Reading Through 2021 73: Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier

Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier

2016

This is not my usual reading material.

Eisner winner!

I have a kid, and less and less, she lets me read to her. She has enjoyed Telgemeier's work before, and I bought this and a few of her Babysitter's Club books for Christmas in hopes of us getting in a few more months of reading together. She didn't like the Babysitter's Club. I don't think I liked it much either. We didn't finish book one, but there wasn't a lot to hook us by the halfway point.

With Ghosts, we finished it in four sittings. I can say I enjoyed it. My daughter, who doesn't yet have as much emotional nuance liked it but not enthusiastically. 

The coloring in this is nicely understated

We've read Telgemeier's previous books Smile, Drama, Sisters, and Guts before this one, and I think they are all very good, age-appropriate books. As an adult, I can enjoy them like I would the best children's entertainment in film or animation. Just because it is for kids, it shouldn't be lazily made or inane.

Of those four books, the one I liked least was Drama. It was the only one of those that wasn't auto-biography. It's not a bad book, but it feels the most conventional of those books. The other books were based on Telgemeier's adolescence, and were much more organically written. What's more, I personally found Sisters and Guts affecting. The books take an honest look at the feelings Telgemeier, me, and most young adults have at that age. Now, a lot of the edges are rounded off: the kids don't swear, the bullying never gets out of hand, there is no sex, just crushes. I felt on the edge of the adult world by age thirteen, and these kids are still kids... I'm jealous. Anyway, while the details are much cleaner than the experiences I had, the essential emotions of the books were ones I shared.

The younger sister needs breathing assistance for her condition

I left this book to buy last because I suspected it would be more in line with Drama than her autobiography books. And it is. It is proper fiction. Ghosts is about, spoiler, ghosts. And the arc of the story are more in line with fiction than the messiness of a true story. But that doesn't hold the book back, and I think it was a lot better constructed than Drama. Telgemeier is pumping out books, she's building up strong story-writing chops.

There are numerous silent passages as the kids explore the town

The book concerns a family who move to a seaside town for the sake of the youngest daughter's cystic fibrosis. The older sister, Cat, is somewhat resentful of having to uproot her life because of her younger sister, but is largely understanding. The mother is of Mexican descent, but is mostly cut off from her roots, and the two daughters even more so. The town is said to have a connection to the spirits, and the Day of the Dead is the biggest day of the year there. 

That is a proper ghost, not a dream

In the trite description of the book, it could be considered a book about learning about your background and confronting death; the younger sister is expected to die young. That certainly is part of it.

Lots of Day of the Dead skeletons in this too

But I liked the emotional weight of it all. I'm a melancholy person by nature. I am happy, but there is a tinge of sadness that never goes away. This book really gets that. Cat is happy, but her family situation hangs over her. It's something that I think most people can relate to, and if not most people, at least many book-reading people will.

I'm never going to be in love with the art style, but it's not meant for me. It has very friendly lines and colors, and even a "dark" scene is pretty bright. Telgemeier lets the story breathe throughout, and there are numerous wordless scenes. It's so nice to see a book made for kids not densely stuffed with jokes. This is a book that pulls the reader in and gives them space to experience what is happening. 

I don't think this is her best book. Probably that is Sisters, which explores the way family members can drift apart even while they live under one roof. Possibly that just hit home way too strongly for me as my daughter seems to like me a little less every day. But this is a very strong book from her, and I'm sure she has another dozen solid books yet to come. Telgemeier is probably the number one comic maker in the world right now. I'd encourage adults who might think it beneath them to at the very least give one of her books a chance and familiarize themselves with her work.

Reading Through 2021 55: The Originals, by Dave Gibbons

The Originals, by Dave Gibbons

originally published in 2004, Essential Edition 2018

Sometimes you don't know what you're looking for until you find it.

He did the cover up like a James Jacket

Dave Gibbons was never an artist I followed around. Of course Watchmen was an amazing work, and his art, design, and layouts were a part of that, but his art isn't flashy. Some of it was my age and what was hot when I collecting mainstream art; in 1990, I was into Art Adams and the school of artists that came out after: McFarlane, Liefeld, Silvestri. Much more style over substance. I went from that art style straight to indie comics and missed out on a lot of mature semi-mainstream stuff, ie. Vertigo.

Last year, I read all of Martha Washington for the first time and enjoyed it wholeheartedly. As an adult, I can now appreciate just how good Gibbons is at what he does. Then I saw this book I'd never heard of and gave it a try. 

It's a perfect comic.

From Gibbons' intro to the book

Up front, I have some sentimental attachment to the content. I was a huge fan of Quadrophenia in high school, so I know some of where he's drawing from. He's not drawing from that movie, but The Originals and Quadrophenia both are coming from the same British subculture. And while I wasn't a mod, in my late teens I was into the music and clothes and sometime stupidity of my subculture, to the extent that I was blinded to the outside world. I did anything to hide my bland suburban roots.  I know exactly where the characters in this book are coming from.

The type of ads that woo in young Lel

While the book has a plot, it's a simple one, and is as much of a character sketch as anything else. For some, that may be a turn off. But it's not a typical comic plot. Despite the sci-fi setting, it's pretty down to earth.

Our introduction to Lel

So what's it about? It's about Lel and his friend Bok, who want nothing more than to join the Originals, the coolest crew in their town.

Our introduction to the Originals

And they look amazing. Gibbons takes the mod aesthetic and tweaks it enough that it's his own vision. You can get why Lel wants nothing more than his own bike.

The Originals are a gang of sorts, and have rivals, bikers called the Dirt (by the Originals, I'm not sure if they call themselves that), who they will fight on a moment's notice. Both crews stupidly antagonise each other until it inevitably comes to a boil.

The Originals are not the good guys. Both sides have problems

The art makes full use of the page, and looks incredible in the oversized Essential Edition. Gibbons frames everything in black and lays white narration over that space to keep the images clear, interrupted only by text balloons. Despite both groups wearing near uniforms, you know who everyone is by their facial structures and haircuts. Sometimes he has cinematic storytelling, sometimes comic collage images, and sometimes just intimate little close ups. He also creates advertisements and newspaper clippings to flesh out the world. Gibbons is flexing his skills all over the place with this book.

An example of great comic art: many artists today would have simply cut and paste the faces from the larger pic to make panels out of them. Gibbons probably lightboxed them, then added details to them to make them more than just repeated images. He added that panic to their eyes

The whole book is done in gray scale, and giving it a timeless feeling. It feels old, but things were never like this.

It's a high school story

Gibbons has worked with Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Mark Millar over the past decades and lots of other writers. He's also written some superhero books himself. This book is his personal thing, I can feel the love he has for everything in here. 

The only complaint, and it's a minor thing, is the pages absorb the oils from your fingers, so there are fingerprint smudges all over the book now. That's the cost of reading sometimes.

Ah yeah

This is his auteur work. It has the energy of youth, and the refinement of decades of experience. I had no idea I was looking for this, but I'm so glad I found it.