Review: Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (BEDS 413)

Of all the comics I read for my Canadian Comics class last year, this one was the most unique--and also the most confusing, and the hardest to follow.

I remember very little about the actual story. Red's sister gets kidnapped, and he becomes obsessed with getting revenge. The details are blurry, but that's the basic gist of it. If you want a better understanding, this book needs to be read twice. At least.

I can appreciate what the cartoonist was trying to do. He was pulling from traditional Haida art styles to create the comic, using thick borders that, when you pull the pages apart and rearrange them together, form a larger piece of traditional art. But not only did the swirling borders make it harder to follow the linear narrative, but the art style within the borders made the events confusing to understand. Half the time, I had no idea what was going on. I was mostly making sense of what was happened based on the dialogue and other texts in the book.

Tone: lol what just happened

Enjoyment rating: 2.7

Shelf life: The only reason I haven't sold it yet is because I keep forgetting to bring it back to the uni bookstore for buyback.

TL;DR: Hard to follow, wouldn't recommend.

Until later,

- Justyne

Review: Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown

School is back in session, and I'm in three different English courses, which means I have a crap ton of academic-related reading to do. As such, most of my reviews will be about books I read for class--including this one. (And, bare with me, some of them might sound a bit more academic after discussing them in class for so long.)

Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography is...well, exactly what it says it is. For those of you non-Canadians who are unfamiliar with our history, Louis Riel was a Métis politician back in the 19th century. He helped found Manitoba (the province I live in now), and lead a couple rebellions against the Canadian government for their mistreatment towards the Métis while establishing the Canadian prairie provinces. If you want to learn more about him, you can...well, you can pick up the book, because it does a pretty good job of getting everything across.

Louis Riel is either a hero or a traitor, depending on who you ask. But what I was most impressed about in terms of the book was how Brown managed to, like, not take a side. I mean, he takes a side to an extent--he definitely villanizes the government, and thus sympathizes with the Métis cause. But in terms of Riel himself, he just kind of portrays him in a neutral way. He's careful not to over-embellish his positive traits or his negative traits, and creates the much-needed but often-missed unbiased portrayal of an historical figure.

The reading, though, was a little...dry. This was not written to be light hearted and fun--it's an educational text. The narrative has been changed and shifted slightly from true events, but all changes are recorded in Brown's note section in the back. The comic is very text-heavy (although it does have its silent sequences, too), and the panels are very strictly laid out in a three-by-three grid pattern. Unless you are genuinely interested in learning about Louis Riel and Canadian history, you might not have a fun time with this book. (It does have its moments, though.)

Final rating: 3/5

Until later,

- Justyne

Micro Fiction Monday: Dot, Dot, Dot

Sometimes, in cartoons, the artist likes to use an ellipsis to portray an awkward encounter. You know, that little “dot, dot, dot” thing? Cartoonists will leave it hanging in the middle of a panel, with no speech bubble or narration box or anything. It emphasizes the silence—it makes it louder, more awkward or tense, et cetera.

If my life were a cartoon—which, sometimes, I swear it is, because it is just so ridiculous—there would be one big, fat ellipsis staring me in the face right now. Like, I can practically see it. In my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered such an awkward silence in my life.

And all I said was, “Hi.”

Okay, back up. How do I explain this as briefly and as clearly as possible? Long story short: I had a best friend. Once. Past tense. But we were pretty good—I dare say amazing, together. We had the telepathy thing going on, the whole shebang. You wanted gross fast food at 2:30 in the morning? You had someone to drive you there, without question.

And then I, the genius I am, decided to move away. I chose a different school a million miles away, and suddenly, that was that. No more telepathy. No more late night take out. No more 3 AM emergency phone calls.

Nothing.

I’ve long since acknowledged that what happened was my fault. I picked the school over him. I chose studying over him. I chose my new friends over him. And eventually, I became his second choice, too.

Fast forward to now—I’m a college graduate. I’m back in my hometown, if only for the summer. And there he is—four years older, but still just the same.

He says hi.

I say hi.

Dot.

Dot.

Dot.

Review: An Age of License

You know what I don't review enough? Graphic novels. You know what I don't read enough? GRAPHIC NOVELS. Seriously. Graphic novels are fab, super easy and quick to read. It's a wonder I don't read more of them.

Lucy Knisley's travelogue An Age of License is one I've wanted to read for a really really long time, but it never seemed like anyone ever had it in stock. I actually found it by accident, while going on my annual Post Christmas Book Binge (aka the day that I go and use up all the gift cards that the lovely people in my life have given me). A pleasant surprise! I read the majority of it on the bus the next day. (Like I said--graphic novels provide some very fast reads!)

I'm unfamiliar with Knisley's work, but her ilustration style is what drew me to the book in the first place. It's very simplistic, cute, and welcoming to the reader. It wasn't super exaggerated, and I really appreciated some of the full-page illustrations of the things she saw while abroad. (That girl knows her watercolours!)

Some people may find this book a bit slow, to which I say....well, it's a journal. It recounts most of what she did day by day while in Europe in a visual way, including some unique sights she saw and conversations she had with others. It's not meant to be thrilling or an exciting adventure--it's more retrospective, with thoughtful consideration about her accomplishments, her future, etc etc. It's a memoir; a travelogue, as she calls it. The key is relating to the illustrator--if you can't find a similarity or two, if you can't relate to her in some shape or form, you probably won't take much away from this. (But if you do relate to her, she talks about some really interesting stuff in a very thoughtful way!)

This book really gave me the travel bug--I've always enjoyed travelling, but seeing the places she travelled to and following her along this journey really made me want to hit the road (or plane?) again! Which is bad, because I'm a poor student, as are most of my friends. Oh, well. It'll happen eventually. 

I'd give this book a solid 4 stars--and I definitely recommend it to any artists or travellers out there!

Until later,

- Justyne

Review: This One Summer

WARNING: The following blog posts contain spoilers for the novel under review, ranging from mild to heart wrenchingly major. If you have yet to read this novel and dislike being spoiled, leave now and return upon completion.

If you HAVE read this novel (or just don't give a crap about spoilers), then continue on.

But don't say I didn't warn you.

~~

HELLO, FRIENDS! Today we're going to be talking about This One Summer by Canadian cousin duo Jillian and Mariko Tamaki.

THE PLOT-Y BIT

Awago Beach is your typical beach town community, filled with local shops, tourist attractions, and several cabins within walking distance of the ocean. Rose and Windy have been best friends, practically sisters, since Rose and her family started visiting the cabin when she was five. With Windy's cabin mere minutes away, summers have been filled with joint family campfires, swimming expeditions in the ocean, and trips to the local museum in town for as long as Rose can remember.

But this summer, things are different. Tensions are running high between Rose's parents, and a crush on a local leads Rose to discover a whole new world of drama with the teenagers of Awago. This year, Rose will need Windy and their friendship more than ever to survive this, the hardest summer of her life to date.

THE REVIEW-Y BIT

I don't even know what to say about this book, to be honest. I just...really didn't like it.

I wasn't particularly fond of Rose and Windy. I couldn't really relate to them, and I felt like their friendship seemed really shallow. The plot synopsis describes Windy as "the little sister Rose never had", but I really didn't get that vibe from them. None of the few fights they had were properly dealt with or resolved, which irritated me to no end. I just couldn't force myself to care about what happened to them--or any of the side characters, for that matter.

Aside from that, all of the major conflicts in this book seemed to happen to everyone around the two friends, but didn't really seem to affect them as characters. Yes, Rose's parents were fighting a lot, and we saw her reaction to it, but overall it felt like she was more of an observer than anything. The conflict with Rose's mom and her miscarriage the previous summer was probably the only aspect of the story that I was really interested in, and even as the fighting and tension that came as a direct result of that filled the book, the actual reasoning was, I felt, just kind of swept under the rug. The entire book was filled with allusions to this mysterious event that her mother went through, and by the end we got a very brief recount as to what happened...and then BOOM. Over. It did a real bad number on the pacing of the overall story.

(Plus, whatever happened to Rose's parents? I saw no apology, no conversation...nothing. Talk about frustrating.)

Meanwhile, the other main conflict--the teen pregnancy scandal that was sweeping through Awago--held -10% of my attention. I cared even less about the teens in the local beach town community than I cared about Rose and Windy--which, trust me, is a very hard thing to accomplish.

Overall, I found the plot dreary and boring, nothing like I'd expect a summer read such as this to be. Most of the characters were flat and uninteresting, and the ones that managed to catch my eye stayed on the sidelines as much as possible. Maybe if the story were longer, it would have had the time it needed to meet my expectations--but because of how short it was, the pacing was wonky and all over the place. Definitely not something I would recommend.

THE RATING-Y BIT

Two stars; and even that, to me, is a tad generous. The only thing that saved the rating was the art style; charming and wonderfully detailed. If only the story held up along with it...


Until later,

- Justyne