Rating: WORTHY!
This was a little square book - almost like a children's picture book outwardly, but containing a series of graphic novel sketches of the author's approach to marriage. From the last panel, it looked like his wife talked him into creating a graphic record of the planning leading up to the wedding which could then be given as a gift to attendees. Afterwards, I guess he decided to publish the story (with a name redacted here and there), so we have Adrian's little blue book!
After I skimmed a couple of pages in the library, I decided this looked like it might be a worthy read and it was. It was funny and not over the top. I'm not a big fan of births, deaths, and marriages, and I think too many couples put too much work and money into the wedding that could be better used post-nuptials on other things, but it is a special day, and if people want to go overboard on marking it, then obviously, it's up to them.
I just think that the more importance you heap onto this one short event, the more risk there is that you're setting yourself up for failure because of the immense expectations, not just over the event itself, but over the life which follows it. What makes marriage special to me has nothing to do with overt celebration. It's about the commitment you make when you say the words, whether they're in a registrar's office, or a cathedral, or on a beach, or a mountaintop. Without that commitment, it's all just a circus, isn't it?
The wedding preparations here might strike some as over the top or too rich, so this short graphic novel may have limited appeal, but it's always fun to learn about the lifestyles of others, and how they cope when going through the same thing you went through - or are planning on going through. it's also a great source of ideas for writing fiction, so to me this was fun and entertaining.
The artwork is relatively simple - black and white line drawings - but it's very good and also amusing, and the humor was enjoyable, particularly the single frame cartoon images which were interspersed with the more regular panel stories. I rate this a worthy read.
