Three Shadows

by Cyril Pedrosa
Translated from the French by Edward Gauvin
First Second, soft cover, 269 p.

Back then, life was simple and sweet. The taste of cherries, the cool shade, the fresh smell of the river… That was how we lived, in a vale among the hills – sheltered from storms, ignorant of the world, as though on an island, peaceful and untroubled.
And then…
Then everything changed.

This was a moving story of the love of two parents for their child and how they cope with the uncertainty of his future. As it says on the back flap, “Three Shadows was born out of the agony of watching his close friends’ child die very young”, and as such it felt very real and emotional. He’s also taken a dark story about death and turned it into something almost beautiful.
I didn’t always love the artwork but it was always interesting, and Pedrosa did a great job of telling the story through brush strokes instead of words in many places. The author has a background in animation and you can really feel the movement of many of the scenes from his unique style.

(click to enlarge)

You can see the first 11 pages here, and another excerpt, showing the arrival of the shadows, here.
Interview with the author.
More info at Amazon.com.

*Originally posted at In Spring it is the Dawn

Maus I & II

by Art Spiegelman
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Special Letters Award, 1992
Pantheon, softcover box set, 280 p.

Maus is the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father, his father’s terrifying story, and History itself.
Moving back and forth from Poland to Rego Park, New York, Maus tells two powerful stories: The first is Spiegelman’s father’s account of how he and his wife survived Hitler’s Europe, a harrowing tale filled with countless brushes with death, improbably escapes, and the terror of confinement and betrayal. The second is the author’s tortured relationship with his aging father as they try to lead a normal life of minor arguments and passing visits against a backdrop of history too large to pacify. At all levels, this is the ultimate survivor’s tale – and that, too, of the chidren who somehow survive even the survivors.

There have been several wonderful reviews of this lately that I'm not sure I have anything new to add. But what an incredible way to tell a story about the Holocaust! Art Spiegelman’s drawings are powerful and really make the words and the horror of what his father and all the other Jews experienced all the more vivid. Much has been said about his use of animals to depict different groups (the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, the Americans as dogs, etc.) and I think this works really effectively to make it not just the story of Vladek and Anya Spiegelman but all Jews and everyone who was affected by what happened.

One of my favourite parts of the story though was how Art related the process of getting the story from his father alongside the story itself. It was this look at their relationship that made it extremely personal, and touching.
Partly because of the visual style, and also Vladek’s resourcefulness, especially after he found himself in Auschwitz, I also couldn’t help but think of the film, Life is Beautiful, while I was reading this. Such a beautiful, moving film!
Thanks to the nudge from a couple of challenges, I'm so glad to have finally read this!
My Rating: 4.5/5

(image found here)

*originally posted at In Spring it is the Dawn

99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style

by Matt Madden

Graphic Novel, 2005
Chamberlain Bros. (Penguin USA), pb, 203 p.

Matt Madden’s Exercises in Style is a series of engrossing one-page comics that tell the same story in a variety of ways. Inspired by Raymond Queneau’s 1947 work of the same title, a mainstay of creative writing courses, Madden’s project demonstrates the expansive range of possibilities available to all storytellers.

This was a really fun look at storytelling. Starting with this as the template, he came up with so many creative variations of the same story. Sure I didn’t love all of them and some of them were a bit silly but I think that’s the point. It certainly showed that there are numerous perspectives and ways to approach a seemingly simple story. I haven't read Queneau's book that this was inspired by, although I've heard of it, and I am curious how he could write one story 99 different ways since in some ways I think drawing multiple versions would be easier than writing them. Regardless, just like the book itself proclaims on the cover, I think this would be quite inspirational to those who write or work on film or any other kind of storytelling.

From L-R: Horizontal, Manga, Cento (David Mazzucchelli, Ben Katchor, Chester Brown, Marc-Antoine Mathieu, Daniel Clowes, Art Spiegelman, Julie Doucet, Gary Panter)
Click on photos to enlarge.
*Illustrations © Matt Madden
Interview with Matt Madden in The Comics Journal

Originally posted at In Spring it is the Dawn