Book 23: 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man
3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man, Matt Kindt. 190p. 2009, Dark Horse Books/Dark Horse Comics.
Reading Time: May 25, 1 hour (work breaks)
This is a graphic novel told through three women: The mother, the wife, and the daughter of a man who couldn't stop growing. It traces his life as his mother goes through the motions of caring for him (all the while wishing her husband had come home from WWII), to his wife's recollection of meeting and falling in and out of love with him (while he becomes a public spectacle and his continuous growing strains their relationship past the breaking point) and finally while his daughter searches for him (after he leaves out of despair). It is a sad story, with a tragic ending, describing how no one ever really knew a man who was larger than life and twice as famous.
Kindt's watercolor images are not especially intricate, but detailed enough to show the scope of his size. The storytelling reminds us of the gaps between people -- how we grow apart.
Reading Time: May 25, 1 hour (work breaks)
This is a graphic novel told through three women: The mother, the wife, and the daughter of a man who couldn't stop growing. It traces his life as his mother goes through the motions of caring for him (all the while wishing her husband had come home from WWII), to his wife's recollection of meeting and falling in and out of love with him (while he becomes a public spectacle and his continuous growing strains their relationship past the breaking point) and finally while his daughter searches for him (after he leaves out of despair). It is a sad story, with a tragic ending, describing how no one ever really knew a man who was larger than life and twice as famous.
Kindt's watercolor images are not especially intricate, but detailed enough to show the scope of his size. The storytelling reminds us of the gaps between people -- how we grow apart.