Author: Neil Gibson (multiple illustrators)
Publisher:
Rating: WORTHY!
The first story, Suicide is very short, but it has a sting. The second, Routine is a father's relationship with his son, Koll, which is first abusive, then loving, then revelatory. After this we get a longer story about slavery and power titled A Lighter Note, which features an Indian guy (that's Indian, not Native American), named Rajeev who bemoans his marriage prospects given that he is so poor, and looks to improve his lot by working construction jobs in Dubai. The job isn't what he had hoped for - it's a lot worse, but what's a guy to do about it?
The fourth story, Windowpaynes is about Rodrigo and his new invention: windowpaynes. This is a window right out of sci-fi. One which transmits images and video like a giant monitor or TV. Rodrigo has a rather dangerous secret, though. Talking of images, the comic images don't always match the text in this story! For example, when we're shown the window sporting an image of the pyramids at Giza, the text refers to the Hong Kong skyline. When the text tells us that the screen can display Bondi Beach, the image shows us Venice. These are not views that can be readily confused! Evidently there was some miscommunication between artist and writer here. Either that or they just like messing with the reader.
The fifth story, The Game is set in a psychiatric hospital where at least one patient thinks nearly everyone is faking it and this is all a game. Is he right? I have to say the patients in this hospital seem to have extraordinarily large rooms and crampingly small beds! The sixth story is titled Blame, and is very short, but nicely-worded revenge story.
Next up is a sequel to Rajeev's story. This is titled A Heavenly Note and was frankly a bit of a bust. Following this, Cocaína is a story of drug dealers which held no interest for me. I started reading it but it was so boring that I couldn't stand to finish it.
The Pushman is a story about a guy who works on the Tokyo subway - he literally pushes people into the coach to make them fit and make room for more. I have to credit this graphic novel for being cosmopolitan. It's not confined solely to the US and to American stories, which is a big plus, but the guy in this story, Yoshi Higuchi, looks more Chinese than ever he does Japanese. He wanted to be an architect, but was, he believes, robbed of the opportunity, and now he gets his revenge on society in his own petty way. This story was not that great.
Münchausen's Little Proxy becomes more and more interesting as you read it, and being to realize that this story doesn't stand alone. I have worked in a hospital where a case of this actually showed up. It's one of the most lethal child abuse manifestations and can be hard to even recognize. Named after the fictional Baron Münchausen (who was based on a real life character), Münchausen's by Proxy is when the person in charge of the child fakes (or creates real) symptoms in a child. The basis of this, when done to one's self or to another, is primarily to garner attention of one sort or another.
I do have some complaints about this graphic novel. Once again the text is so small and poorly emphasized that even on a nineteen inch monitor (I read this in the Adobe Digital Editions reader), it was really quite hard to read it at times. Having to stop and squint periodically truly detracted from my enjoyment of the story. Naturally, in a graphic novel, you don't want the text obliterating the images, but there is a happy medium. This comic failed to find it. A graphic novel isn't just images (although it can be!), Usually it's also text, and if the text fails, it's just as bad as the images failing.
Some of the chapters have quotes preceding them, for example from Henry van Dyke, Marilyn Monroe, and Oscar Wilde, but the quotes are not sourced and I think they're more "folk quotes" than actual quotes from the people named. Some I know where accurate, but I was unable to confirm that any of those three people actually said what has been attributed to them.
The Oscar Wilde quote doesn't sound like him at all, and it was Darrin Weinberg who said, "It matters not whether you win or lose; what matters is whether I win or lose." Which is very close to what's quoted as coming from Wilde. You can tell how reliable a quote is by googling it and seeing what kind of web sites repeat it. In the first three pages of Google results for the Monroe quote for example, there wasn't one which stood out as a sterling or reliable source! Far too many purported "quotes" garner currency for themselves by repetition, not by accuracy.
That said, I recommend this graphic novel. While the graphics are pretty basic, they're not bad at all; only line drawings and gray scale, but not bad. The stories are sly in that some of them sneak around behind you and resurface in unexpected ways where you don't expect them. Some are interconnected. It's a worthy read.
