THE GRAPHIC STORIES - Part 2
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DiscussionsClub Read 2022
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1labfs39
Welcome! Since the topic is of necessity image-heavy, I have started a second thread for Graphic Stories. Here is the introduction from the first thread by AnnieMod:
When I was at school, I was taught that literature comes in 3 distinct forms: prose, poetry and drama. Then we hit Shakespeare... and things got muddled. A few years later we were introduced to a prose poem and things went even weirder. Then I found the graphic stories and thing got even weirder.
The line between illustrated stories and graphic stories can sometimes be a bit shaky (especially in older works) but the general rule is that if you can remove all the pictures without loosing part of the story, it is a illustrated book; if the pictures carry some or all of the story and the story loses parts of itself without them, it is a graphic story.
Graphic stories come in different formats - US style comic books (single issues (floppies), collected ones (TPBs); each of the books can be a single story, a part of a longer story (limited or unlimited) or an anthology of many stories), European style albums (again containing full stories or parts of stories), Graphic novels (complete stories published directly as books OR previously published as comic books (another thin line here)), Japanese style manga, comic strips, cartoons and lately digital comics. Each of the formats has its own conventions and rules and you can usually visually recognize them when you see them.
As for genres - graphic stories are stories. If you can tell the story in words, you can do it in this media as well. So you can find everything - from contemporary stories to fantasy, from science fiction to romance, from horror to non-fiction and so on.
The idea of this thread is two-fold:
- Give a space to people from the group who read the medium to discuss what they read
- Provide an introduction to the styles and authors and formats to people who think that these are only for kids or have other reasons not to read them.
Everyone is welcome to introduce their favorite author, series, style and so on. I will try to post once or twice a week (Tue/Fri maybe - let's see how 2022 starts and how things roll in the thread) an intro to something or someone new (yes, there will be also superheroes comics - they are part of the graphic world).
Don't expect to like everyone's style or every single series - you don't like every single prose or poetry author either so why would this be different. But if you are open to ideas, maybe you will find something that catches your eye and expand your reading.
Welcome to the thread and have fun! Everyone is welcome - even if you think that graphic stories are not literature and should be re-delegated to the trash can or the children's section only.
Edited to add: Here is the link to our accompanying list, Club Read's Graphic Stories Recommendations.
When I was at school, I was taught that literature comes in 3 distinct forms: prose, poetry and drama. Then we hit Shakespeare... and things got muddled. A few years later we were introduced to a prose poem and things went even weirder. Then I found the graphic stories and thing got even weirder.
The line between illustrated stories and graphic stories can sometimes be a bit shaky (especially in older works) but the general rule is that if you can remove all the pictures without loosing part of the story, it is a illustrated book; if the pictures carry some or all of the story and the story loses parts of itself without them, it is a graphic story.
Graphic stories come in different formats - US style comic books (single issues (floppies), collected ones (TPBs); each of the books can be a single story, a part of a longer story (limited or unlimited) or an anthology of many stories), European style albums (again containing full stories or parts of stories), Graphic novels (complete stories published directly as books OR previously published as comic books (another thin line here)), Japanese style manga, comic strips, cartoons and lately digital comics. Each of the formats has its own conventions and rules and you can usually visually recognize them when you see them.
As for genres - graphic stories are stories. If you can tell the story in words, you can do it in this media as well. So you can find everything - from contemporary stories to fantasy, from science fiction to romance, from horror to non-fiction and so on.
The idea of this thread is two-fold:
- Give a space to people from the group who read the medium to discuss what they read
- Provide an introduction to the styles and authors and formats to people who think that these are only for kids or have other reasons not to read them.
Everyone is welcome to introduce their favorite author, series, style and so on. I will try to post once or twice a week (Tue/Fri maybe - let's see how 2022 starts and how things roll in the thread) an intro to something or someone new (yes, there will be also superheroes comics - they are part of the graphic world).
Don't expect to like everyone's style or every single series - you don't like every single prose or poetry author either so why would this be different. But if you are open to ideas, maybe you will find something that catches your eye and expand your reading.
Welcome to the thread and have fun! Everyone is welcome - even if you think that graphic stories are not literature and should be re-delegated to the trash can or the children's section only.
Edited to add: Here is the link to our accompanying list, Club Read's Graphic Stories Recommendations.
2labfs39
And here's a review to start us off, of a graphic novel I finished last night:
Between Shades of Gray: The Graphic Novel original novel by Ruta Sepetys, adapted by Andrew Donkin, art by Dave Kopka
Published 2021
Ruta Sepetys' father was spirited out of Lithuania just ahead of the Soviet occupation in 1941. Members of her extended family were deported and imprisoned along with thousands of other Balts. Sent to Siberia to serve sentences of up to 25 years hard labor, they were labeled thieves and prostitutes. Even after they returned to Lithuania, they lived in fear of being persecuted or even killed if they spoke of their experiences. Sepetys wrote the novel Between Shades of Gray after interviewing survivors, historians, and government officials, as well as her own surviving family members. This book is a graphic novel adaptation of her novel, which is particularly apt as the protagonist is an artist.
Fifteen-year-old Lina Vilkas is taken by the NKVD one night in June 1941 along with her mother and younger brother. Her father had disappeared prior to their arrest and was assumed to have been imprisoned for an anti-Soviet attitude. They are packed into cattle cars with hundreds of other Lithuanian doctors, lawyers, teachers, librarians, and anyone else on the "lists" as suspected anti-Soviets, and their families. Lina and her family are first imprisoned on a kolkhoz in Siberia, where living conditions are horrific. Then they are sent north of the arctic circle in the first batch of Lithuanians and Finns sent to create the Trofimovsk gulag. Throughout everything, Lina continues drawing and documenting her experiences.
Edited to fix bolding issue.
Between Shades of Gray: The Graphic Novel original novel by Ruta Sepetys, adapted by Andrew Donkin, art by Dave Kopka
Published 2021
Ruta Sepetys' father was spirited out of Lithuania just ahead of the Soviet occupation in 1941. Members of her extended family were deported and imprisoned along with thousands of other Balts. Sent to Siberia to serve sentences of up to 25 years hard labor, they were labeled thieves and prostitutes. Even after they returned to Lithuania, they lived in fear of being persecuted or even killed if they spoke of their experiences. Sepetys wrote the novel Between Shades of Gray after interviewing survivors, historians, and government officials, as well as her own surviving family members. This book is a graphic novel adaptation of her novel, which is particularly apt as the protagonist is an artist.
Fifteen-year-old Lina Vilkas is taken by the NKVD one night in June 1941 along with her mother and younger brother. Her father had disappeared prior to their arrest and was assumed to have been imprisoned for an anti-Soviet attitude. They are packed into cattle cars with hundreds of other Lithuanian doctors, lawyers, teachers, librarians, and anyone else on the "lists" as suspected anti-Soviets, and their families. Lina and her family are first imprisoned on a kolkhoz in Siberia, where living conditions are horrific. Then they are sent north of the arctic circle in the first batch of Lithuanians and Finns sent to create the Trofimovsk gulag. Throughout everything, Lina continues drawing and documenting her experiences.
Edited to fix bolding issue.
3msf59
>2 labfs39: Good review, Lisa. I loved the novel.
4msf59
Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith by Grace Ellis 4.2 stars
I knew very little about the life of Patricia Highsmith, other than, that she was gay and authored some terrific books. This excellent illustrated biography filled me in. It turns out she was a very complex, unpleasant person, along with being immensely talented. She was also a heavy drinker and smoker. It covers her early years, writing comics, which she abhorred, and this led to writing Strangers on a Train and her landmark lesbian novel The Price of Salt, later titled Carol. I am sure there are much more detailed bios about Highsmith out there but if you want a condensed version, I highly recommend this graphic novel.
*I want to thank Lisa, for turning me on to this one.
5AlisonY
Thank you so much for the recommended list. I just reviewed my first graphic novel (I'm not counting Bunty and Twinkle annuals when I was 8...), and this is a genre I'm now really interested in getting into but had no clue where to start.
6labfs39
>5 AlisonY: Yay, another convert! Which graphic novel did you read?
7msf59
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton 4.5 stars
Before launching her career as a successful cartoonist and penning her popular Hark a Vagrant series, Kate Beaton left her hometown in Nova Scotia to work in the oil sands of Alberta, which was booming at the time. She was buried in student debt and this was one of the best opportunities available for her, despite the isolation and grueling conditions.
This graphic memoir details her two years spent there. It was not easy for Beaton or for the many thousands of other workers stationed there and being one of the few women, made it even more difficult. She was subjected to sexual harassment, in its many guises, along with the long, grinding hours. The book also looks at the environmental issues placed on the land, the wildlife and it’s indigenous people by these monster oil companies. The writing and artwork are excellent and I highly recommend it. Warning- issues of sexual assault.
9AlisonY
>6 labfs39: Sorry - I realise that you and I had chatted about this over on my thread, Lisa, but I should have replied here as well in case anyone else is interested. I'll just paste part of my review here for handiness:
Mental Load: A Feminist Comic by Emma
The enigmatic Emma is a thirty-something French computer programmer who also has comic strips in The Guardian and podcasts for the French Culture radio station. She's a young woman with strong ideas on feminism and racism and she's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.
This is a great book - the graphics really stuck in my head about a lot of the points made in a way that pages of text wouldn't. Whilst I wasn't nodding my head at all of her points (perhaps I'm lucky to be married to someone who pulls their weight quite well domestically), she certainly hit the mark in a number of areas, particularly on the topic which led to the title.
I've never classed myself as a feminist, but (sorry chaps - you may want to stop reading here) I was nodding my head vigorously on the subject of mental load. Like in many households, I end up taking care of all the household admin, whether it's stuff to do with the kids, school, bills, booking holidays, and there is a huge mental stress with always having this endless list of things to do and squeeze in around work. Whilst my husband is generally pretty at doing certain things around the house, it does wind me up that a common refrain is "you just needed to ask me to do x" (after I've spontaneously combusted over something). Emma nails this as a cop out, with women assuming the unwanted role of project manager in the house.
, 
I don't want to male bash here. My husband does the lion's share of the outside work, so from a pure work perspective I'd say we have a healthy split, but I don't think men always appreciate that the job of mentally keeping on top of everything that needs done and ensuring balls don't get dropped gets tiring when it's carried mostly by one person.
Emma tackles other topics in this book too, such as the unhealthy work culture of 'he/she who stays latest in the office must be the better employee', the treatment of coloured young males in France by the police and the court system, motherhood and paternity leave.
All in all I enjoyed this book. Emma really cleverly picks up on some hard hitting points, and the graphics are a terrific way to get the message across.
Mental Load: A Feminist Comic by Emma
The enigmatic Emma is a thirty-something French computer programmer who also has comic strips in The Guardian and podcasts for the French Culture radio station. She's a young woman with strong ideas on feminism and racism and she's not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.
This is a great book - the graphics really stuck in my head about a lot of the points made in a way that pages of text wouldn't. Whilst I wasn't nodding my head at all of her points (perhaps I'm lucky to be married to someone who pulls their weight quite well domestically), she certainly hit the mark in a number of areas, particularly on the topic which led to the title.
I've never classed myself as a feminist, but (sorry chaps - you may want to stop reading here) I was nodding my head vigorously on the subject of mental load. Like in many households, I end up taking care of all the household admin, whether it's stuff to do with the kids, school, bills, booking holidays, and there is a huge mental stress with always having this endless list of things to do and squeeze in around work. Whilst my husband is generally pretty at doing certain things around the house, it does wind me up that a common refrain is "you just needed to ask me to do x" (after I've spontaneously combusted over something). Emma nails this as a cop out, with women assuming the unwanted role of project manager in the house.
, 
I don't want to male bash here. My husband does the lion's share of the outside work, so from a pure work perspective I'd say we have a healthy split, but I don't think men always appreciate that the job of mentally keeping on top of everything that needs done and ensuring balls don't get dropped gets tiring when it's carried mostly by one person.
Emma tackles other topics in this book too, such as the unhealthy work culture of 'he/she who stays latest in the office must be the better employee', the treatment of coloured young males in France by the police and the court system, motherhood and paternity leave.
All in all I enjoyed this book. Emma really cleverly picks up on some hard hitting points, and the graphics are a terrific way to get the message across.
10labfs39
>9 AlisonY: Fantastic review, Alison. I've added it and Mark's book to the list.
11Julie_in_the_Library
I read the first three volumes of Harrow County a month or so ago, and quite enjoyed them. I really like the regular artist. There were some fill-in artists in certain issues that I liked less. The story is interesting, though not actually frightening to read. If you're looking for modern horror comics, this is a good one.
