Blankets Review 2

I finally got to finish Blankets and from the start I was entranced in the way the story was presented to me. Each panel was clear and concise and flowed beautifully. Some of the panels captured spirituality (based on his parents spiritual beliefs), love and hate in a way that was so eloquent. It was simply ure visual poetry. The pacing was exceptional. Enough time was given to each character that I was able to gain insight to each person and develop a deeper understanding for there place in Craig’s world, with out it becoming boring. The emotions that the characters expressed were engaging and this too helped me to understand the characters. As Craig and Raina’s developed, there was an emotional spark inside me that a book has never given me before. This emotion made me want to see Craig and Raina’s relationship last forever. (Spoiler Alert!) But as Raina so eerily stated earlier in the story all things come to an end.

It was at this point in the novel when all my heartstrings had been plucked that Craig breaks up with Raina, and no explanation was given. The only conclusion I made was that he needed a change in his life and that Raina wasn’t meant to be a part of it. So my analysis of this is that the author is exposing the harsh realities of life and that not everything has a storybook ending, and that sometimes we must go our own way. So with this anti ending I was left feeling disheartened, but as I look back, it was a nice change from the normal ending in most romance stories.

So for my last few words, I would recommend this graphic novel to those who are looking for a heartfelt story, and even though it ended in a way that didn’t leave me feeling good, it will resonate within me and I felt I learned a valuable life lesson.

Transmetropolitan : Back On The Street

Transmetropolitan can only be classified as radical. From the moment I was introduced to Spider Jerusalem my opinions of his character were far from ordinary.

At the beginning of the story Spider leaves the peace and quite of the mountains for a job in the city. On his way there he blows up the local tavern with a rocket launcher. His action left me speechless. What a way to start a story! The pacing kept the story interesting, there was time to breathe and absorb the world and Spider acts as a guide for the audience as they explore the underground working of the city.

The illustrations really caught my eye. Every panel gave a great sense of space and the actions and emotions were clear. An interesting aspect that I noticed was that each panel seemed to be conveyed as an iconic moment. This made all of Spider’s actions that much more memorable and important to the story. The world that Spider inhabits is very reminiscent of The Fifth Element and Blade Runner. There is nothing normal and everything is something more bizarre than the next. The people are living in a society where rebellion is a key part of life.

Among the forms of rebellion are extreme body modifications in which people fuse their bodies with animals or other sentient life forms. The only reasoning behind these modifications that was explained is that it was the cool thing to do. As the violence in the city increases Spider becomes a small leader who believes that his voice as a journalist is more effective that creating violence which has ravaged the city for years. In the end Spider is left beaten and disgruntled like the rest of the city, but his vision and his faith in the fact the people of the city are not to blame for the violence leaves me with many questions that I want answered. So for anybody who wants to go on a bizarre adventure and explore a place that is ultra stylized and downright outrageous, I would recommend Transmetropolitan.

Persepolis 2: The Story of A Return

From the first few panels I was immediately drawn back into Marjane’s world.

I had first been introduced to Persepolis in the movie form. The style caught my eye it was simplistic but the curves of the characters were used in such a way that each character was distinct but fit in the world. The curves essentially made the world more organic. A technique that was used that I noticed was the use of mainly upper body shots, and I found that the story became more personal, because I was on the same level as the character talking. This technique creates a great sense of immersion that kept me engaged in the story. The drawings are flat and I was able to relate to the character designs better because I tend to draw in a similar way. That’s when I noticed that the interiors were flat but were trying to give the illusion of space. I wondered about whether this was a stylistic approach to convey a sense of disorientation. The emotions were expressed with a sense of authenticity. The author is the character and this first hand experience brings a great depth to the character. To me she was an onion and I wanted to peel away her layers (mentally) but to my surprise she did it for me through very touching character interactions and the fact she ages throughout the novel, that gave me a great insight into who Marjane is how she thinks and why. Text was a really prevalent factor in the novel and I felt it could have been toned down, I just felt overwhelmed with mounds of text, but that relates back to my previous comment regarding the onion layers, if Marjane Satrapi had used more visuals and less text, would I have been able to get as much insight into the character as I did? The parts where Marjane was traveling seemed to be when her true character was revealed. This method was really interesting to see in action. Finally I thought the story had real depth because of the history backing it. The Iranian revolution and the various conflicts in the Mid East have rich history and vivid events that kept me really interested in the matters, and a curiosity to find out more about them. So to anyone who wants a first hand account of a major historical event or a good character development story Persepolis is a great read.

Asterious Polyp

Asterious Polyp was a fun read. The fusion of modernistic drawing styles in combination with a gorgeous color and graphic design motif throughout the novel gave a Asterious Polyp a unique voice that makes it stand out from other graphic novels. There are many factors that really made this novel shine. First and foremost were the characters who posses qualities that beg to be animated. The exaggerated proportions the overall design of the characters seems to me to be blueprints to a potentially wonderful animation, 2D would probably work best just so that the style is kept in tact. Moving on to Asterious as a character, he is one that I was able to connect with on a deep level but I felt I was always falling short of truly understanding how he felt, which I suppose relates back to the authors character profile. I enjoyed reading Asterious’s overly complicated analyzations of the world around him, and seeing how people around him responded really kept me engaged in Asterious’s character as a whole, so I found it funny that I was caring about a character that didn’t really care if he was cared about or not. A really great addition to the novel was the author’s use of space. When Asterious went to a vast expansive location, I felt as though I was immersed in that space, and I had to take a deep breath of fresh air and look around me to make sure I wasn’t really there. I think the contributing factor is David Mazzucchelli attention to detail and expressing the subtleties in the environments. Another wonderful aspect of Asterious Polyp is the timing in the humor. A factor that enhanced the presentation of the jokes was the use of arcs and direction of the characters along with appropriate text direction. The culmination of ancient stories with the characters in place of the people that existed back then worked as an interesting motif that I think could have been explored more perhaps going into the future as well would add some contrast to the overall piece. So from the simple beginning the ending that I never saw coming, I thoroughly enjoyed Asterious Polyp and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in character development, illustrations, graphic design or storytelling.