What a fun quirky read! When the author reached out about reviewing the book* I had some hesitations as it’s self published and I haven’t had great luck with that in the past, but I realized as a graphic artist I could check out her site and get a taste of her style to see if I’d like it. I took a look liked what I saw and said sure, and that was definitely the right decision.
Tag: Illustration
Book 673: Fence Vol. 3 (Fence #3) – C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, and Joana Lafuente
I wasn’t obsessively looking forward to this since I had issues with my timing of reading the first two volumes, but when I went to grab Go for it, Nakamura! from the library and saw this was available, I grabbed it too.
This picks up right where Fence, Vol. 2 left off and there’s no recap or anything as these were originally being released periodically and read as periodic comics. Like I said in the last review about the timing between Fence, Vol. 1 and Volume 2. I should’ve just waited and read them back-to-back. It would’ve been a more rewarding experience and I doubt I would’ve been quite so disappointed in this one.
Book 669: Are You Listening? – Tillie Walden
When I picked this up from the library, I had some preconceived notion that it would be more along the lines of Bloom than what it ended up being. I’m not sure why I thought this. They did often appear on Best (LGBT+) Graphic Novels of 2019 lists together, but that shouldn’t really have made me think they’d be as similar as I thought they would be.
I was drawn to the illustration style on the cover as the limited use of colors reminded me of Bloom and the illustration style reminded me of Alison Bechdel’s style in Fun Home (or maybe it’s just the glasses on Lou?). Walden’s story follows Bea as she’s running away from home, we’re not told why at the beginning and Lou, a distant family friend doesn’t ask any questions. A random cat shows up (Diamond) and then the story gets really weird, like magical realism weird. [SPOILERS after the jump, including the recommendation.]
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Book 668: Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre – Glynnis Fawkes
I stumbled across this illustrated biography of Charlotte Brontë after one of my google alerts (“Boston” and “Brontë”) alerted me to this article in Seven Days, Vermont’s Independent Voice publication. I’ve been meaning to read an actual Brontë biography forever really, but specifically since the 2017 release of To Walk Invisible on PBS and my visit to the Parsonage in 2018.
I read The Mother of the Brontës last year which covered a good portion of this and some of the inspired works cover similar time periods because they were all so young. The downside of the Brontës and Austen are how short their lives were and we can only glean so much from the few letters and drafts of their works that exist, but there are instances where a little creative license and ingenuity can make these well known facts and situations seem new again. And that is the case with this Fawkes work.
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Book 599: Fence Vol. 2 (Fence #2) – C.S. Pacat, Johanna the Mad, and Joana LaFuente
Still not quite doing it for me. It’s interesting and a fun quick read, but it’s just not as good as the Bob’s Burgers comics I’ve been reading or even the wonderful Check, Please!
For me, this series will be 100 times more powerful once it’s all released and it can be put into one compendium. The amount of time between my reading of Fence Vol. 1 and this one, and the time until Fence Vol. 3 is released will be too far.