am still interested in where the the whole DC Comics imprint went, and where Hill might go from there. But this is a one star for now....more
Content notes for incorrectly categorizing abortion as an issue for women and not recognizing that people of all genders can get pregnant and need aboContent notes for incorrectly categorizing abortion as an issue for women and not recognizing that people of all genders can get pregnant and need abortions. Also police security.
Written and illustrated by Leah Hayes, on her website she is described as "an award-winning graphic novelist, illustrator, and musician. Working on both East and West coasts, she is the author of several books, including *Not Funny Ha-Ha,* which was a New York Times Best-Seller and voted one of Forbes Magazine's Top Ten Graphic Novels of 2015. Hayes has taught illustration and graphic novel-writing at Parsons School of Design, Endicott College, and MassArt. She is currently Illustration faculty at Lesley University in Boston, MA."
What kinds of keywords came to mind reading this short book? reproduction, life, depoliticize, and minimalistic.
The summary on goodreads is "Not Funny Ha-Ha is a bold, slightly wry graphic novel illustrating the lives of two young women from different cultural, family, and financial backgrounds who go through two different abortions (medical and surgical). It follows them through the process of choosing a clinic, reaching out to friends, partners, and/or family, and eventually the procedure(s) itself. It simply shows what happens when a woman goes through it, no questions asked. Despite the fact that so many women and girls have abortions every day, in every city, all around us, it can be a lonely experience. Not Funny Ha-Ha is a little bit technical, a little bit moving, and often funny, in a format uniquely suited to communicate. The book is meant to be a non-judgmental, comforting, even humorous look at what a woman can go through during an abortion. Although the subject matter is heavy, the illustrations are light. The author takes a step back from putting forth any personal opinion whatsoever, simply laying out the events and possible emotional repercussions that could, and often do occur."
Moving right along to comment on the writing and art, I can't be but a bit put out by the way they emphasized "The author takes a step back from putting forth any personal opinion whatsoever" which is just annoying. Like, sure, in reading the book I would say that every effort is made to present everything as emotionally neutral as possible. No need to fetishize not expressing personal opinion as there are many drawbacks to that sort of thing as well.
The title is certainly round about, but it also might help increase people's ability to read it around people who might be anti-choice/pro-forced birth.
The distinct art style and colour choices very much match the tone that the writing is setting; with some nice expressive typographical choices.
As I indicated in my content notes section, I did take some issue with the way gender is presented in the book. Mostly it's the dedication "This book is for all girls and women, and for the partners, friends, and family who love them." With the book itself following two women. Which is more then a little bit exclusionary. People of all genders can be at the risk of needing an abortion and people who are not women face the most obstacles to receiving both abortion and pregnancy care, depending on what they want to do. That said, this book was published in 2015; I feel like making these assumptions was a bit less dog whistly at that point. Doing the surface level googling I did not turn up anything that showed Hayes as being either pro-trans or mask off anti-trans. So do feel free to leave a comment if you have a more informed opinion about where she stands. No matter her intention in 2015, we don't live in 2015 anymore so I figured it was worth noting.
Sexuality isn't dealt with explicitly and as the book states openly; Hayes in not interested in outlining how these two women got pregnant as she (rightly in my opinion) doesn't think it should matter. I would say this might be an insertion of personal opinion, but what do I know.
In setting out the focus of this handbook, Hayes makes a choice to present two women, getting each of the two types of abortion; with as few obstacles as possible to really outline the process like any other medical procedure. So while Heyes outlines some of the side effects you might experience (and regularly reminds you to consult a real doctor if you have any questions) besides a nod to the price difference between the two types it does not address any of the issues that may arise from the person seeking an abortion based off their age, class, geographic location, race, gender expression, marital status, legal status and/or disability - not to mention if they are in prison or how many children they already have. I certainly hope we will continue to see more comics about abortion that address these other intersections.
To conclude, while this is the second of the two comics my library has about abortion; it appears I can get one or two more through my local comic shop and this seems like one of those rare points in my life where I should actually buy a book. So we shall see. If you know of any others please feel free to leave a recommendation.
I do think, for what it is, that Not Funny Ha-Ha A Handbook for Something Hard does do some really good things and could very well make a lot of people feel more comfortable about getting an abortion. So I will be rating it four out of five stars....more
Content notes for complicated pregnancy and birth, plus child loss, war, hunger and escaping conflict.
According to her own website "Thi Bui was born iContent notes for complicated pregnancy and birth, plus child loss, war, hunger and escaping conflict.
According to her own website "Thi Bui was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1978 as part of the “boat people” wave of refugees fleeing Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. Her debut graphic memoir, The Best We Could Do... has been selected for an American Book Award, a Common Book for UCLA and other colleges and universities, an all-city read by Seattle and San Francisco public libraries, a National Book Critics Circle finalist in autobiography, and an Eisner Award finalist in reality-based comics. It made over thirty best of 2017 book lists, including Bill Gates’ top five picks. She illustrated the picture book, A Different Pond, written by the poet Bao Phi... for which she won a Caldecott Honor. With her son, Hien, she co-illustrated the children’s book, Chicken of the Sea... written by Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen and his son, Ellison. Her short comics can be found online at The Nib, PEN America, and BOOM California. She is currently researching and drawing a work of graphic nonfiction about immigrant detention and deportation, to be published by One World, Random House."
Keywords that came to mind reading this book? Family, motherhood, dreams deferred, escape, legacy, culture, urban life, choices and birth.
"The Best We Could Do, the debut graphic novel memoir by Thi Bui, is an intimate look at one family's journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent — the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through.
With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. The Best We Could Do brings to life her journey of understanding and provides inspiration to all who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past."
Both the writing and art in The Best We Could Do are extremely skilled. Weaving many different strands of her family's story together into a book that is both hard and easy to read at the same time, obviously for different reasons. Clearly a story from the perspective of one family, coming out of Vietnam when they did, Bui does a good job of highlighting the differences that made each person's experiences their own.
Gender was not terribly surprisingly pretty binary. Although as we dip pretty equally into the history of both of Bui's heterosexual parents it did even out on that front. That said, there is a lot of heterosexual reproduction though.
Being Vietnamese American, the social construct of race is fairly central even if a bit one note. Pretty average for a memoir.
Colonization of Vietnam was also touched on. Both in a reporting of history way, but also in the ways it impacted both of Bui's parents lives and education.
Both class, and the failure of bodies to be perfectly able bodied gets touched on a bit. Although I wouldn't say they were central themes or purposefully deconstructed.
To conclude, it was also interesting to see some light observation of Vietnam after the bombing of Hiroshima. Which, having just read two manga on the topic perhaps jumped out at me a bit more then it would have otherwise. I think I'm going to go with four out of five stars....more
And today I wanted to flip through and talk about Spring Rain: A Graphic Memoir of Love, Madness and Revolutions by Andy Warner. Published in 2020 by And today I wanted to flip through and talk about Spring Rain: A Graphic Memoir of Love, Madness and Revolutions by Andy Warner. Published in 2020 by St. Martin's Griffin.
Content notes for bombing, visual reference to torture at Guantanamo Bay, animal cruelty, sex, nudity, sexual assault, mental health struggles and psychedelic experiences.
I don't exactly remember where I first saw Spring Rain, but I believe it was initially just on my library's new requisitions page. It's certainly blurbed enthusiastically by Joe Sacco, Matt Bors and Publishers Weekly.
Flipping to the rear french flap, Andy Warner is described as the "New York Times bestselling author of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects and This Land is My Land. His nonfiction comics have been published by Slate, Fusion, American Public Media, The United Nations, and the Nib, where he is a contributing editor. He teaches cartooning at Stanford University and the Animation Workshop in Denmark, he makes comics in a garret room in South Berkeley, and comes from the sea."
What kinds of keywords came to mind reading this book? Rumination, haunted, outsider, history in the making, community, partying, messy, and meaning.
The official synopsis is "In 2005 Andy Warner travelled to Lebanon to study literature in Beirut, one of the world's most cosmopolitan and storied cities. Twenty-one years old and recently broken up from his girlfriend, Warner feels his life is both intense and directionless. Immersing himself in the vibrant and diverse city, he quickly befriends a group of LGBT students, many of whom are ex-pats straddling different cultures and embracing the freedoms of the multicultural city. Warner and his friends party, do drugs, and hook up, even as violence breaks out in the city--the scars of a fifteen-year civil war reopening with a series of political assassinations and bombings. As the city descends into chaos and violence, Warner feels his grasp on reality slowly begin to slip as he confronts traumas in his past and anxiety over his future.
Illustrated in beautiful and intricate detail, Spring Rain is an absorbing and poignant graphic memoir of a young man's attempt to gain control over his life as well as a portrait of a city and a nation's violent struggle to define its future."
Looking at the writing... First off, while I certainly started this book with high interest, by the time things concluded I was much less interested. It's a fast enough read, but the way that Warner ends up presenting the portion of his life that is covered in this graphic memoir didn't seem to add up to much. Not that everything should be or needs to be wrapped up neatly at the end, but Warner has presumably had some time to contextualize this relatively short period in his life. He seems to have made the choice to limit himself strictly to the time period in question. Not a unique choice, but I do feel like it limits the impact of the book. Although I should note that Publishers Weekly disagrees with me "If the final quarter of the book feels a bit meandering, it could be blamed on realism: there’s no clean narrative for the turmoil of a mind or country in unrest. Warner’s work honors the richness of Lebanon and the fragile, fleeting nature of peace." Although they do also quote Warner warning that "I come off like an idiot".
Either way what I'm mostly taking away from this book is a reminder of my own habit of obsessive rumination that I thankfully seem to have left in my twenties. That and a dash of vicarious experience of being a bit of an interloper in the middle of a slow boiling conflict.
Speaking of which, on the one hand Warner travels to Beirut to be a student and not to pursue covering conflict. On the other hand, the one way of reading the book that makes the most sense is that of comparing Warner's own internal turmoil to that of the city/country he finds himself in. That seems a bit self-centered, grandiose and minimizing of the conflict to my mind.
If you are interested in reading more about Beirut from the perspective of someone who was born and grew up there, I would recommend A Game of Swallows by Zeina Abirached. Definitely more of a must read. Any other recommendations of comics from Lebanon would be highly appreciated.
The art was relatively straight forward, but the page layouts were varied enough to keep things interesting.
Sexuality was a pretty central theme running throughout the book. Very messy, Warner comes across as pretty sexualy lost during this period although he seems to be fairly frank and upfront about the people he ended up hurting. Not trying to explain it away or pretend he wasn't being a jerk at the time. He also spends some time trying to write a comic about his sexual trauma, which he ultimately decides not to do.
Gender is less of a thing, although there is a decent variety of binary gender representation and not much time for gender roles.
Race can be tricky thing to talk about because of what an arbitrary modern and made up thing whiteness (and race in general) is and this book's colour pallet. Warner's time in Beirut is surrounded by people of diverse nationalities and backgrounds anyway.
Class seems like a none issue for Warner.
While not labeled as disability, Warner does spend some significant time in this memoir talking about his mother's journey with bi-polar (at least as far as he observed it as a child) and description of his own mental health struggles. Not to mention that sexual trauma I mentioned earlier. I do genuinely hope that Warner has had an opportunity to talk to someone professional about these issues. It's all too easy to bottle things up and even this level of transparency isn't going to resolve these feelings.
Before we conclude, the final dangling thread that really should have gone somewhere... At least twice Warner makes a point of highlighting that the dogs behind his apartment building are severely underfed. It really felt like this would point to something ultimately, but no. Just part of the ambiance I guess.
To rate this book... I really see it as somewhere between three and two stars. I feel a bit torn between having sympathy with Warner, not being quite sure this adds up to a book, and maybe not totally loving the part of myself that Warner reminds me of. ...more
Content notes for starting your period, parental enthusiasm about starting your period, and Beezus' journey from anti to pro abortion.
What keywords caContent notes for starting your period, parental enthusiasm about starting your period, and Beezus' journey from anti to pro abortion.
What keywords came to mind reading this relatively short memoir: coming of age, slice of life, puberty, reproductive rights, generation z, living and learning.
A bit word heavy at times and definitely highly sincere, I found this teenage perspective of someone who is a couple decades younger then me to be really interesting. Not to mention that I grew up in an incredibly antiabortion culture. I don't exactly remember when the tables turned for me, my process of going from passively antiabortion to proabortion (and now actively proabortion) was probably a somewhat slow and steady process. At some point in my late teens and early twenties I started learning more about a feminist perspective on rape culture and eventually I think that just lead to realizing people should have ultimate say over what happens in their body .
Side note, as I hope you've already heard a couple of times abortion is not a woman's issue. Not all women can get pregnant and some men and nonbinary people can. It's a health and body autonomy issue.
Finishing this book I've felt pretty inspired to see if I can track down some more comics/graphic novels that are pro abortion of all kinds. I'm assuming they are a bit thin on the ground, but I know there's at least one more. Not that I need another reading project, but this is important!
As far as diversity goes, obviously with memoirs things can be understandably one note. That said, I really appreciated how Beezus not only brings up her disability and sexual identities but also takes some time in the book to explain her journey of self-discovery in these areas.
We also get some insight to some of the other ways that Beezus is involved in activism including Black Lives Matter and shout your abortion. I was a little surprised that (assuming I remember this correctly) not too much gender stuff came up.
Class was probably the very least touched on of all.
To conclude, I think I'm going to go with four out of five stars....more
Content notes for soldiers, death, refugees, a priest and homophobia.
The about section on Trung's website is "a Vietnamese-American comic book artist Content notes for soldiers, death, refugees, a priest and homophobia.
The about section on Trung's website is "a Vietnamese-American comic book artist and writer from Minnesota. He was born in a refugee camp somewhere in the Philippine province of Palawan. Trung has also contributed work for DC Comics, Oni Press, Boom! Studios, and Image Comics. He currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raises three very spoiled hens. He is fond of fairy tales, kids' cartoons, and rom-coms of all stripes." What kinds of keywords came to mind reading this book? family, magic, stories, disconnected, fairy tale, self-discoverer, coming out, and friendship.
"Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he's been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.
Real life isn't a fairytale.
But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through?
Is there a way to tell them he's gay?"
A beautifully braided story, and winner of two Harvey awards, we move through the present and into many different kinds of fairy tales and back again over and over and over again. Our main protagonist, Tien, is stuck at a road block and the story just keeps building and building. Sprawling up, down and sideways as it keeps pushing at this single point. That is, the words to tell his mother who he is.
The delicate and finely detailed artistry really complimented the story in many ways. The costumes in particular are simply incredible. And the use of colour was next level.
Sexuality (and gender to a certain extent) obviously played a big role in this coming out story. Nguyen does a good job in my opinion balancing the homophobia of the time (including referencing the murder of Matthew Shepard via a news broadcast) with a big helping of love and acceptance from many in Tien's immediate life. As someone who grew up in a conservative religious background I really appreciated how much love Tien's family and friends have for him.
Heritage, fleeing your homeland, and language are also very key aspects of the story. Nguyen communicates a lot effortlessly about what it has meant to him being a queer Vietnamese american. Feeling disconnected from your parents, because your experience is so different and the physical distance between him and his grandmother.
Class felt a bit brushed over and I don't recall anything much diverting from assumed able bodied ness. Overall I would say that this book is an amazing debut graphic novel. I was blown away by the art and the story. I don't generally mark things as a must read, and I won't necessarily start now, but it gets pretty darn close. Not only is it entertaining I feel like anyone can learn a lot about the art of comics by picking up this book and studying it....more
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