The Book: Blankets, by Craig Thompson

The Story: This is Craig Thompson’s memoir of growing up in Wisconsin. With pictures and words he covers everything from sibling rivalry to his struggle with religion to his first love.

What I Thought: This was a re-read for me.  I read this for the first time several years ago.  It was my first encounter with graphic novels and I was seriously blown away.  I had just had a big religious struggle myself, I had just started dating my now-husband and I just related to Craig in this huge way.  I have recommended it a thousand times since then and it started me on reading every graphic memoir that I could get my hands on.

I was kind of in a reading slump so I picked this up, knowing that it would get me out of my slump.

I still loved it, but I have to say I was not nearly as impressed as I was the first time I read it.  I think that the “newness” of the genre has worn off so I wasn’t nearly as blown away by the mere idea of telling your life story with “cartoons.”  I am also just in a way different place in my life.  Not that I’m “all grown up” but I do have a husband and a baby and I’m way over any teen-angst and religious confusion that I was going through at the time.  All this to say that my glowing impressions the first time through had a LOT to do with where I was in life right then.

That being said, there is real merit to this book.  The drawings are beautiful. The attention to detail is spot on.  There is just real emotion that comes through every single frame.  The love story is sweet and cute but really “Dawson’s Creek”… not that that’s a bad thing.  I love me some Dawson’s Creek but you just have to be in the mood, ya know?

Conclusion: If you think of superheroes when you think of graphic novels, please read this.  It’s a great intro into graphic novels.  If you are a teen and really angsty, this will blow your mind.  Even if you’re not, give it a go.  Good stuff.

The Book: Fun Home: An American Tragicomic, by Alison Bechdel

The Story: This is a graphic autobiography about one girl’s journey through childhood through young adulthood.  She kind of comes from this strange, mixed up family.  She has two brothers, an actress mother, and a somewhat cold father.  They live in an old house that her dad is obsessed with renovating.  He’s also obsessed with literature and… well… men.  Not until she is in late adolescence and coming out to her family as a lesbian does she find out that throughout her life her father has been involved with his students and the (male) family babysitter.  This revolution seems to kind of tip Alison on her head and make her reevaluate a lot of what happened in her childhood, and tah dah: Fun Home.

What I Thought: You guys know that I sort of geek out over graphic novels, particularly autobiographies or memoirs.  I don’t know why but I cannot get enough.  When I saw this book on that Time’s List that I posted last month, I immediately requested it from the library.  A few days later, Shaun said, “Jacki, we got an email saying there’s a book waiting at the library… it says gay/lesbian studies and graphic novel. What IS this!?” So funny.

Anyway.  What did I think? I thought that this was an amazingly well done graphic novel.  I was surprised at what a punch it packed.  The emotions that were explored with just a few words & pictures was kind of amazing.  Alison Bechdel did in just a handful of words what some writers need 1000 pages to get across… and then they still usually miss the mark.  It’s just so honest and unapologetic and… true.  That’s it. True.

Let me add that while graphic novels are not as “wordy” as a traditional book, Alison didn’t let that take away from what she was trying to get across. The prose here was kind of out of this world and sometimes chill-inspiring.  I’m not exaggerating.  Chills.

The art here is wonderful and I found myself spending a lot of time looking at all the great little details that were in every frame.  I am always struck by the thought that graphic novelists are a little amazing in that they are wonderful writers AND artists.  Alison Bechdel is a perfect example of this.  I found this video online of her talking about how she does it and it’s pretty incredible if you’re interested.

I thought it was pretty awesome how Alison lined up each section with a major work of literature.  To be perfectly honest, I had not read all of these and found myself going to ol’ Wikipedia to get summaries so that I could get what was going on.  This added, for me, a whole other level.

Am I gushing?  That’s usually my cue to stop…

Conclusion: If you’re even a fair-weather fan of graphic novels, read this.  This is everything that graphic novels try to be.  So effing good.

The Book: Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

The Story: Just when you thought I couldn’t get any nerdier, look at me… reading comic books. Ha.

I know that it would probably make some seriously-in-love-with-Watchmen people cringe, but what I kept comparing Watchmen to was the movie The Incredibles.  Superheroes are the bomb dot com and they’re popping up everywhere. Some bad stuff goes down and the government makes it illegal to practice superheroery.  Superheroes go and get normal lives.  A few of the old superheroes are still kind of into their old thing.  Something bad happens to an old superhero.  The other superheroes defy the law, get new costumes and travel to some remote place to fight an old, mad superhero. Same story, huh? There’s even mention in both Watchmen and The Incredibles about how unsafe capes are in superhero comics. Heh.

Anyway, that’s pretty much what happens here.  There are other stories going on: a new generation of superheroes, the world being kind of a mess, and a couple of love stories… but mostly, we’re looking at a darker version of The Incredibles.

What I Thought: I have read quite a few graphic novels before, but I had never read one that was so comic-booky if that makes sense.  I tend more toward stuff like Craig Thompson… pretty and almost girly… I have been hearing about Watchmen for, oh, ever and finally decided to give it a go.

It kind of took me a long time to get into it.  I didn’t feel any kind of connection with the characters and even had a hard time getting them straight at first.  Maybe around the halfway point something clicked for me and the rest of the book went by really fast.

I was kind of surprised at how dark the whole entire novel was.  There were very few points of light, even in the past stories and the love stories.  It was just all kind of bleak, but I think that that was the point.  Everyone was insane or messed up or just plain mean.  So when I say that I didn’t “enjoy” this read, I don’t exactly mean it in a bad way. I don’t think it was meant to be enjoyed as much as to be just taken in.

I also have to say that I totally “get” why this book is so popular. I can respect anything that was kind of the first of its kind.  I realize that in writing this novel that they did something that hadn’t been done before and it kind of made people drop their jaws. I get it.  It is also kind of a testament that people are still talking about it now, 20-something years after it was first released.  Most novels can’t say that, put aside in the under-represented world of graphic novels.

My husband (who is somehow nerdier than even me) was thrilled out of his mind when he came into the bedroom one evening and I was laying there reading Watchmen. Earned me major “wife points.”  So, just another bonus.

Conclusion: If you ever need to prove how nerdy you are, make a Watchmen reference.  To do that, you’ll have to read this bad boy. This is a game changer, and for that I think it is worth your time, but I don’t  think I’d make it your first graphic novel experience.

The Book: The Complete Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

The Story: This is an autobiographical graphic novel of a teenage girl growing up in Iran during the revolution of ‘79.  There was a lot about death and war and the veil, and tough stuff, but there were also big chunks about crushes, normal teenage rebellion, secret parties and American pop culture.

While she was still in high school,  Marjane’s parents send her to Austria to continue her schooling in a safer environment.  She met semi-crazy anarchist friends and kind of accidentally joined the punk scene.  While she was in Austria, she sort of lied about her heritage and morphed into a new person.  There is a section of the book that covers a visit from her mom while Marjane is still living in Austria.  This is one of the only times that her “two worlds” meet, and it was one of the more powerful parts of the book.

The book continues up through Iran’s war with Iraq, and goes as far as the early 1990’s.  There is a lot of political history going on, side by side with Marjane growing up.

What I Thought: I promise: last graphic novel for awhile!  I had just picked this up on my graphic novel binge because I’ve heard such good things about it and decided to read it before my books were due back to the library.

I’m oh, so glad that I did.

I have read a handful of books about this time period, most notably Reading Lolita in Tehran , that have really touched my heart.  It is just hard for me to believe that these things are not ancient history.  They happened (are happening) within our lifetime.  That is shocking to me.

This novel works for a couple reasons.  One is the pure curiosity that we, as westerners, share regarding stuff that is happening in that part of the world.  It is in our faces every day but the truth of it is just unimaginable to us.  But, on the other hand, this is a universal “coming of age” story.  I found myself relating with a lot of what the main character was going through.  I loved her obsession with pop culture, and her thoughts on boys, and her anger at her parents.  She is in this war-torn country but what she wants (freedom, a boyfriend, love, to look cute) are just the exact things that American teenagers experience, and for me that made this book very powerful.

Conclusion: Read this.  If you have never read a graphic novel, I do not hesitate to say make this your first one.