Too Cool To Be Forgotten by Alex Robinson is a recent graphic novel about a middle aged man (40) who gets hypnotized to quit smoking and finds himself a 15 year old in 1985--back in high school again. I got it at the library because 1) I'm a sucker for time travel 2) the character is my age (class of '87) 3) I was hoping the story might offer some interesting insight into the 80's/00's youth/middle age 4) I'll pretty much read anything in comic book form ....
...well it's really not good! oh well. I mean, I guess I would recommend this if you are stuck somewhere and have to kill time, but it's full of uninteresting cliches, bad storytelling and doesn't have much to say, generally. I was thinking that the art, while not great, was probably the most interesting part, but then Pete Best picked it up and said "this art is terrible". ha! I mean, that could have been a stylistic assessment, but I took it to mean it wasn't done well, which is something I'm not really qualified to evaluate...still, I do think this drawing is the best part:
Anyhow this brings me back to one of my themes, which is, I'm not sure how to evaluate a work of fiction here, other than to express a personalized reaction to it. Your thoughts?
Also, I know there are some comics fans on here...taking suggestions! I think I have to stop checking out things featured in mainstream entertainment magazines.
2 comments:
"pride of baghdad" by brian k. vaughan.
"the plain janes" by cecil castellucci.
"diary of a teenage girl" by phoebe gloeckner
anything by joe sacco (especially "safe area gorazde" and "palestine") but not his autobiographical piece called "notes from a defeatist" which i hated.
"mother, come home" by paul hornschemier.
"THE WATCHMEN" by alan moore (you've probably already read this). it has a crazy long hold list right now but you can borrow my copy if you want.
"fun home" by alison bechdel
"ghost world" by daniel clowes (so much better than the movie... not that i hated the movie). an amazing example of a dude doing an incredible job writing in the voice of teenage girls. this is the first graphic novel i read and loved. before this one, i only "read" them for the pictures.
"epileptic" by david b. (it ends with a quote from fernando pessoa!)
"remembrance of things past: combray" by stephane houet (via proust).
julie doucet
jim woodring
you can check out issues of "comics journal" from the library, too.
how to succeed at globalization: a primer for roadside vendors
by El Fisgon
(translated by Mark Fried)
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