I've been plowing through some graphic novels recently and haven't really wanted to post about them. First, parts 2 and 3 of Osamu Tezuka's Adolf
(here is my report on the first part): The number of characters in the story is a little hard to follow at times, but it's making for an interesting story. Adolf Kaufman, the half-German half-Japanese boy, has enrolled in Hitler's Nazi school; he still has conflicting emotions about what he learns about Jews and his Jewish friend from Japan. Meanwhile, the mysterious document everyone was after in part 1 (you do get to find out what it is) has changed hands several times, more people have died for it, and it seems destined for obscurity. Every so often there's an actual historical timeline to help you place the events of the story within a historical context. So I'm learning a little bit of history perhaps, but at the same time it's not always clear which things in the story are based on actual events and which are entirely imagined.
The other series I've been reading is The Books of Magic by John Rey Nieber, a world created by Neil Gaiman originally. It's a little confusing, though. There's a book marked "Book One" called Bindings, which says that it was originally published as books 1 through 4 when it was in comic book form. However, it's not the same one that I've seen before, where you first encounter the character of Timoty Hunter and his life starts getting weird. The library didn't seem to have that one when I checked these out; I'll have to check on that later. I've also noticed some characters and events that seem to intersect with the Sandman series (or was it the one about Faerie?). It's hard keeping track of all the connections—another reason to own the books, perhaps? Anyways, it's interesting to see what one writer does with another writer's ideas.
Other books I've finished recently (some of which may merit their own posts later) include: Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids (edited by Art Spiegelman); Concrete: Fragile Creature by Paul Chadwick (in which Concrete helps make a movie); The Yellow Jar by Patrick Atangan (Japanese-style illustrations); Futurama-O-Rama, based on Matt Groenig's TV show. There may have been others; I forget.
Fed to jonathan's brain | August 11, 2003
