An Enchantment is Just That

Calling itself a graphic poem, An Enchantment by Christian Durieux, continues the mysterious, after hours theme found in other books in the Louvre editions series.

The guest of honor sneaks out of his own retirement party to roam the Louvre, where he meets a young woman, who shouldn’t be there after hours. Together they playfully avoid guards, ending up in front of one particular painting.

Christian cleverly poses the two characters to replicate several pieces of artwork. His clear-line drawings have a mid-century feel to them. The palette is a warm, sepia-like tone with muted red and light blue accents drawn with a delicate hand that creates an intimate setting, rich with detail.

An Enchantment is just that: a delightful, dream-like evening. It creates a world that beckons the reader to become part of the magic.

A Warm Reception For Glacial Period

Glacial Period by Nicolas De Crécy, was the first book in the Louvre Editions series.

A group of archaeologists in the next Ice Age, or Glacial Period, stumble upon the Louvre while searching for an ancient civilization under the barren wasteland.

At a time when all human history has been forgotten, they come to their own “scientific” conclusions about Western culture based on the images, especially the nudes, in the museum paintings, thinking they were a record of daily life and human history up to the twenty-first century.

An interesting premise for a story, but this is Nicolas De Crécy: illogical assumptions lead to absurd conclusions in this farce. It is up to the artwork to set the archaeologists straight. Oh, and the dogs can talk.

The illustrations of the artwork vary from recognizable representations to renderings in the same classic-styled sketch with watercolor shading as the narrative.

Glacial Period takes a satirical look at what our art says about us and leaves the reader wondering what conclusions we have jumped to with regards to ancient cultures.

An Adventure with Rohan at the Louvre

Rohan at the Louvre by Hirohiko Araki, is another in the Louvre Editions published in English by NBM Comics Lit.

As a teen, Rohan meets a young soon-to-be divorcée. She tells him a story about a cursed painting, rumored to be at the Louvre, before she mysteriously disappears one night.

Fast-forward ten years later when Rohan visits Paris to seek out this painting. The work is hidden away in a forgotten storage area—for good reason.

Those familiar with Hirohiko Araki’s work will recognize Rohan from the shonen manga Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure series. Like that series, Araki, employs his unconventional color schemes here. The scenes in Japan are depicted in yellow tones while those in Paris are predominately pink and blue. His JoJo-dachi style features exaggeratedly lean bodies with beautiful features, viewed from dramatic angles.

A word of warning: Araki’s work is influenced by his love of horror movies; the scenes depicting the painting’s curse are rather violent in nature.

The only problem I had with this story was, as a character from another series, Rohan’s power of being able to read people like a book, both figuratively and literally, seems out of place in a story about an art museum.

That said, Rohan at the Louvre is an engaging story full of mystery and intrigue.

An “A” for Aya

This series completes this year’s Reading Around the World Challenge, with the Aya series by Ivorian Marguerite Abouet, illustrated by Clément Oubrerie compiled into two volumes, Life in Yop City and Love in Yop City, published in English by Drawn and Quarterly.

This coming of age story takes place in a working-class neighborhood of Abidjan, affectionately known as “Yop City” to locals. The year is 1978, when the Ivory Coast was at its economic peak. Aya is a high school student with dreams of becoming a doctor. Her two friends prefer to go dancing and hang out with boys.

Starting as a first-person narrative that becomes omniscient as the story expands to encompass those of her friends, the series covers themes of friendship & family, and the empowerment of women in a traditional society, as Aya and her mother have to fix the problems the men in their lives create.

Clément recreates the heart of Abidjan through illustrations drawn in a style that reflects the sense of hope for a bright future this period instilled.

Life in Yop City and Love in Yop City show that the dreams and loves of young women are the same the world over.

Heralding The Arrival

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is one of those books on most graphic novel “must read” lists, and for good reason.

A first-generation Australian, Shaun Tan was inspired by his own father’s emigration from Malaysia. He tells a tribute tale without words in this nuanced book.

Based on stories and anecdotes from immigrants, it weaves a multitude of tales into one, capturing the essence of immigration: why people leave their homeland, the problems they have to deal with in a foreign land, and finally making a new home.

The pace varies from intimate second-to-second imagery to a 2-page spread of 60 different cloud images to show time passing at sea.

Even though the story is without narration or dialogue, words do appear in the illustrations. These, however, have been cleverly written in a non-roman script to give an English-speaking audience an idea of what many new arrivals face.

Shaun uses photographs and paintings from Australian archives, as well as those from Ellis Island, New York, to create illustrations in gray and sepia tones. While much of the art is realistic, there are also touches of whimsy to delight audiences of all ages.

One thing to note: although considered a children’s book, it does contain dream-like scenes depicting the horrors from which many have escaped.

The Arrival is a tender treatment that gives many in places like Australia and the United States an idea of what their ancestors went through so that they can enjoy the life they have.

Persia Blues: Love and War Strikes the Right Chord

Today (December 1, 2015) Persia Blues: Love and War, comes out. It is the second of a three volume series, by Dora Naraghi and Brent Bowman.

The Persia Blues series is the story of a strong-willed young Iranian woman, Minoo Shirazi. Well, actually, it is two stories.

In one, Minoo is a modern, post-Revolution woman whose father has arranged for her to attend graduate school in the US. In the other, she is an adventurer in ancient Persia on a quest to save Persepolis from the Zoroastrian destructive spirit, Ahriman.

Brent Bowman uses a stark black ink line drawing to depict the modern world. He brings his ancient world to life through what looks to be at first glance, detailed pencil shading.

The two worlds also differ in their story telling techniques. The ancient world moves forward chronologically; Minoo has just found her long-lost mother, while the modern world uses flashbacks to reveal her struggle with losing her mother to cancer.

In either world, she is caught between her dreams and the expectations of her family and society as one Minoo copes with feelings of helplessness; the other, with deja vu.

Life Through the Eyes of a Daytripper

With the end of the year fast approaching, I need to finish the Around the World Reading Challenge, 2015.

Therefore, this week, we head to South America as I review Daytripper by Brazilian brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.

Daytripper examines the question, “at what point does one’s life begin?” through defining moments, such as the birth of a child, death of a parent, getting one’s big break, or meeting the love of one’s life.

Each chapter covers a day or so in the life of obituary writer Brás de Olivia Domingos at different ages – though not necessarily in chronological order.

Although the book jumps around, the order of the stories flows well. For example, the day he is eleven has more to do with the day his own son is born than when he is 21.

While many people associate Brazil with the liveliness of Carnival, there is a somberness to the illustrations that fits the overall tone of the book, with appropriate exceptions: the chapter in which Brás is eleven is drawn and colored in a more youthful style; and the one in which he searches for a missing friend gets very heavy and dark.

Daytripper is a thought provoking look at what really matters in life, for everyday could be one’s last.

Rapid City: Objects at Rest is Kinetic

I met Rapid City: Objects at Rest writer Josh Dahl at Northeast Comic Con last June where I interviewed him about his current project.

This four-issue compilation is a superhero origin story; not so much about how Kinetic got his powers, but how he chose his name and decided to become a full-time superhero. He is surrounded by fellow superheros, a new friend discovering his own superpower, a personal gadget maker, and a hit man out to kill one of them.

Heavy black ink on white gives the artwork a dark look and feel appropriate to the story. Artist Anand Kaviraj‘s minimal detailing, especially in the faces, still conveys expression without being over exaggerated.

Beyond character introductions, Rapid City: Objects at Rest has a clear message of finding one’s identity and being true to one’s self. It is also about hard choices: deciding what really matters, making that a priority, and then letting go of what isn’t.

Rapid City: Objects at Rest is a well-constructed origin story that leaves plenty of unanswered questions for future story arcs.

Be sure to watch my interview with Josh Dahl in which he discusses his latest project, Rapid City: Below Zero.

Stellar Novo

Novo is a five volume series by Michael S. Bracco that contains the complete 6-part story of Novo, the only one of his species in the entire universe.

Novo is the hybrid of two warring races who ultimately wipe out each other. Each book in the series puts Novo in a new situation where he tries to prevent what happened on his planet from happening on others. He sees greed and pride threaten one civilization after another as he journeys to find meaning for his life.

The illustrations are heavy black ink with line shading that can get muddy at times; however, Michael Bracco’s artwork transport the reader through these marvelous alien worlds.

As for bonus material, at the end of book 4, artist Lauren Monardo takes a few pages to tell what happens to Snurl, a critter Novo befriends in part 1, but leaves behind when he begins his inter-planetary journey.

Exploring an ethical issue (equality) wrapped in a philosophical dilemma — finding one’s destiny when manipulative forces set out to make one fail — Novo has all the elements of good sci-fi.

Watch the Interview with Michael S. Bracco I did at ConnectiCon 2015.

A Winning Combo of Runners

I discovered this series at Connecticon 2015. While these are personal preferences, I really like the story and absolutely love Sean Wang’s crisp illustration style. Bad Goods is in black and white; The Big Snow Job is in color. The color enhances the scenes, but I didn’t feel anything was lost in the black and white.

Be sure to watch my interview with Sean Wang.

Runners recounts the adventures of a crew of intergalactic smugglers. Bad Goods introduces Roka Nostaco and his alien crew. When a mission goes bad, they stumble upon a mystery girl who joins them. In The Big Snow Job, a seemingly trivial job turns out to be more than they bargained for. While each 140+ page book contains a complete story, they both conclude with a clue as to the mystery girl’s origin.

Sean Wang creates crisp visuals that tell the tale with dialogue that rounds it out for a complete story. He has a good balance between action-packed sequences, character interactions, and giving readers a moment to catch their breaths. A good example of this is a peaceful establishing shot series. Turn the page and, BOOM! Characters come crashing through a window. It’s like a TV show in print.

If you like space adventures featuring roguish characters and cavalier humor, Runners: Bad Goods and The Big Snow Job are for you. The only disappointment is that they end.