The average modern-day film poster, usually a garish montage of stars drowned in an excess of legally-required accreditation, is more closely associated with commercialism and mass reproduction than it is with any sense of artistic merit. This hasn’t, however, been true of Poland, whose rich poster tradition survived and perhaps even flourished during its communist […]
With his furrowed brow and black attire, Nick Cave’s appearance makes for appropriate caricature material in Reinhard Kleist’s graphic biography Mercy on Me. However, although successfully conveying Cave’s look, Kleist is ultimately unable to deliver anything more profound about the eclectic musician. Mercy on Me tracks Cave’s beginnings in small town Australia with The Birthday […]
Tillie Walden, in her most recent graphic novel, Spinning, details her eventful teenage life as a figure skater. Her memoir begins with her move to Austin at the age of 11, taking us through to her eventual decision to quit figure skating at the age of 17. The book’s main theme is Walden’s time as […]
“May the day come when I’ll flee into the woods on an island in Oceania, there to live on stillness, ecstasy and art” dreamed Gauguin in Gauguin: The Other World. While this is both a dynamic and beautifully illustrated graphic novel, exploring Gauguin’s eternal quest to find a great new world, it is not suited […]
Edmond Baudoin’s stunning new masterpiece, Dalí, is more of a surrealist experience than an explanation of surrealism. An educative conversation about the life of Salvador Dalí serves as a loose framework for the graphic novel, but the flow between text and images does not seem nearly so concrete. Rather, the narrative of Dalí’s life spins […]
In her debut graphic novel, Stardust Nation, two-time Man Booker Prize shortlister, Deborah Levy, returns once again to the fore. In an adaptation of one of her earliest works, an original short story from her collection, Black Vodka, Levy proves her worth as she explores the human psychology within her literature. In this graphic novel, […]
Edward Ross’ Filmish is a surprisingly engaging, and pleasantly accessible introduction to film theory, history, and the sociology that surrounds it. Ross presents his “graphic journey through film” in easily-digestible thematic sections ranging from the expected, such as “the eye” and “sets and architecture; to the more outlandish, such as “technology and technophobia”. It’s also […]
Often hailed as one of the most influential comic theorists of our time, Scott McCloud has from time to time delivered masterpieces portraying the conception and engineering of comics, and the art behind it. In his highly anticipated first graphic novel, The Sculptor, the author ventures into the life of a failed artist, his love […]