Some authors... sheesh...
So the bitch of being someone with an overactive imagination and a love of certain genres of literature is that sometimes you just can't put down a good story. Whether it's an autobiography of a transvestite revolutionary or the six-hour version of Dune on a bootleg videotape, some of the smartest people I know have wasted entire days on getting through a single, enveloping story in one sitting. Me? I just blew four hours reading the new Alex Robinson graphic novel, Tricked. The story follows six characters and their peripherals as they all slowly begin to converge on the singular event they will inevitably share. The chapters descend instead of ascend to the climax of the book. Robinson, for those who've never heard the name, wrote the excellent and surprisingly well-paced Box Office Poison and his long-delayed follow-up, just like a musician trying to climb back from a one hit wonder record, has a degree of patience and growth that adds to his still constant grasp of dialogue, emotion, and terrific character studies translated to words and pictures. It's a good time.
Tricked is 19.99 and is the intimidating size of a small text book, but don't worry: there're plenty of pictures. It IS a graphic novel, after all.
Every once in awhile, it feels great to pimp this shit.
posted by AmeroKafka @ 11:17 PM
1 Comments:
I just finished reading it... I just kind of sat and read my eyes out for however long that lasted... drank some green tea, and went back to reading.
I don't know. It's a masterful bit of craft. But I find myself reflecting on this in comparison to Box Office Poison... the relationships and cross-referencing, and even the art is very similar...
-Caprice and her uneasy self-perception of her body mimicks Ed from BOP
-The lack of a father figure, (or at least a substancial and/or very present one) is seen both ways: In BOP, he's a cheating dick who reckless abandons the family while the wife has CANCER. Here, he's GAY, and you sort of explore the reconnection between father and daughter.
-Failure and/or fear of failure versus having had success and then the pressures with maintaining it.
Relationship issues: seeing the chaotic flaws and doing nothing about it (BOP) and sort of sabotaging happiness (Tricked)
And then there were new elements. The downhill slide of sanity was a nice touch. I also think he has fun with eastern-european accents.
Yeah. So that's my response in a nutshell. Brilliant.
Post a Comment
<< Home