Book-It 'o13! Book #4
The Fifty Books Challenge, year four! (Years one, two, three, and four just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: The Crackle of the Frost written by Jorge Zentner, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti, and translated by Kim Thompson
Details: Copyright 2012, Fantagraphics
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Information): "When confronted with his girlfriend’s request that they have a child together, Samuel fled that relationship. But now, a year later, when he receives a letter from Alice announcing she is expecting a baby, old emotions flare up and he embarks on a long journey to see Alice again - to re-open, or perhaps close forever, that important chapter of his life. The Crackle of the Frost is the story of what he sees, hears, experiences, and learns during that journey.
Last year, Fantagraphics presented the extraordinary Stigmata, a stunning display of Mattotti’s whirling, emotional, black and white linework put in the service of a devastating story - as well as his painted illustrations for Lou Reed’s The Raven. The Crackle of the Frost ups the visual ante even on those masterpieces, combining the narrative drive of the former with the lush color illustrations of the latter to create a graphic-novel masterpiece with panel after panel of sumptuous full-color paintings, as if Edward Hopper had suddenly decided to jump into comics.
Full color throughout."
Why I Wanted to Read It: This received favorable attention from The AV Club Comics Panel.
How I Liked It: Were I to put it extremely bluntly, I prefer my graphic novels to have word balloons. You can be a work of art and still have a "traditional format."
But I am not completely adverse to books that are not so much graphic novels as "illustrated" ones. The Night Bookmobile was excellent. So if this strays from the "typical" format, it's not necessarily a death sentence for my enjoyment of the book.
But this particular book unfortunately does not fall into that category. The text is limp (a problem I'm going to put down in part to the translation) and it can't be because it's needed to carry the swirling illustrations and put them into perspective. Too often, the thread of the story is lost almost completely under the surrealist paintings (and the art, while at times impressive, is simply not enough to carry the weak storyline and the weaker text).
I've discussed before how beautiful artwork can make up for a lackluster story and vice versa.
Here, the artwork is the centerpiece with almost the story as an afterthought (bad idea) and it's simply not enough to save this book.
Suggestions of how great the book could have been linger in some of the artwork and even a few of the stronger bits of prose. If there's something worse than an unsatisfying book, it's an unsatisfying book with clearly missed opportunities.
Notable: I didn't see Edward Hopper so much as Picasso on an off day with a new set of pastels.
Title: The Crackle of the Frost written by Jorge Zentner, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti, and translated by Kim Thompson
Details: Copyright 2012, Fantagraphics
Synopsis (By Way of Publisher's Information): "When confronted with his girlfriend’s request that they have a child together, Samuel fled that relationship. But now, a year later, when he receives a letter from Alice announcing she is expecting a baby, old emotions flare up and he embarks on a long journey to see Alice again - to re-open, or perhaps close forever, that important chapter of his life. The Crackle of the Frost is the story of what he sees, hears, experiences, and learns during that journey.
Last year, Fantagraphics presented the extraordinary Stigmata, a stunning display of Mattotti’s whirling, emotional, black and white linework put in the service of a devastating story - as well as his painted illustrations for Lou Reed’s The Raven. The Crackle of the Frost ups the visual ante even on those masterpieces, combining the narrative drive of the former with the lush color illustrations of the latter to create a graphic-novel masterpiece with panel after panel of sumptuous full-color paintings, as if Edward Hopper had suddenly decided to jump into comics.
Full color throughout."
Why I Wanted to Read It: This received favorable attention from The AV Club Comics Panel.
How I Liked It: Were I to put it extremely bluntly, I prefer my graphic novels to have word balloons. You can be a work of art and still have a "traditional format."
But I am not completely adverse to books that are not so much graphic novels as "illustrated" ones. The Night Bookmobile was excellent. So if this strays from the "typical" format, it's not necessarily a death sentence for my enjoyment of the book.
But this particular book unfortunately does not fall into that category. The text is limp (a problem I'm going to put down in part to the translation) and it can't be because it's needed to carry the swirling illustrations and put them into perspective. Too often, the thread of the story is lost almost completely under the surrealist paintings (and the art, while at times impressive, is simply not enough to carry the weak storyline and the weaker text).
I've discussed before how beautiful artwork can make up for a lackluster story and vice versa.
Here, the artwork is the centerpiece with almost the story as an afterthought (bad idea) and it's simply not enough to save this book.
Suggestions of how great the book could have been linger in some of the artwork and even a few of the stronger bits of prose. If there's something worse than an unsatisfying book, it's an unsatisfying book with clearly missed opportunities.
Notable: I didn't see Edward Hopper so much as Picasso on an off day with a new set of pastels.