My review of Guy Delisle's latest graphic novel

I'm just now getting over my trip to TCAF during which I conducted (trust me; that's the right word) The Doug Wright Awards. On Friday night I bumped into cartoonist Guy Delisle -- who seems super pleasant -- and it dawned on me that in my haste to organize the awards I forgot to update the blog with a link to my  recent review of his latest graphic novel, Jerusalem: Chronicles From the Holy City.

So, you know - I reviewed Jerusalem: Chronicles From the Holy City for The Globe and Mail a couple of weekends back. You should go read it and tell me what you think. This is undoubtedly the best of his series of comics dispatches from some of the most interesting places on the Globe. He really spends his time with the story and has thought about what he has witnessed. I hesitate to say he's matured (since that would imply that he was immature before), but there is a palpable maturity about how he approaches this material.

   
On the last day of TCAF I ran into Guy again on the festival floor and got him to sign my copy of Jerusalem. It ends up that we have kids that are around the same age (8 and 5) so I asked him what he had planned next, what with his kids in school. His wife and him have decided to stop traveling for her work, so he's going to stop doing travelogues -- switching back to his other comics-type work. That has got to be a hard choice to make -- what with Jerusalem debuting on the #1 spot on The New York Times Graphic Novels best-seller list -- and I really admire his choice.  

The professor, the ancient nomads (and me)

I'm happy to report that the first article to come out of my recent trip to Ethiopia is now in print in the May 2012 issue of University Affairs magazine. The piece -- "The accidental statesman" -- is a profile of University of Ottawa law professor Joseph Magnet (known in Ethiopia as "Professor Joe") who traveled  to Ethiopia last October as part of our five-man team. 

As I quickly learned, Magnet is a tremendously smart (and funny) guy who for the past couple of years has donated his time as legal counsel to the Afar people, a centuries-old tribe of nomads who live today as an ethnic minority in Ethiopia and Eritrea. A well-respected constitutional law expert in Canada, up until this point Magnet had  kept his involvement with the Afar low-profile, preferring to talk about only with close friends and family. Luckily I was able to convince him to share his amazing story with the rest of the world. 

Joe Magnet as photographed for University Affairs

And I think I'm not engaging in hyperbole when I call it Amazing. Magnet is comfortably ensconced as a legal authority in Canada and at 65 was not looking for a new cause. But as a man of passion, once he met and spent time with the Afar -- whose generosity of spirit was disarming even to me -- he readily offered up his expertise to them. What he's done since then has to be read to be believed.

I've had a lot of positive feedback so far about the piece, especially the opening which recounts a unique moment I was witness to  in a small town in Northern Ethiopia as we were on our way out of the Afar region. In a trip full of colourful moments, this easily took the cake for me. (That, and the time that Joe, frustrated by my journalistic intransigence, ordered someone to "Shoot that man and put his body in the truck!" I admit: I was being pretty stubborn at the time.)

As a side note, I was inordinately honoured to be informed by the editor of University Affairs that my article was the first to ever include the "F-word", unedited, in the mag's pages. (Stop! I'm blushing!)

As a bonus, here's a photo I took of Magnet taken during the meeting I describe in the opening of the piece. 

Another bonus, for those who enjoy the sound of my voice, University Affairs interviewed me about my trip and posted it on their site as a podcast.

My review of 'The Someday Funnies'

So, after more than three decades The Someday Funnies was finally published last fall by Abrams Comic Arts. I reviewed it in this weekend's Globe and Mail.

I was anticipating this book as much as anyone, thanks the romance of its backstory and its treasure trove of lost comics riches from the likes of Harvey Kurtzman, Justin Green, Kim Deitch, C.C. Beck and Art Speigelman.

But, then it came out.

As I detail in my review, this massive book is flawed in a number of fatal (and regrettable) ways. One of the books most aggravating flaws (that got trimmed from my piece) is the intrusive and unfunny cartoons of editor Michel Choquette that are conspicuous throughout the book. Imagine trying to read, say, Maus or Clyde Fans and having a tiny avatar of Art Speigelman or Seth pop up IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANEL, and you'll understand how annoying this trope is.

It speaks to a failure to understand the medium of comics itself. Why else would you foist a trope like this on art that people have been waiting decades to see in print? Who knows?

Hopefully maybe someday -- 40 years hence -- an ambitious editor will publish thsi product in an "artist's edition" (like these from IDW), devoid of shoddy colouring job, confusing layouts and "pop-up" cartoon editors. 
 

 

 

Kurt Cobain, burgeoning comic artist

Young artist Kurt Cobain draws inspiration from Marvel Comics Giant-Size Werewolf. From Cobain Unseen.