I was surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did. I have always respected Tomine’s visual style, but his stories and characters usually rub me theI was surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did. I have always respected Tomine’s visual style, but his stories and characters usually rub me the wrong way. Maybe it’s because this book is explicitly about him rather than some sad-sack white dude. It feels like Tomine’s stepping out from behind some of his stock characters and speaking as himself. Maybe he always should have been an autobio-cartoonist? Who knows.
Anyhow, this is great work by a devotee of the medium. It might even be his best work....more
Because cartoonist John Porcellino is so honest and truthful about his personal shortcomings and health issues in this book, I feel a little like I’m Because cartoonist John Porcellino is so honest and truthful about his personal shortcomings and health issues in this book, I feel a little like I’m kicking a hurt puppy just by saying anything negative about it. But despite the book’s brutal honesty, I felt like I was reading a narcissist’s confession rather than a story about hard-earned self-awareness. The cartooning is emotionally expressive and is clearly the result of many, many years� fine tuning. But I kept wanting just a little more from his stories.
Porcellino (or at least his cartoon version of himself) is absolutely and painfully self-conscious, but he is never self-aware. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe that’s why he continues to produce autobiographical work. He’s out to achieve self-awareness. But at the same time, that means that any individual volume is missing something important as a standalone narrative. I don’t expect a neat resolution from good stories, but I do expect some sense of an ending or goal—even if it’s never reached.
I really dig what Porcellino has done and continues to do for the comics community. He’s an advocate for upcoming talent, for getting comics into more people’s hands, and for showing people that self-publishing is a sustainable model. I just wish I liked this book more....more
This book surprised me. Not only did it make Abraham Lincoln interesting to me (I’m not one for “saints lives� of politicians), but it also told a stoThis book surprised me. Not only did it make Abraham Lincoln interesting to me (I’m not one for “saints lives� of politicians), but it also told a story that emphasized character and storytelling above biography or, worse, hagiography. This is a very good story about a surprisingly likable character.
Most striking of all are Noah van Sciver’s incredible splash pages. The craft, emotion, and depth that these full-page images summon are far bigger and better than even the story that they are a part of. The montage-like series of full-page images that closes the book was rad and was something I haven’t seen done before....more
A story that could easily have made for a decent and much, much briefer strip on The Nib instead gets the full-length graphic novel treatment. UnfortuA story that could easily have made for a decent and much, much briefer strip on The Nib instead gets the full-length graphic novel treatment. Unfortunately, there’s just not nearly enough “meat� to this story to make it worth reading 200+ pages.
It’s like one very long infographic. Most of the panels are just illustrations that accompany a series of dates, people, and events. And there are a couple of irrelevant digressions into under-researched and under-thought accounts of the history and philosophy of games. I cringed through those sections.
Undoubtedly, the story behind Tetris is interestingly fraught. But because the legal battles are all fought between giant companies, I just didn’t care who won. Yes, there’s politicking, back-room dealing, and big-money legal filing aplenty. But without a moral center or protagonist, I didn’t know why I should care one way or another.
And, strangely, the protagonist isn’t the creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, even though he does make some appearances. Pajitnov—as the book tells us near the end—wasn’t affected by any of it at all. Like Ferdinand the Bull, Pajitnov was happy to sit just quietly beneath the fluorescent glow of his Soviet government offices (and later, Microsoft offices) and make games all day.
So... what then? To whom does the outcome of all these conflicts actually matter? Why should anyone care? I certainly didn’t. But, hey, I picked this up for under $2, so no harm no foul. And I learned a couple of factoids about Tetris along the way....more
Capacity is a wildly inventive comic in which a cartoonist reflects on his hyperactive imagination. Fittingly, his reflections occur by way of wildly Capacity is a wildly inventive comic in which a cartoonist reflects on his hyperactive imagination. Fittingly, his reflections occur by way of wildly inventive little creatures and people in his head who put on wildly inventive “skits� about the cartoonist’s struggles with his almost-compulsive visions. The worlds and whimsies of those many figures in his head are all beautifully reflected in cartoonist Ellsworth’s Bosch-meets-Gorey visual style.
In repackaging his original seven-issue run of Capacity, Ellsworth took very much to heart his ability to comment on his own earlier work. He added a number of new interludes, bookends, introductions, and other comments along the way that make the work feel surprisingly complete and novelistic in ways that it never did or could have in single issues.
I know I will be thinking about this book for a long time....more
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