Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Two Good Finds

Wow, this survivor's tale of the Aushowitz prison camp is extremely poignant.  Spiegelman creates a cartoon representation of what his father went through without trivilizing the events.  He depicts the Jewish people as mice, the Nazis as cats, the Americans are dogs, and so on.  As a survivor's tale it works, but Spiegelman adds another layer.  He didn't understand his dad and fleshes this out in the pages.  He depicts all the arguements and fights that they had between interviews.  This book is a journey of the author to fully understand his father.  To do that he had to understand Aushowitz; to do that he had to understand how his father survived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chickenhare
Chris Grine

Changing moods, Chickenhare is a lot lighter.  The artwork is beautiful in its simplistic manner and the story is great.  The book follows Chickenhare and his friend Abe (the bearded turtle) as they try to escape from the taxedermist.  Along they way the meet a unique cast of characters.  Grine writes the story almost as a teaser to what the story could be and this book leaves you wanting to understand the characters more.  Can't wait for the follow up.

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6 comments:

reesie said...

Maus is a great graphic novel. Thanks for reminding me how awesome it is.

gamany said...

thanks, budd. will add these to my reading list.

[atropos] said...

Both very interesting.

grrrace said...

i have maus... i just haven't gotten around to reading it...chickenhare is cute. :D

Ender said...

I was always very impressed by Maus. In general, I find it impressive when one finds a way to endow gravity in a medium not traditionally associated with it.

Jeepz said...

I read Maus back when I was still a Marvel Zombie. I remember being blown away by the story and how the sequential art just moved you right along as a reader. As simple as the art was, sometimes, it just worked so well on a level that greatly complimented the story. When I read it the first time, I really didn't know what I had or what I was reading. Now it's a gem on my bookshelf, and I plan to buy the new collected hardcover for two of my friends this xmas.