MattBrady
08-22-2007, 07:35 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/BestShots/Aug07/Shortcomings.jpg" align="right">Shortcomings
Written & Illustrated by Adrian Tomine
Published by Drawn and Quarterly
Reviewed by Michael C Lorah
Adrian Tomine’s latest volume is both in step with his previous books, yet also a departure from everything he’s done before. Intact are the simple panel grids and voyeuristic camera angles, the relationship focus, the melancholy sadness, and the crisp dialogue. With Shortcomings, however, Tomine attempts to tackle the impossibly complicated issue of race among the Asian-American youth community.
Ben Tanaka is in his early 20s, the manager of a local movie theatre. He’s obnoxiously judgmental and critical, filled to the eyeballs with self-loathing, and sometimes oblivious to how annoying he’s become to his girlfriend Miko. When Miko takes off for New York and an exciting internship, will Ben let go? With best friend Alice Kim to commiserate with, Ben tries to take advantage of Miko’s distance while simultaneously attempting to keep her tied to him.
The recurring theme of Ben’s fascination with stick-figure white women is a source of tension between Ben and both Miko and Alice Kim. Ben’s trip to New York will either salvage both of his strained relationships, or crush them each beneath his self-righteous anger.
Tomine does a great job selling the characters. He moves the camera angles around enough to keep each page engaging, without needing to resort to any tricks or extreme angles. Everything is solidly on the characters. The subtle flourishes of body language or facial expression carry much of the weight, and it’s a credit to Tomine that he’s able to make each character unique in appearance, and convey their emotions without resorting to over-the-top parody or cartoonist extremes. He communicates more about his characters with a single line or slight shading that almost any other artist in comics today.
Despite suggesting Ben’s discomfort with his Asian heritage, Tomine never pushes the theme too hard. Tomine isn’t preaching, nor is he offering answers. For such a huge topic, it’s presumptuous for anybody to assume that they have the great societal cure. Tomine puts forward his characters, suggests the possibilities, and then steps away, leaving each reader to dwell on the rhetorical questions asked and ponder the possibilities of mass media feminine ideals and racial homogenization.
I’m certain that some readers won’t care for Tomine’s emo characters, while others will undoubtedly embrace them. For what it’s worth, I can’t stand Ben Tanaka, but that doesn’t take away from the quality of Tomine’s storytelling. His work is quiet, clear and precise, and any reader should be able to appreciate his gift for dialogue, or his impressive ability to stage his characters. Adrian Tomine’s setting a high standard for modern relationship comics, and Shortcomings is just another exhibit of proof.
Shortcomings debuts on September 4, 2007.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/BestShots/Aug07/WarStory.jpg" align="left">Notes for a War Story
Written and Illustrated by Gipi
Published by First Second
Reviewed by Michael C Lorah
Notes for a War Story is Italian creator Gipi’s second book to be translated into English. I’m going to have to soon track down the first.
Divided into three parts, From the Hills to the City, In the Big City, and Notes for a War Story, this book tracks the lives of three young men caught in the fringes of devastating civil war. Each chapter shows a different stage in their lives, from the youth and innocence of life outside the conflict, to the struggle to find meaning and livelihood, leading eventually to the aftermath and regrets. That the war itself is never actually shown only enforces Gipi’s intent to show the coming of age of three young men, and the darkness of a cold, indifferent world.
Gipi does a fine job keeping everything about the book understated, creating a true documentary feeling. His panels are square and precise, always conveying the worn out, tired circumstances, or the physical and mental state of the young men. Similarly, his dialogue is crisp and short, capturing the patter and flow of young men with heavy responsibilities. The banter and teasing feels authentic, as does the awe and excitement felt when the boys come into a large pay-off.
Each of the characters fills an important niche in the story, without ever feeling like a stereotype or pastiche. Upper class Guiliani is the outside of the outsiders, the narrator, the analyzer of happenings and motivations, while orphan Christian symbolizes the need to find somewhere to fit in when the world seems to want everybody dead. Stefano, a.k.a. Little Killer, is the world-weary young man who understands that he must be hard and out for only himself and his friends if they’re to have any life at all under the circumstances. He’s the leader. Little Killer pursues friendships with older, rougher men in order to enforce his status as the top of the food chain, while all three of the main characters enforce a system of “losing points” when another shows a sign of weakness.
The muted watercolors give the pages a truly distinct look, often casting a grayish pall over entire scenes. The muted color also supports the uncertain time in the lives of the three characters. Gipi’s linework is deceptively simple, creating a sense of universality, that each character is someone you could’ve known.
Taken as a tale of war or of impoverished, young men finding a way to survive in a world that has no time for them, Notes for a War Story reminds us of the cost that so many in the world have to bear and the cost they pay to feel in control of their own destinies. Notes for a War Story won Gipi the award for Best Book of the Year at Europe’s biggest comic book festival in 2006, and it shouldn’t surprise anybody if this volume wins a few awards on this side of the Atlantic as well.
Notes for a War Story is currently in stores.
Written & Illustrated by Adrian Tomine
Published by Drawn and Quarterly
Reviewed by Michael C Lorah
Adrian Tomine’s latest volume is both in step with his previous books, yet also a departure from everything he’s done before. Intact are the simple panel grids and voyeuristic camera angles, the relationship focus, the melancholy sadness, and the crisp dialogue. With Shortcomings, however, Tomine attempts to tackle the impossibly complicated issue of race among the Asian-American youth community.
Ben Tanaka is in his early 20s, the manager of a local movie theatre. He’s obnoxiously judgmental and critical, filled to the eyeballs with self-loathing, and sometimes oblivious to how annoying he’s become to his girlfriend Miko. When Miko takes off for New York and an exciting internship, will Ben let go? With best friend Alice Kim to commiserate with, Ben tries to take advantage of Miko’s distance while simultaneously attempting to keep her tied to him.
The recurring theme of Ben’s fascination with stick-figure white women is a source of tension between Ben and both Miko and Alice Kim. Ben’s trip to New York will either salvage both of his strained relationships, or crush them each beneath his self-righteous anger.
Tomine does a great job selling the characters. He moves the camera angles around enough to keep each page engaging, without needing to resort to any tricks or extreme angles. Everything is solidly on the characters. The subtle flourishes of body language or facial expression carry much of the weight, and it’s a credit to Tomine that he’s able to make each character unique in appearance, and convey their emotions without resorting to over-the-top parody or cartoonist extremes. He communicates more about his characters with a single line or slight shading that almost any other artist in comics today.
Despite suggesting Ben’s discomfort with his Asian heritage, Tomine never pushes the theme too hard. Tomine isn’t preaching, nor is he offering answers. For such a huge topic, it’s presumptuous for anybody to assume that they have the great societal cure. Tomine puts forward his characters, suggests the possibilities, and then steps away, leaving each reader to dwell on the rhetorical questions asked and ponder the possibilities of mass media feminine ideals and racial homogenization.
I’m certain that some readers won’t care for Tomine’s emo characters, while others will undoubtedly embrace them. For what it’s worth, I can’t stand Ben Tanaka, but that doesn’t take away from the quality of Tomine’s storytelling. His work is quiet, clear and precise, and any reader should be able to appreciate his gift for dialogue, or his impressive ability to stage his characters. Adrian Tomine’s setting a high standard for modern relationship comics, and Shortcomings is just another exhibit of proof.
Shortcomings debuts on September 4, 2007.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/BestShots/Aug07/WarStory.jpg" align="left">Notes for a War Story
Written and Illustrated by Gipi
Published by First Second
Reviewed by Michael C Lorah
Notes for a War Story is Italian creator Gipi’s second book to be translated into English. I’m going to have to soon track down the first.
Divided into three parts, From the Hills to the City, In the Big City, and Notes for a War Story, this book tracks the lives of three young men caught in the fringes of devastating civil war. Each chapter shows a different stage in their lives, from the youth and innocence of life outside the conflict, to the struggle to find meaning and livelihood, leading eventually to the aftermath and regrets. That the war itself is never actually shown only enforces Gipi’s intent to show the coming of age of three young men, and the darkness of a cold, indifferent world.
Gipi does a fine job keeping everything about the book understated, creating a true documentary feeling. His panels are square and precise, always conveying the worn out, tired circumstances, or the physical and mental state of the young men. Similarly, his dialogue is crisp and short, capturing the patter and flow of young men with heavy responsibilities. The banter and teasing feels authentic, as does the awe and excitement felt when the boys come into a large pay-off.
Each of the characters fills an important niche in the story, without ever feeling like a stereotype or pastiche. Upper class Guiliani is the outside of the outsiders, the narrator, the analyzer of happenings and motivations, while orphan Christian symbolizes the need to find somewhere to fit in when the world seems to want everybody dead. Stefano, a.k.a. Little Killer, is the world-weary young man who understands that he must be hard and out for only himself and his friends if they’re to have any life at all under the circumstances. He’s the leader. Little Killer pursues friendships with older, rougher men in order to enforce his status as the top of the food chain, while all three of the main characters enforce a system of “losing points” when another shows a sign of weakness.
The muted watercolors give the pages a truly distinct look, often casting a grayish pall over entire scenes. The muted color also supports the uncertain time in the lives of the three characters. Gipi’s linework is deceptively simple, creating a sense of universality, that each character is someone you could’ve known.
Taken as a tale of war or of impoverished, young men finding a way to survive in a world that has no time for them, Notes for a War Story reminds us of the cost that so many in the world have to bear and the cost they pay to feel in control of their own destinies. Notes for a War Story won Gipi the award for Best Book of the Year at Europe’s biggest comic book festival in 2006, and it shouldn’t surprise anybody if this volume wins a few awards on this side of the Atlantic as well.
Notes for a War Story is currently in stores.