Book Nineteen: Paul Goes Fishing
5.29.2008
Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati
Let's see... children's books, comics... when will Ara Jane grow up? Never, I tell you, never!
We read one of the Paul books for my book club a couple of years ago (I believe at the recommendation of this lovely lady), and I loved it. I've since read the other one and now this puppy. While I still love Paul, I feel slightly less charmed by this one. Maybe it's the few areas where the story turned into a diatribe against corporate America, which seemed a bit heavy handed. For me, the brilliance of the Paul series is in its simplicity--both in the drawings and the stories. I love the nice dark lines and crispness of the panels and the sweet details he chooses to include. Also, how can you not love that he's Québécois and it was originally written in French and translated?
Since I started doing this project last year, I laid off the comics and graphic novels because I felt like they didn't count. I have a couple of the Moomin comic collections, a few Tintin books I haven't read, and at least two of the newest 100 Bullets that have been gathering dust on the bookshelf because I didn't want to waste the time on them if they didn't count toward my project. But I say phooey to all that now! It's time for literary equality. Books with pictures, I say stand up for your right to be counted! Don't let the man keep you down! You, too, deserve your places on the great bookshelves of history! Dickens, Azzarello, Austen, Herge, Homer, Hernandez, Melville--all are great and equal in this vast world of writing (and drawing)!
Let's see... children's books, comics... when will Ara Jane grow up? Never, I tell you, never!
We read one of the Paul books for my book club a couple of years ago (I believe at the recommendation of this lovely lady), and I loved it. I've since read the other one and now this puppy. While I still love Paul, I feel slightly less charmed by this one. Maybe it's the few areas where the story turned into a diatribe against corporate America, which seemed a bit heavy handed. For me, the brilliance of the Paul series is in its simplicity--both in the drawings and the stories. I love the nice dark lines and crispness of the panels and the sweet details he chooses to include. Also, how can you not love that he's Québécois and it was originally written in French and translated?
Since I started doing this project last year, I laid off the comics and graphic novels because I felt like they didn't count. I have a couple of the Moomin comic collections, a few Tintin books I haven't read, and at least two of the newest 100 Bullets that have been gathering dust on the bookshelf because I didn't want to waste the time on them if they didn't count toward my project. But I say phooey to all that now! It's time for literary equality. Books with pictures, I say stand up for your right to be counted! Don't let the man keep you down! You, too, deserve your places on the great bookshelves of history! Dickens, Azzarello, Austen, Herge, Homer, Hernandez, Melville--all are great and equal in this vast world of writing (and drawing)!
posted by arajane at
6:15 PM
1 Comments:
hey-there's nothing wrong w/ graphic novels & comics! thanks (belatedly) for the b-day wishes--it was, indeed, a day of red velvet-filled goodness. i hope you're summer is off to a nice start. i read our sichuan memoir entry--and i meant to tell you i hope that all of your chinese friends that you made when you were in chengdu are okay.
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