Posts filed under 'Critics'
Stories by Etgar Keret
Publisher: Actus Tragicus
JetLag is composed of five short graphic novels by Actus Tragicus comics group and based on stories by Etgar Keret. Actus Tragicus is a very creative Israeli comic book collective composed by five international acclaim artists: Mira Friednam, Yirmi Pinkus, Itzik Rennert, Rutu Mordan, Batia Kolton.
Each artist has a very distinctive style and the overall quality is good, even if I find some of the novels a little more obscure. 
According to me, the novel from Yirmi Pinkus is definitely a 5 stars. It basically tells the story of a kid that wants a Bart Simpson skateboard, we all do, but is dad is not ok. Instead he got a porcelain pig to put coins he will get every morning if he manages to finish his hot chocolate with the associate dirty skin he hates …
Among the other stories, I have to mention the magician that loses control of his magic tricks and a woman who lives next to the Hell Gate.
October 26th, 2006
Author : Aurelia Aurita
Publisher : Les Impressions Nouvelles (FR, BE)
Copyright: © 2006 Les Impressions nouvelles
Note: Special notice ! Novel for mature audience only.
Literal translation: Strawberry & Chocolate
Additional Information: Not currently available in English.
Fraise & chocolat is definitely a story about a real love and passion. Aurelia arrived in Japan to see Frederic, they met once in Paris but they wrote each other for the last 4 months. That is the starting point of the travel in the intimacy of two people where the exploration of physical love have a large part. The narration is very fresh and I got the feeling sometimes that the heart of Aurelia is to big and will explode if she can’t share her experience.
I don’t know if Fraise & Chocolat can be distributed on US market, it will be most likely consider as pornography. In my mind, this graphic novel is closer to the work made by the photograph Nan Goldin when she shot pictures of couples in their intimacy, I saw these series of pictures some years ago in an exhibition and I keep thinking that is what happiness looks like to me.
October 12th, 2006
Author: Marjane Satrapi
Publisher: L’Association (FR), Phantheon (US)
Translation Copyright: © 2003 L’Association, Paris, France
In 1979, when the Islamic Revolution started In Iran, Marjane Satrapi was only a child. Through the eyes of this cute little girl, we happen to see the daily life in Iran during this tense period, but also to know more about the history of the first country that refers to sharia in his constitution.
The life is hard and sometimes even tragic for Marjane, her parents and her family, but it is not a world without humor and hopes.
I often recommand this reading to friends that are not too familiar with Graphic novels. I found in Persepolis what comic books can best offer: an intensity, a capacity to express very complex situations and feelings in an extremely simple way.
October 10th, 2006
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