graphic novel – Page 3

Maus

This post is dedicated to the victims of the election massacre that took place in Maguindanao.

I was supposed to read another book to wrap up my World War II Challenge, but that will probably have to wait until next month, as I found another couple of books for this Challenge, lent to me by my book club friend Mike (thank you, Mike!).

I’ve only really started venturing into graphic novels recently but the critically-acclaimed Maus by Art Spiegelman is something I’ve always been interested in, although I haven’t seen it in the local book stores. While I’ve been acquainted with Art Spiegelman’s work in the Little Lit series, I’ve always wanted to read his masterpiece.

Continue reading “Maus”

ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal (2nd time around)

Yesterday, I watched Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal with my best friend, my sister, and fellow Flippers Czar, Marie, MayD, and Ihop (with Mr. Ihop and friend) at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

ZZZ 2009 poster (from http://carverhouse.blogspot.com)

Because I have readers outside of the Philippines, I need to explain: Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah is a campy, original Filipino graphic novel by Carlo Vergara. It’s about a gay parlorista (hairdresser/ beauty specialist) whose alter ego is the busty, bodacious FEMALE superhero Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah.

The graphic novel

Last July, the Flippers had a Zsa Zsa book discussion and we were lucky enough to have Carlo Vergara on hand to listen to our discussion and answer our questions about the book (and sign autographs too!). With him was Tuxqs Rutaquio, who plays the lead, Ada, in the musical.

CarVer and Tuxqs at the FFP discussion

Flippers take on ZsaZsa!

Yesterday was actually the second time I watched the musical, as I watched it on its second run at the PETA theater nearly three years ago, before I even read the book, and I have to say it was one of the best things I’ve ever watched onstage. The theater was small and the stage was in the center, and I really enjoyed watching it up close.

So I didn’t mind watching it a second time, although turned out to be a different experience for me.

A few boos: we had reserved P600 seats, only to find out when we claimed the tickets that our reserved seats had been sold to some other people (they refunded P100) and we had seats at the far end of the theater, along the side, and the most annoying of them all: right next to the exit door so all the latecomers had to pass in front of us. Granted, it was a night of horrendous traffic (Eheads concert at MOA), but theater policy should limit late entrance to the intermission, or else they need to devise a way to let the people in without disturbing any of the seated audience who came on time to watch the show.

And my beef: the theater’s audio was really bad. There were times when it was too loud (the earsplitting scene when Ada and Didi were screaming, thinking the house was getting attacked by stone-throwers) and times when the mics were crackly or picked up feedback. But most of the time, especially for the songs layered with background music and solos performed upstage — we couldn’t make out the solos. The play is a musical, they should have made sure everyone could hear it properly — isn’t that a theater rule, to make sure “the deaf old lady in the back row” could hear everything clearly?

The show was still enjoyable despite the aforementioned logistical and technical flaws, if only because of the show’s entertainment value. The camaraderie between Ada and Didi (played by Tuxqs Rutaquio and Joey Paras) was as fascinating as I remembered it, and Eula Valdez as Zsa Zsa was quite possibly even more stellar this time around. I also love that they updated the script and it was still laugh-out-loud funny (at least for what dialogue made it to our far end of the theater), but I really missed the overall WOW experience I had first time I watched it.

Oh, and I should have brought my copy of the book for a third autograph!

***
My copy: paperback (books I & II combined), bought at PETA run, autographed twice by CarVer (first at the PETA run, second at the FFP reading)

My rating: book 5/5 stars; musical – PETA run 5/5 stars; 2009 run 3.5/5 stars

Persepolis

Was finally able to watch the Persepolis movie yesterday, and it comes as a relief that it’s not one of those annoying movie adaptations that fail to live up to the reader’s expectations.

If you’re not already familiar with the 2-part graphic novel (although there is already a complete edition with both parts in one book), Persepolis by Marjane (mar-zhan) Satrapi is a coming-of-age memoir in comic strips, narrating her life growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution, studying in Austria, and then returning to her home country.

The comics, done in pen and ink, swing between irreverent and hilarious to poignant and insightful. I liked the first book, which is focused on Satrapi’s childhood, better than the second, which deals with her schooling abroad onwards. The perspective changes in the second book, naturally — the humor gets drier as she grows older and deals with more issues, but it is still worth reading to get the whole story.

To parents who are wondering if the comics are suitable for young readers, the first book is okay for younger teens (6th grade to junior high, but be prepared to answer questions and explain certain concepts), but reserve the second book for later, as it deals with more mature issues.

The Persepolis movie, which debuted at the 2007 Cannes, is as highly acclaimed as the book. The animation is a bit more polished than the comics, but resembles it closely enough that you wouldn’t really notice. Some episodes from the first book are not in the film, especially those that don’t really propel the story forward, but the film is in essence faithful to the book.

The film also manages to make some episodes even funnier and some even more poignant, even though I’d read them already, and an adaptation that can do that is worth lauding. I cried a bit when uncle Anoush gave Marji the bread swans, and when the”Eye of the Tiger” sequence was rolling, I was doubled over laughing!

Film adaptations, when executed properly, add another dimension of enjoyment to the experience of reading a book, and the Persepolis movie does just that. It’s one of the very few movie adaptations that I’ve enjoyed recently, so bravo to that!

***
My copies: Persepolis 1, trade paperback, from NBS Book-sak Presyo Sale (a steal at P75); Persepolis 2, trade paperback, mooched from abroad

My rating: Persepolis I, 5/5 stars; Persepolis II, 4/5 stars
Persepolis movie, 5/5 stars

My best book for 2008

2008 was a landmark year for me and my books – my books tripled in quantity (thanks to BookMooch), my to-be-read stack (TBR) reached crazy heights (now I have a separate shelf for TBR) and was able to read a total number of 230 books.

This month, my book club, Flips Flipping Pages discussed our best and worst books for 2008.

It was challenging to pick out my best book, as I had a lot to choose from, including:

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (reread)
The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

After much deliberation I decided to choose a book that blew me away:
The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

From the moment I held the book in my hands, I was awed by how beautiful it was, and how it seemed to elicit from me a sense of reverence as I turned the pages. Turning the book on its back cover, the critical acclaim is staggering – it is all praises from an all-star roster of authors and illustrators: Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, Jeff Smith, Jon J. Muth, Brian Selznick, Craig Thompson, and David Small.

You might be surprised to learn that my best book for 2008 is wordless – The Arrival is told entirely in pictures, in a series of breathtaking pencil sketches that silently convey so much emotion.

The Arrival depicts the story of a man who starts a new life for himself and his family in a foreign land. Tan perfectly captures the emotional roller coaster ride the character goes through: sadness at leaving his family behind; the stress of a long journey; the relief of reaching the destination; the bewilderment towards a new way of life; the slow acclimatization to a different culture; and the joy of being reunited with family.

Surrealism isn’t ordinarily my thing (see my review for The Republic of Drea ms), but I loved how it is used in this book, especially in the new country. Everything is strange and outlandish– from the landscape to alphabet, alien creatures (the origami birds remind me of the paper birds chasing Haku in Spirited Away and the pet-like animals remind me of daemons in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy), food, customs, and transportation – and creates a perfect metaphor for the immigration experience. It also makes a grown-up theme simple enough for a young reader to understand without making it childish.

The book exemplifies the power of imagery – it’s pretty hard to “read” this book and not feel the emotions wash over you, and its cinematic quality makes you feel you’re watching the events unfold right before your very eyes. It made me smile and laugh and sigh, and as I turned the last page, I wanted to burst into applause.

This is definitely a book to treasure, and a must-read for illustrators.

***
(The Arrival images from www.shauntan.net)

My copy: hardcover

My rating: 5/5 stars

Voila!

The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick
Book #13 for 2008
+
Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi

By sheer chance, I now have two Houdini books in my possession, both from Book Sale, and although I read them a few months apart, I thought they’d go together nicely in a review.

Last year I found the hardbound Houdini: The Handcuff King at the Glorietta branch, in excellent condition, for about P170. It’s a graphic novel presented by the Center for Cartoon Studies, America’s premiere cartooning school.

And then, a few months later, en route to a Christmas party in December, we happened to make a stop (bathroom break) at Cherry Foodarama, where there was a tiny book sale booth, and there I found The Houdini Box, for P60.

While both books are about the famous escape artist, Houdini: The Handcuff King is biographical, while The Houdini Box is about a boy who idolizes Houdini.

I like both books because they offer a rich visual experience.

Houdini: The Handcuff King is a graphic novel, in vintage style, done in a monochromatic pen and ink, tinged with blue shadows. I like the way the visual narrative plays out, as well as the interesting perspectives the panels take on — of course, since it’s a CCS publication, they know what they’re doing.

I also like the back portion of the book, where key details of the novel are discussed, shedding light on their context: Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1908; locks of the time and how Houdini picked them; Bess Rahner and Harry Houdini’s love story; the hat-wearing American society; advertising and journalism in 1908; anti-semitism; public address systems and American college rivalry.

The CCS ad on the back page is great too, visually outlining the cartooning process from idea to production.

The Houdini Box, although not strictly about Houdini, has a charm of its own. The story is about Victor, a boy who idolizes Houdini. When he runs into Houdini at a train station, he begs the escape artist to teach him his secrets, and the answer comes a few weeks later, in the form of a mysterious box. The story is short, funny, and engaging, and captures the magic of Houdini.

The Houdini Box comes before the Caldecott-winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret, but it is clear that Brian Selznick has his own magic in storytelling. His trademark pencil drawings come alive on the page, and his skewed proportions add character to the art.

Houdini is one of the most interesting personalities of the 20th century, and both books certainly do him justice.

***
My copy: The Houdini Box, trade paperback; Houdini the Handcuff King, hardcover

My rating: The Houdini Box, 5/5 star; Houdini the Handcuff King, 5/5 stars