An invaluable time capsule and an arresting expression of the human condition.
Editor and comic-shop owner Fowler curates a collection of more than 140 nine-panel-grid comic strips created during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic by a variety of artists responding to his call to envision the utopia waiting on the other side of quarantine.
The foreword and introduction explain how Fowler, quarantining in a rural Connecticut cabin after shuttering his Brooklyn storefront, posted to the shop’s Instagram account a call to make art with the purpose of buoying a beleaguered populace. Though overwhelmingly North American and European and always in English, responses came from around the globe: three-by-three grids of left-to-right sequential art, whimsical, sentimental, psychedelic, and sometimes all three at once. Many of the works collected here express a longing for physical touch, a yearning for reunions with friends and lovers and even the casual physicality of busy bars and bustling sidewalks. Others celebrate the slowing down that accompanied quarantine, savoring simple pleasures and walks in nature and the idea that an earth ravaged by industry was healing through the deceleration or even cessation of human activity. Many depict transcendent journeys through the cosmos and/or planes of existence, encountering more than a few ghosts and cosmic entities. Pets feature prominently, with one small pup teleporting from his couch to an alien world where he snatches mutated coronaviruses from the air like they were spiky tennis balls, chomping and chewing the plague into submission. The most poignant feel grimly optimistic, seeing the quarantine as an opportunity to reset oppression and inequality (“Normal wasn’t working for most of us”). Vividly expressed through linework with occasional collage, these individual accounts of a shared event strum the cord that connects us. Our current fraught postquarantine moment haunts the pages, and time will tell if it is unfinished business or missed opportunity.
An invaluable time capsule and an arresting expression of the human condition.Pub Date: July 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593316801
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth.
Superman confronts racism and learns to accept himself with the help of new friends.
In this graphic-novel adaptation of the 1940s storyline entitled “The Clan of the Fiery Cross” from The Adventures of Superman radio show, readers are reintroduced to the hero who regularly saves the day but is unsure of himself and his origins. The story also focuses on Roberta Lee, a young Chinese girl. She and her family have just moved from Chinatown to Metropolis proper, and mixed feelings abound. Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane’s colleague from the Daily Planet, takes a larger role here, befriending his new neighbors, the Lees. An altercation following racial slurs directed at Roberta’s brother after he joins the local baseball team escalates into an act of terrorism by the Klan of the Fiery Kross. What starts off as a run-of-the-mill superhero story then becomes a nuanced and personal exploration of the immigrant experience and blatant and internalized racism. Other main characters are White, but Black police inspector William Henderson fights his own battles against prejudice. Clean lines, less-saturated coloring, and character designs reminiscent of vintage comics help set the tone of this period piece while the varied panel cuts and action scenes give it a more modern sensibility. Cantonese dialogue is indicated through red speech bubbles; alien speech is in green.
A clever and timely conversation on reclaiming identity and acknowledging one’s full worth. (author’s note, bibliography) (Graphic fiction. 13-adult)Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77950-421-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Immensely enjoyable.
The debut graphic novel from Mohamed presents a modern Egypt full of magical realism where wishes have been industrialized and heavily regulated.
The story opens with a televised public service announcement from the General Committee of Wish Supervision and Licensing about the dangers of “third-class wishes”—wishes that come in soda cans and tend to backfire on wishers who aren’t specific enough (like a wish to lose weight resulting in limbs falling from the wisher’s body). Thus begins a brilliant play among magic, the mundane, and bureaucracy that centers around a newsstand kiosk where a devout Muslim is trying to unload the three “first-class wishes” (contained in elegant glass bottles and properly licensed by the government) that have come into his possession, since he believes his religion forbids him to use them. As he gradually unloads the first-class wishes on a poor, regretful widow (who then runs afoul of authorities determined to manipulate her out of her valuable commodity) and a university student who seeks a possibly magical solution to their mental health crisis (but struggles with whether a wish to always be happy might have unintended consequences), interstitials give infographic histories of wishes, showing how the Western wish-industrial complex has exploited the countries where wishes are mined (largely in the Middle East). The book is exceptionally imaginative while also being wonderfully grounded in touching human relationships, existential quandaries, and familiar geopolitical and socio-economic dynamics. Mohamed’s art balances perfectly between cartoon and realism, powerfully conveying emotions, and her strong, clean lines gorgeously depict everything from an anguished face to an ornate bottle. Charts and graphs nicely break up the reading experience while also concisely building this larger world of everyday wishes. Mohamed has a great sense of humor, which comes out in footnotes and casual asides throughout.
Immensely enjoyable.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-524-74841-8
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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