Not Just Superheroes
Best Graphic Novels of Fall 2016
For some, graphic novels call to mind capes and masks. But they cover considerably more ground, and their territory is ever expanding. This selection includes biographies of lauded figures and explorations of illness, among other grand topics. Here are the best graphic novels from our Fall 2016 issue
Sick
Gabby Schulz
Secret Acres
Hardcover $21.95 (84pp)
978-0-9962739-1-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Sick is Gabby Schulz’s fever-dream, the profoundly honest and disturbing graphic-novel account of a fifteen-day illness that pushed the author to the brink of death.
Gabby Schulz (also known as Ken Dahl) is the author of several graphic novels, including Monsters, an examination of the effects of herpes. So the disturbing, grueling experience of Schulz’s sickness and self-reflection is a perfect subject for him in Sick, which proves to be funny, dark, and provocative. Schulz attempts to treat his illness, but it quickly spirals out of control—lacking health insurance, Schulz begins to consider his life choices, and even considers suicide before the book, like his illness, culminates with a savage indictment of human society.
It’s this sharp-edged look at politics, religion, and people, just before Schulz’s recovery, that elevates the book from a simple (though morbidly fascinating) autobiographical tale to a scathing work of criticism. The fact that Schulz’s rage may have been fed by his discomfort and despair doesn’t detract from its impact.
Schulz’s art is as good as any independent cartoonist working today—grim and graphic, but also frank and penetrating. With plenty of anatomical details and ailments shown and described, Sick isn’t for the easily grossed-out or offended. But those looking for a vital, independent voice to follow in the footsteps of Robert Crumb and others should give it a try—some of Schulz’s images and ideas will linger, like a stubborn infection, long after the book’s cover has been closed.
PETER DABBENE (August 26, 2016)
Susanna Moodie
Roughing It in the Bush
Carol Shields
Patrick Crowe
Selena Goulding, illustrator
Second Story Press
Softcover $24.95 (144pp)
978-1-77260-003-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Susanna Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush achieves its goal of reclaiming a Canadian pioneer story. Roughing It in the Bush, Susanna Moodie’s original, autobiographical account of her years living in the Canadian wilderness, is considered by some to be the Canadian equivalent of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series, while others deem it to be overly dense or even somewhat anti-Canadian in the British-born Moodie’s sometimes harsh criticisms. Patrick Crowe and the late Carol Shields both had long connections with Moodie and her book, with Crowe spearheading a documentary film, The Enduring Enigma of Susanna Moodie, and Shields writing her master’s thesis on the subject. In this graphic novel, the pair have smoothed the rough edges from Moodie’s story, without losing any of its impact. This is no whitewashing of history; in the graphic novel, a despairing Moodie is often shown regretting her decisions, and the harsh frontier life is shown with all its hardships.
Shields and Crowe give context for Moodie’s struggles by beginning the graphic novel with Moodie’s life in England and the events that brought her to Canada; similarly, an epilogue gives a glimpse of her post-wilderness life, and the strange kind of fame it brought her.
Selena Goulding’s art is clean and efficient, perfect for telling the tale visually without distracting from it. With an introduction by Margaret Atwood, author of the poem sequence The Journals of Susanna Moodie, this graphic novel illuminates the figure of Susanna Moodie by shining a wider, brighter light on her story without losing the essence of what made Moodie’s original accounts so compelling.
PETER DABBENE (August 26, 2016)
Max & Charlie
Zack Lieberman
Louis Neubert
EXIT STRATEGY new media
Softcover $19.95 (136pp)
978-0-9969298-1-3
Buy: Amazon
Zack Lieberman and Louis Neubert collaborate on the rollicking, thought-provoking tale of a boy and his dog, in the graphic novel Max & Charlie.
Charlie, a young boy with a vivid imagination, finds himself searching for his dog in New York City, an effort that combines reality with fantasy, and often blurs the line between them. Neubert’s art is terrific, and the Day-Glo color palette he uses casts Manhattan in a kind of dreamy transcendence. Facial expressions are exaggerated with an expert eye, and the beginning sequence—Max and Charlie on a pretend space mission—recalls the work of Chuck Jones, Looney Tunes animator extraordinaire.
Max & Charlie veers from one encounter to the next during Charlie’s search, most of which entertain, but following the storytelling can be tricky at times due to the heavy reliance on visuals. Lieberman has a background in film and digital art—Max & Charlie will also be available as an interactive e-book—so it’s understandable that images would take precedence, and the style helps to emphasize Charlie’s unique, child’s-eye point of view.
Along his journey, Charlie meets many people who offer advice or veiled philosophy, including an old black man, a tattooed pedicab driver, and a pair of inept police officers, one of whom says to Charlie, “There’s a lesson in there somewhere, eh buddy?” There’s a definite sense that Lieberman is trying to make some larger impact than that of a simple boy-finds-dog story, and the pedicab driver might hit the nail on the head when he explains to Charlie that in this world, one needs to trust oneself: “Your eyes. Your mind. Your experience.” Experiences of reading Max & Charlie may vary, but the book stands apart as a distinctive labor of love.
PETER DABBENE (August 26, 2016)
Wet Moon
Feeble Wanderings
Sophie Campbell
Oni Press
Softcover $19.99 (176pp)
978-1-62010-304-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Sophie Campbell’s Wet Moon, Book 1: Feeble Wanderings is a gothic mystery blessed with high-level characterization and art. Formerly known as Ross Campbell, writer/artist Sophie Campbell presumably appreciates an outsider’s view of the world, and her characters, students at a southern art school, bring a refreshing sense of verisimilitude to the book. The center of the Wet Moon universe is freshman Cleo Lovedrop, but there are at least a dozen characters who feature prominently. With piercings, unusual hairstyles, and bodies that don’t often resemble superheroes or stereotypical heartthrobs, there’s little difficulty suspending disbelief and accepting these characters as genuine, which makes the hints of trouble to come more exciting.
The first volume of Wet Moon has been previously published, but it’s presented here in a new edition that offers extra artwork and a five-page short story. In some ways, Wet Moon resembles a more youthful and Americanized version of Gary Spencer Milledge’s Strangehaven series, and similar to those books, Campbell uses black-and-white art to nicely juxtapose the bland but complex everyday details of life with subtle indications of foreboding.
Not much of note actually seems to be happening throughout book 1, and even for some of its intended young adult audience, the immersion into goth subculture might be too much. But if much of Wet Moon is unfamiliar territory, that’s part of the thrill; its characters are helplessly human, and with a stunning cliffhanger ending, the goal has been accomplished—it’s difficult to imagine any reader not wondering “What happens next?”
PETER DABBENE (August 26, 2016)
Thoreau
A Sublime Life
Maximilien Le Roy
A. Dan, illustrator
NBM Graphic Novels
Hardcover $19.99 (88pp)
978-1-68112-025-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Maximilien Le Roy and artist A. Dan illustrate the life of writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, in the graphic novel Thoreau: A Sublime Life.
Similar to John Porcellino’s graphic novel Thoreau at Walden, Le Roy begins with Thoreau at Walden Pond, living a simple life as a writer and farmer. However, where Porcellino’s book focuses solely on Thoreau’s time at Walden, Le Roy proceeds to expand the view through action and Thoreau’s own words—his philosophy of civil disobedience, his role as an active abolitionist, and his thoughts about religion and the Native American model of living.
The limited use of captions makes one scene seem to fall into the next, dreamlike, a choice that allows the narrative to flow easily, but also relies on an attentive reader. In a three-page scene portraying the 1856 Pottawatomie Creek Massacre, its leader, John Brown, is not identified, and there’s no link to Thoreau until ten pages later, when Brown and Thoreau are shown talking.
Brown plays a more prominent role than one might expect, as Thoreau defends the violent abolitionist, notably disagreeing with none other than Abraham Lincoln. An afterword by Professor Michael Granger, a specialist in the study of Thoreau, sheds more light on the evolution of Thoreau’s philosophies, including this apparent acceptance of violence in some situations. It’s this more complete view, as delivered through A. Dan’s detailed art, that makes Thoreau: A Sublime Life a necessary and valuable addition to the graphic literature about Thoreau.
PETER DABBENE (August 26, 2016)
Hole in the Heart
Bringing Up Beth
Henny Beaumont
Penn State University Press
Softcover $24.95 (288pp)
978-0-271-07740-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Hole in the Heart: Bringing Up Beth, part of Penn State’s Graphic Medicine series, is artist Henny Beaumont’s brutally honest, and ultimately uplifting, account of raising a daughter with Down syndrome.
“Hole in the heart” refers to a common heart abnormality in children with Down syndrome, one which Beth, Beaumont’s daughter, has surgery to correct. But the title also refers to the battle for Beaumont and her husband to truly understand and embrace their daughter as she is; from the beginning, they often attempt to ignore or work around Beth’s limited abilities, while experiencing a gamut of emotions: guilt and sadness, hope and frustration, and, eventually, acceptance and love.
Beaumont has an MA in fine art and printmaking, and she transitions that experience to sequential art particularly effectively. The narrative flows easily, and when Beaumont chooses to slow it down, the results are gut-wrenching, as with an imaginary “visit” from Beaumont’s 15-years-older self, as the elder woman tries to impart perspective and patience to the younger one. The facial expressions of Beaumont’s characters show everything from sympathy to embarrassment to condescension, as Beaumont and her husband struggle to make good choices for Beth regarding schools, activities, and friends.
Hole in the Heart is a deeply affecting graphic novel that will certainly light a path, if not the only path, for other parents of children with Down syndrome. But it might be even more important for those with no experience of Down syndrome, to help gain an understanding of how the genetic disorder affects not just the child, but the child’s entire family. No matter the audience, the book’s message is universal.
PETER DABBENE (August 26, 2016)
Peter Dabbene
