Graphic Novels Challenge 2010 Archives

I will never catch up on reviews

Published 1 Oct 2010 by Gin Jenny

…if I don’t do a bunch of short ones all at once. Thus: The Golden Mean, Annabel Lyon I checked this out on Gavin’s recommendation and because I love Alexander the Great. Your claims that he was a psychotic alcoholic have no effect on me because in my mind he is exactly the way Mary Renault writes him in Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy. The Golden Mean is about Aristotle when he comes to Macedon to tutor young Alexander. Though Lyon was clearly influenced by Mary Renault’s books, she gives a more nuanced picture of Alexander, showing a…

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Burma Chronicles & Love and Rockets

Published 13 Jun 2010 by Gin Jenny

And now for some comics that did not rock my world but count towards the Graphic Novels Challenge anyway: Burma Chronicles, Guy Delisle Once again Guy Delisle, French-Canadian animator and cartoonist, went a-traveling to a faraway land with an oppressive regime. In this case, his wife Nadège was working for Médecins sans Frontières (MSF); Nadège, Guy, and their small son Louis take off for Burma (Myanmar) for a year. Delisle notes at the beginning of the book that the UN has recognized the regime and calls it Myanmar, but that many countries, including Canada, have not. Hence Burma. If I…

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Pyongyang, Guy Delisle

Published 7 Jun 2010 by Gin Jenny

I first heard about Guy Delisle over at A Life in Books, when Lesley reviewed Pyongyang, and since then it seems he’s been popping up all over the place. Delisle writes travelogues in comics form of the time he has spent living in countries with oppressive regimes, which is a slightly weird thing to be known for, but never mind. Pyongyang chronicles Delisle’s two-month stay in North Korea, where he is supervising the animation of a children’s cartoon. From the first page I loved Pyongyang. Delisle starts by excerpting the travel information he’s received about going to North Korea. “Do…

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Review: Swallow Me Whole, Nate Powell

Published 27 Feb 2010 by Gin Jenny

Y’all, at some point, I’m going to do a mental illness reading challenge. Is there already one? I’m going to do one if there isn’t already one. I love mental illness (I mean I do not love it. It is awful and ruins people’s lives. I just find it very interesting). As soon as I think of a clever name and invent an adorable button, I will be all over this, and Swallow Me Whole is one of the books you can read for it. PREPARE YOURSELVES. I read Swallow Me Whole for the Graphic Novels Challenge! Swallow Me Whole…

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Review: The Unwritten, Vol. 1, Mike Carey and Peter Goss

Published 19 Feb 2010 by Gin Jenny

For the Graphic Novel Challenge! The Unwritten is about a guy called Tom whose father – long since disappeared without a trace – wrote an incredibly popular series of books about a character with Tom’s same name: Tommy Taylor. However, it turns out that all the paperwork proving Tom is his father’s son has been forged. At first it is theorized that he is a fraud, the son of Romanian peasants; then people begin to believe that he is, in fact, Tommy Taylor, brought into existence by the stories themselves. The word made flesh. The Unwritten is set in London,…

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Two books I didn’t like (sad, sad)

Published 10 Feb 2010 by Gin Jenny

I put the words “sad, sad” in the title line here, but that was silly. I am not sad at all. I am still very happy, because as you may recall, THE SAINTS WON THE SUPER BOWL, causing me to tear up happily every time Drew Brees opens his mouth (he’s such a sweet dear) or every time I see a picture of all the confetti and rejoicing. And everyone is all “If only my daddy were alive to see this day,” and New Orleans is throwing the biggest party possibly every thrown, like even bigger than that party in…

31 Comments

Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, adapted & illustrated by P. Craig Russell

Published 18 Jan 2010 by Gin Jenny

Oscar Wilde told André Gide that he had put his genius into his life, and only his talent into his writing. It’s a typical Oscar Wilde thing to say, especially since he’d all but stopped writing at that point, and if you’ve read about Oscar Wilde, you’ll know it’s best to take anything he says with a grain of salt. Because, you know, hello to the self-dramatizing! But I have to say, in reference to this remark: although I read about Oscar Wilde all the time, I almost never read anything he’s written. Sometimes I’ll get in a mood and…

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Review: The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch and Ordinary Victories Part Deux

Published 10 Jan 2010 by Gin Jenny

See me starting challenges all over the place? It’s a new year and I am on the ball. The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch, Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli I didn’t start out my Graphic Novels Challenge reading with quite the satisfactory bang that I was hoping for (probably because I didn’t start by doing the January mini-challenge but OH that is all about to change). The Facts, etc., etc., disappointed me. Illustrated by Michael Zulli, this graphic novel tells the tale of a strange night out, with a strange woman whose real name wasn’t…

10 Comments

I don’t know why I lie to myself

Published 20 Dec 2009 by Gin Jenny

All these past weeks, when everyone has been deciding on their challenges for the New Year (is anyone else totally ready for 2010? This has never happened to me before, but I find myself wanting to write 2010 as the year for everything, and then when I have to write 2009 instead, I feel cranky and cheated), I’ve been saying, I am not joining any. No challenges for me, I have said. I’m not joining the Women Unbound Challenge; I’m not joining Haloes and Horns, or Alyce’s Time Travel one, or the Graphic Novel one that Chris and Nymeth are…

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Tag: Graphic Novels Challenge 2010

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