High school is behind you, but you’re not quite an independent adult. Today’s reviews cover one book of essays and stories written during–and one graphic novel memoir written about–the college years. Marina Keegan was a talented writer who died days after graduating from Yale. She had lined up a position as an editorial assistant at The […]
Today we look at four graphic novels which together show the vast range of the format, in terms of artwork, content, and form. The Cute Girl Network, written by Greg Means and MK Reed and illustrated by Joe Flood, shows the format at its most traditional: cartoon-like artwork, fully sequential panels, and a standard romantic […]
When is a book too sexually explicit to recommend to teens? That’s a question that comes up fairly frequently for our reviewers, and frankly, it’s one that I don’t know the answer to. For the most part it seems to be based on just our gut feelings–something like Justice Potter Stewart’s famous statement that “I […]
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: What’s So Funny about Parody? Artful parody, as the American journal The Onion shows readers again and again, makes us laugh for a couple of reasons: often, the parody presents a situation that is farcical on its face, and it also tickles our brains with the surprise of […]
from Francisca Goldsmith, graphic novel guest blogger extraordinaire: Coding How We Speak Family Secrets Rutu Modan has proved to be an adept storyteller as well as creator of visually rich images of both characters and their settings. She’s been published to some acclaim in the US as the author and cartoonist of a collection of […]
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: Continuing in a summer reading—and summer reading promotion—vein, Dan Zettwoch’s first graphic novel provides a stunning array of possibilities: a summer-visit-to-the-country marbled with social and political commentary and served up with intriguingly detailed but accessible schematics of cell tower construction, live bait farming and lifestyles doomed by commercial […]
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: Guy Delisle’s Jerusalem won the Best Comic Book Award this year at Angoulème, the premier international comics festival. A Quebecois who now has his home in France but keeps on the move to such rarely touristed places as North Korea, Delisle is the perfect investigator into life on […]
It’s Wednesday again already, and you know what that means! Here is graphic novel guest blogger Francisca Goldsmith with another gem: The Biblical story of David and Goliath rings familiar to many, at least as metaphor giving birth to aspects of contemporary life. Even as the Occupy Movement has inculcated in many media—and Main Street—messages […]
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: Lynda Barry’s public career as a cartoonist began in a variety of alternative newspapers thirty years ago. Since then, she’s become well recognized, not just as a humorous and insightful comic strip powerhouse but also as a teacher who can encourage those who have never before explored their […]
from graphic novel guest blogger, Francisca Goldsmith: The biography of Tintin’s creator under review below is not, although sharing a similar title, to be confused with the 2008 coffee table style presentation of the artist and his characters. Instead, this translation of a somewhat older French study serves as a contemplative vehicle as well as […]
Recent Comments