Graphic Novel Round-Up: Marbles, Fun Home, Are You My Mother?

I have read 3 interesting graphic novels this summer, reviewed briefly below:

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me - Ellen Forney

Marbles is Ellen Forney's exploration of her struggles living as an artist with Bipolar I disorder (the more severe of the forms, characterized by true mania, as opposed to hypomania, and potential psychosis). More particularly, she wrestles with the question of whether or not Bipolar symptomatology is an essential part of her identity as an artist, integral to her work, something special that she shares with other renowned artists (the "Van Gogh club," as she calls it), or whether it is an illness to be treated and managed. Her story had personal resonance for me to some degree, and it was an interesting read, although I am not a huge fan of her style of illustration.



Fun Home - Alison Bechdel

In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel explores her developing queer identity against the backdrop of her father's repressed homosexuality and turbulent childhood. I found this novel utterly fascinating, and the graphic style highly evocative. Would definitely recommend.



Are You My Mother? - Alison Bechdel

Bechdel's second graphic novel is much more philosophical than the first, and I did not enjoy it as much. Some of the material was quite interesting, and I was inspired to purchase a copy of one of her sources (Miller's The Drama of the Gifted Child). Overall, however, I lamented that the book strayed so far from the personal narrative, and ruminated so extensively on (what I found to be at times rather dubious) psychology. However, her analysis of her fraught relationship with her mother was compelling, even painfully so, and I would still recommend it.

One Weird Trick (Sex Criminals Volume 1)

When Mark and I visited Arizona over the holiday break, we hung out with his friend Jordan, who works at a comic book store in Tempe. He recommended this smart, fresh, graphic novel to me. One Weird Trick is about a young woman who wants to save her library from foreclosure, her unusual superpower, and her sexcapades with a likeminded young man she meets at a party. A fun and flirty caper with nice illustrations, this is my bookclub's February pick (along with The Picture of Dorian Gray), if anyone wants to read along!

Witchblade: Origins Volume 1

Just finished reading Witchblade: Origins Volume 1, my first comic book ever. I asked the guy in the comic book stand at Dragon*Con to recommend me something that:

1. Has a strong plot (not stupid or silly)

2. Has interesting character development

3. Is visually cool

4. Has cool costumes

I would say this largely fits the bill. The plot is definitely intriguing and it is visually awesome. It remains to be seen whether the characters will develop in the next volume, although I will check them out and see. As far as costumes go, this girl wears next to nothing all the time, so there isn't much to speak of there. The Witchblade itself is pretty sweet though (pictured on the cover), so I could definitely do a costume with her wearing it with one of her many miniscule dresses.

At first it was hard for me to get used to reading all the different speech bubbles, and the intermittent (and seemingly arbitrary) bolding of words was annoying, but I got over that.

Would recommend.

Scott Pilgrim

I've recently gotten interested in the Scott Pilgrim comic book series. Scott, a 23-year-old bassist for his band Sex Bob-omb has a smooth life. He lives with his hilarious gay roommate Wallace Wells, and is dating a 17-year old chinese girl named Knives Chau. That is, until a roller-blading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers shows up. Scott falls for her right away, but the road to her love is not covered in petals. Turns out Scott Pilgrim has to fight her 7 evil ex-boyfriends to earn the right to her love. The series then turns into a laugh-out-loud, retro-game styled, battle for Scott to keep his band in line, his own life under control, and defeat the League of Evil Exes!

The Graveyard Book

Just finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - well, I have a known weakness for children's books. I heard a good review of this somewhere and I also know that Neil Gaiman is the author of the Sandman anime series. Surprisingly, the illustrations were not done by Gaiman. It's a very good story, with some nice spookiness, and some touching parts. And it was a Newbery Award winner! Strong recommendation for those who appreciate fantasy or spirits (not for you, Linda!)