Easter Cominc Binge, Part 2
After a busy couple of days, I've finally gotten around to finishing off last weekend's Easter comic extravaganza. Fewer works this time, but hopefully you'll still find it interesting. So here is the continuing saga:
- Rex Mundi, Book One: The Guardian of the Temple by Arvid Nelson, EricJ and Jeromy Cox It's a little bit hard to describe what exactly Rex Mundi is, but it's a kind of 19th Century, speculative history, film noir murder mystery. It's set in a hypothetical 19th Century France, run by the King, craft guilds and the Catholic Church, where Dr. Julien Sauniere get caught up in supernatural conspiracies. Despite sounding a little Dan Brown, it's actually a great read, full of style and depth. It's also a beautifully developed world, with a rich back story and well thought out world. The art work is also very well done, and captures well the mood of the setting. I enjoyed reading it, and have already got book two aside to read. Great stuff!
- Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco I consider myself a fairly jaded chap, but this work really struck a chord with me. Tracing with insight and humanity the story of the Bosnia Conflcit in the early '90s, Joe Sacco focuses on the residents of the supposed UN 'safe area' of Gorazde who suffered a long siege by Bosnia Serbs. It is an insightful and humanising work, and Sacco, whose other work includes the much lauded Palestine, effortlessly combines the roles of both journalist and comic author to portray the suffering of those, both Muslim and Serb, who were caught up in this war zone. Sacco, however, is also aware of his role of an outsider, and of the media's role in general in this conflict, and presents his own feelings of guilt and frustration. While it's not quite right to call it enjoyable, it is certainly powerful and moving and a fantastic account; a record for those who survived and a memorial for those who did not. It's a work I strongly recommend for anyone interested in the genre, or in the history of the Bosnian conflict generally.
- Too Much Coffee Man's Guide for the Perplexed by Shannon Wheeler. Another Too Much Coffee Man installment over Easter to lighten the mood worked a treat. Although similar to the other volume I reviewed, Too Much Coffee Man's Guide for the Perplexed is actually the better of the two, with one cohesive narrative accompanied by several one off strips.