Graphic Novel: War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay, Illustrated by Daniel LaFrance

Though I’m still slightly torn about whether or not the making of a child soldier is appropriate fodder for a graphic novel aimed at young adult readers, the combination of Sharon E. McKay’s powerful prose and Daniel LaFrance’s luminous illustrations is just right in War Brothers (Annick).

War Brothers was originally written in traditional novel form and published in 2008. Storyboard and graphic artist LaFrance brings the story to life with richly vivid illustrations shown us the abduction, training and ultimate escape of 14-year-old Ugandan Jacob, an apparent composite of children McKay interviewed several years ago who had been kidnapped then trained as soldiers for the Lord’s Resistance Army under the infamous Joseph Kony.

These components -- strong story, powerful storyteller, talented artist -- make for a winning combination. I’ll be very surprised if War Brothers doesn’t pick up its share of awards this year. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

Django Unleashed

While you’re thinking of lining up to see Django Unchained, writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s new movie, be aware that there is another way to experience the story. At the same time, DC/Vertigo Comics has released a new comic series that is set to be a close adaptation of Tarantino’s script. WIRED looks at the new release:

The comic is an incredibly faithful adaptation of Tarantino’s movie script – the first issue is the first few scenes of the film, almost line for line. Drawing on the director’s story, the book’s interior art comes from [R.M.] Guéra, who made characters that hew closely to their actor counterparts but are their own characters entirely. The artist’s Django, the slave that becomes a bounty hunter, has a more steely cowboy vibe than smooth, cool Jamie Foxx; ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie looks even more maniacal than Leonardo DiCaprio; and Candie’s house slave Stephen looks far more jowly and grizzled on the page than Samuel L. Jackson does on screen.

Meanwhile, pretty much everyone is talking about the film version starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio. Forbes was over the moon about the film:

The “D” may be silent, but the “A+” scores aren’t. Quentin Tarantino’s new spaghetti western Django Unchained delivers one of the best times you’ll have at the movies all year, in the director’s best film in almost two decades (which is saying a lot).

Meawnhile, Spike Lee has publicly been much (much, much) less enthusiastic:

Director Spike Lee won’t be rooting for “Django Unchained” at the 2013 Golden Globes, let alone see the Quentin Tarantino film, after he ripped the movie for being disrespectful to African-Americans and the history of slavery.

Looking Back: Graphic Novels 2010

Gary Phillips, Shamus Award-nominated creator of Los Angeles private eye Ivan Monk and the author of the recently published novella, The Underbelly, commented in The Rap Sheet recently on his latest effort in the field of graphic-novel writing.

In Moonstone’s Spider #1, due out in January, he gives Depression-era super-spy Operator 5 new life as the back-up feature. He has also been writing stories for Moonstone about a black pulp character he created called Decimator Smith, and has worked on bringing back swinging 1960s freelance spy Derek Flint. With 2010 coming to a close, Phillips chooses his favorite crime and mystery graphic novels of the year:

The following is by no means an exhaustive overview, but I’ve tried to offer what I presume is The Rap Sheet’s mostly mystery prose-reading audience a flavor of what’s out there in the world of crime and mystery graphic novels. Take a gander and see what you think.

Phillips’ thoughtful selections are here. You can read about his adventures with Moonstone’s Spider #1 here.

Meanwhile, Graphic Novel Review has chosen its favorites for 2010 and taken an understandably wider view. “This was a wild, inventive year for graphic novels and manga,” says editorial director John Hogan, who created the list. “So many writers and artists took interesting risks and created works that are going to stand the test of time.” GNR’s list is here.

Biography: Stitches: A Memoir by David Small

David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir (McLelland & Stewart/W.W. Norton) is fantastic. As good or better than the most celebrated graphic novels that it will inevitably be compared to. Stitches is all the more compelling because it is not a novel at all. Rather, it is a graphic telling of author and illustrator David Small’s early life.

This is David through the Looking Glass as seen by David Lynch or perhaps Tim Burton, a dark and often disturbing graphic glimpse at a childhood that many of us might have thought was best left alone. Small takes us through the dark corridors of his childhood in Detroit in the 1950s, the son of a radiologist father whose constant x-raying ultimately gives the boy cancer. And things go downhill from there.

Stitches is a huge distance from the work Small is best known for. He has illustrated over 40 children’s books and won the most prestigious awards available to him in the process. It’s not hard to see why: Small is hugely talented and his understanding of visual storytelling is complete. Stitches is undoubtedly one of the best books of 2009.

Graphic Novels: The Color of Heaven by Kim Dong Hwa

The Color of Heaven (First Second) is the third book in a coming of age trilogy by celebrated Korean manhwa artist, Kim Dong Hwa. In an interview with Newsarama earlier this year, Hwa said that he was deeply influenced to tell the mother-daughter story in his Color of Earth trilogy by the aging of his own mother:

Since I was very young, I’ve been interested expressing the growth and change (mentally and physically) of a girl in manhwa form. I consider the process of a girl becoming a woman one of the biggest mysteries and wonders of life. And one day when my mother was sleeping in her sickbed, I looked down at her wrinkled face and suddenly realized that she must had been young and beautiful once. Then I started imagining her childhood and youth. What would she have looked like in her 60s, 50s, 40s and etc.? These thoughts inspired me to put my hand to the plow. Ehwa is the result of tracing back my mother’s youth.

Delicate, poetic and sometimes deeply -- though obliquely -- sensual, The Color of Heaven concludes the story of young Ehwa and her own mother. Older in this third book -- she’s a young woman now -- Ehwa is anticipating a love of her own and softly rebelling against the boundaries and realities her mother is trying to set.

Reading, one understands the thorough esteem with which this artist is regarded in his own country. It’s a delight to be able to all three books in the 2003-published trilogy -- The Color of Earth, The Color of Water and The Color of Heaven -- in their English translation.

Top Ten Graphic Novels: A List in the Making

If you love graphic novels, chances are you’ve debated -- alone or with friends -- on what’s at the top of the list in the genre. Or, further still, what are the top ten graphic novels of all time?

All through June CBCs Canada Reads program celebrates the graphic novel with interviews, a look at how graphic novels can progress to film and -- a CBC favorite -- a month-long run at putting together a list of the top ten graphic novels of all time. Since, arguably, the form has been around for over 100 years, respondents will have their work cut out for them. You can follow the action here.

100 years? Editor’s note: I did say arguably, did I not? For instance, one could argue that the dark and skilled Max and Moritz, first published in Germany in 1865, was a graphic novel.

And in 2007, January Magazine contributing editor Lincoln Cho reviewed then-new Graphic Witness (Firefly), a stunning collection of four graphic novellas of a historical nature. You can see that review here.

Sales of Female Force Comic Brisk

It used to be you knew you’d arrived when someone crafted an action figure in your likeness. These days it seems you’re more likely to end up fighting foes in comic book form.

Prior to the U.S. presidential inauguration last January, Marvel Comics made history when then-President-Elect Obama helped sell out the edition of Spider-Man in which he appeared.

Now Washington State-based Bluewater Productions reports that the Sarah Palin version of their Female Force comics series has sold out and sales of the version starring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are not far behind. From CNN:

The first two issues in Female Force, already released, feature Clinton and Palin. The next two will feature Caroline Kennedy and First Lady Michelle Obama.

The Michelle Obama comic is expected to be released in April, and has pre-sold 28,000 copies.

The next set will feature other “strong, independent women” such as Princess Diana, [Bluewater executive vice-president] Schultz said.

Though the idea of famously bulimic and insecure late Princess Diana as a “strong, independent women” seems a little bit disingenuous, one could see where, in a market where comics featuring women are doing well, one based on her life should bring interest.

Again from CNN:

“I think it just says, like, that women are important,” one comic book fan told CNN.

The full piece is here.

In related news (well, it’s comics) the first Superman comic book recently sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. That story is here.

Cancelled Jericho Will See New Life as Comic

Are you still sad about the cancellation of Jericho, the nuclear disaster-themed nighttime soap? If so, help is definitely on the way. You might have already heard about the feature film version that is planned but there’s even better news yet: your favorite characters are headed for a comic book near you. From the MTV Movies blog:

Nothing can keep the folks of “Jericho” down. Not a nuclear holocaust. Not living in a violent police state. Not even being canceled — twice. In the spirit of Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” series (which continues at Dark Horse Comics), the CBS television series “Jericho” will relocate to comics, courtesy of Devil’s Due Publishing.

Apparently, a good portion of the original creative team will have a hand in the creation of the comic version. The full story is here.

Nothing about the movie version of Jericho has been finalized yet, though around the middle of January, series executive producer Jon Turteltaub told iFMagazine he was working on putting a film deal together:

“We’re developing a feature for JERICHO,” says Turteltaub. “It would not require you to have seen the TV show, but it [would] get into life after an event like this on a national scale. It would be the bigger, full on American version of what’s going on beyond the town in Jericho.”

That story is here.

And, of course, for those who need their Jericho fix right now, the entire series is available on DVD.

Graphic Novels: Henry V by William Shakespeare

It may well be an idea whose time has come. Not simply a graphic novel based on William Shakespeare’s classic work, but the graphic novel, done up three ways.

Based in the United Kingdom, Classic Comics has a name for each portion of the trio of books they’ve published under the Henry V title: Original Text is just as it sounds, the Bard’s original prose, set here against stunning full color illustrations, beautifully reproduced. (“O for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act and monarch to behold the swelling scene!”)

Plain Text delivers the same gorgeous illos, but this time with a contemporary translation of the original text. (“It would be great to have some goddess of creative fire, to help us enact this play with a true representation – to have an entire kingdom for a stage and princes for actors and to have royalty watch the performance!”)

Finally, the Quick Text version offers a simplification of the original text. (“If we had some help from the gods, we could give a better performance of this play.”)

Age will not inhibit the reader’s enjoyment of these works. That said, Classical Comics does seem to have aimed their books at young readers: the press kit that accompanied the trio of Henry Vs informs reviewers that the text is currently being test driven by young people at several schools in the UK. They also tell us that lesson plans, whiteboard toolkits and other teaching resources are available for each book.

Meanwhile, Henry V was just the first of these modernized classics out of the gate. Classic Comics has since introduced Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, Macbeth, Frankenstein, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III and -- just in time for the beginning of holiday 2008 sales -- Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Graphic Classic: Gentleman Jim by Raymond Briggs

First published in England in 1980, there are those who feel Raymond Briggs’ Gentleman Jim was seminal, releasing the dogs on a new generation of storytelling.

Gentleman Jim is Jim Bloggs, a toilet cleaner who yearns for the wider world only to discover -- as we all must -- to be careful what you wish for.

This new Drawn & Quarterly edition is, if anything, an enhancement over the original. For one thing, the garage band sensibility of the first edition is banished by the natural elegance of hard cover. Briggs’ beautiful illustrations have never looked so luminous. A foreword by graphic novel expert Seth completes the package. “I’m glad to see this edition of Gentleman Jim back in print,” writes Seth. “Raymond Briggs is a great cartoonist.”

If you’ve never before encountered Gentleman Jim, make a point of doing so. I’m sure you’ll agree.

Graphic Novels: Tonoharu by Lars Martinson

I’ve come to an appreciation of the graphic novel relatively late. I’ve been a bit of a hold-out. And even though I’ve sometimes lauded the idea of the graphic novel, I don’t think it’s possible to get the searing transportation of soul that can be achieved with a really great “real” novel. I still don’t. The mechanics of both experiences are just so very different.

All of that said, Tonoharu by Minnesota-born cartoonist Lars Martinson, comes about as close as anything I’ve seen.

The book, released last month by Martinson’s own Pliant Press, is on its way to being one of those book business phenomena that people talk about in hushed tones: the self-publishing success story. The book has been featured in Publishers Weekly, mentioned in Entertainment Weekly (“the magazine with the GROSSEST initials in the publishing world,” says Martinson on his blog) and The Wall Street Journal.

Tonoharu is picking up steam and moving fast. And why? That’s easy to answer. I mean, sure: Martinson is doing all the right things. The production of the book is great, distribution is in place and strong, the PR has been properly handled: attention has been given to details. But aside from all of those things that are the very basics for self-publishing success at any level, Tonoharu is brilliant.

I’ll say it again: Tonoharu -- and I suspect Martinson himself, as well -- are brilliant. The cartoonist’s work is joyous and smart and tight. I could just look at it all day. He owns a pleasingly cynical sense of humor, one that cuts right through the material he’s chosen here. And it’s good material, and well considered and presented: the weird and perhaps unexpected alienation of a young American teaching English in rural Japan.

Tonoharu is the first book in a planned series of four. I suspect even that quartet will be just the beginning for this massively talented artist.