Beautiful illustrations can't quite save an overly simplistic graphic novel.
A touching tale of friendship during World War II.
The debut graphic novel from Tuininga opens in 1987, with a man walking to a Sephardic synagogue in Seattle to attend his grandfather’s funeral. “My name is Marco,” he explains. “I was named after my papoo. My grandfather.” At the service, he notices mourners from “a different neighborhood,” one of whom signs the guest book with the name Sam Akiyama. The younger Marco introduces himself to Sam and learns that the man befriended his grandfather during the early days of World War II. The elder Marco, a Jewish immigrant from the Ottoman Empire, was horrified when he learned that after the invasion of Pearl Harbor, Sam and his family—along with many other Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans—would likely be imprisoned in camps under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s now-infamous Executive Order 9066. Tuininga briefly depicts the Akiyama family’s imprisonment and then their return to Seattle and later reveals that Marco had been working behind the scenes to save their home and business. “Some say all it took was a little research and some paperwork,” the younger Marco explains. “While others say the only thing needed was a simple handshake.” Tuininga’s illustrations are uniformly beautiful, with mostly dark, understated colors that match the anxieties of the era; his characters’ facial expressions convey their emotions beautifully. Some of the most powerful pages in the book are ones that lack dialogue, such as a spread in which Marco fishes alone, missing his friend Sam. The writing is less successful, heavy on exposition—Tuininga understandably wants the book to be as much history lesson as novel, and it turns heavy-handed in parts. The book needs more story, more detail; as it is, it feels unfinished. The artwork is undeniable, but one wishes the narrative were more than the broad strokes.
Beautiful illustrations can't quite save an overly simplistic graphic novel.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781419759949
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
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