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The Summary Report:
King, Volume 1 by writer/illustrator Ho Che Anderson is the first installment of a three-volume comics biopic of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life. Volume 1 covers his life spanning from 1934 to 1963. It touches briefly upon his childhood, but greater attention is given to his courtship of his wife-to-be Coretta Scott and to King’s first major leadership role as a civil rights activist in the boycott of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama, following the historic refusal of Rosa Parks’ to acquiesce to segregated bus seating.

The Demographic Report:
This graphic novel should be read by mature readers. Given the historical subject matter, readers should expect some depictions of violence, adult language (including historically contextualized ethnic slurs), and adult situations. This work is not for anyone seeking a comprehensive biographical account of Martin Luther King’s life but rather for those who would be interested in a dramatized interpretation.

The Minority Report:
Mr. Anderson endeavors to resist mythologizing the historical figure of Martin Luther King, arguably the most prominent figure of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, in favor of depicting King’s gifts as a leader and no less his fallibility as a man living through an extraordinary period of upheaval of black-white relations in U.S. history.

The Review:
In his introduction to King, Volume 1, Ho Che Anderson asserted that his goal was to portray Martin Luther King through “some of the flaws and some of the triumphs,” in order to avoid creating an idealized icon. He also provided the caveat that his work was meant to be an interpretation of the life of Martin Luther King and not a definitive biography. They are candid self-assessments.

The author further admits to taking some dramatic license. Such is the case in the event of King’s stabbing by Izola Ware Curry, which was an actual historical event that had occurred during King’s book signing of Stride Toward Freedom in a Harlem department store in 1958. Mr. Anderson decided to transplant that incident to dramatic effect into King’s arrest in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama that occurred during a protest of segregation practices by public eating establishments.

Speaking to the interests of both drama and accuracy, reading through the book offers the impression of watching a feverishly kinetic documentary, where the film editor has chosen to depict King’s life through a pastiche of fly-on-the-wall outtakes. It works to create a tone of stark immediacy and authenticity, as if the scenes he had chosen came from actual footage from some heretofore unknown film archive of King’s life (some panels are in fact based on actual historical photographs and film footage). Unfortunately, what Mr. Anderson gains in tone he often loses in narrative clarity.

Does an artistic interpretation of a man’s life require narrative clarity? If there is an expectation to function in a biographical capacity, I would have to say yes. Much of the confusion comes from Mr. Anderson’s technical choices.

His “characters,” for the most part, have a heavily etched appearance, maximizing contrast while foregoing almost all intermediate shading. While this technique is very good for underscoring distinctive features and more intense emotions (as well as possibly playing out the theme of black-white relations with the predominantly black and white color scheme), it also ends up making it difficult to distinguish different characters, sometimes even including between characters who are black and white.

Such confusion is further compounded by the fact that Mr. Anderson’s panel progressions often utilize what Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics would refer to as “aspect-to-aspect,” where eclectic establishing shots are used to create an impression of a whole scene. While this is certainly a viable artistic choice, in Mr. Anderson’s execution, the eye too often becomes unsure of what to focus on in terms of character action and plot development.

As a result of all the aforementioned difficulties, I would have to recommend, strangely enough, that one should familiarize oneself with another Martin Luther biography (or autobiography) beforehand in order to gain a better appreciation of King. If in King we don’t have the biography of choice to become familiar with the start of Martin Luther King’s legacy, we at least have what feels to be a still raw and truthful rendition of the man behind the legacy.

Perhaps a more accurate analogy than the documentary film I mentioned earlier, one might look at Mr. Anderson’s endeavor as one might at a jazz musician’s performance, where the player can avoid paying royalties by improvising on established chord progressions. The resulting tune may not resemble the old standard-bearer much, but the resulting innovation could offer an entirely new artistic experience. And like any bold move from old to new, one can love it, hate it, or acquire a lasting taste for it.

Product Details:

• Title: King, Volume 1
• Author: Ho Che Anderson (writer/illustrator)
• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (June 1993)
• ISBN-10: 1560971126
• ISBN-13: 978-1560971122
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 7.4 x 0.2 inches

The Summary Report
Scott McCloud‘s Understanding Comics is a well thought out treatise whose subject matter also happens to be its own vehicle of conveyance, i.e., in order to discuss comics he writes and draws in comics format.

The Demographic Report
This book is for anyone who is interested in understanding some of the craft and artistic aesthetics behind the genre of comics. It would also be quite useful for those whose profession relies on conveying information through a visual medium such as graphic design or filmmaking.

The Minority Report
Although this is primarily an overview of comics as they have developed in the US, on certain levels, his work is about giving voice to the underdog. The primary underdog in this case is the medium of comics itself as an under-appreciated art form. And under this underdog there are more underdogs in the way of underrepresented creators and their content which don’t embody the market dominant tendencies towards the superhero genre occupied primarily with white adolescent male power fantasies.

The Review
If one could write a thesis dissertation on comics in the selfsame medium it discussed, one might end up with an impressive work like Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. His work is an essential guidebook to illuminate the field of comics for both newcomers and veterans alike.

To finish his book results in a heightened state of awareness akin to a student having completed a first film class. Where before said student had probably watched “movies” as a passive recipient, now the same elucidated student approaches “films” with a critically informed eye, taking into account such stylistic choices as camera angles, mise-en-scene, and editing, in addition to the historical context that may inform the work. That same kind of transformation is what McCloud offers to the reader when looking at comics, a visual language sharing some kinship with film, yet with properties wholly unique unto itself.

He begins by doing what any good treatise should do, get a basic definition of his subject matter and then begin to build an argument based on a premise about said subject. In the way of that basic definition of comics, we get: “Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or an aesthetic response in the viewer.” Or to save both memory and lung capacity, more simply put: “Sequential art.”

And in his premise, Mr. McCloud smartly realizes he is not necessarily preaching to the converted, so his premise essentially states that comics is an under-appreciated art form (if even acknowledged as art in the first place) that certainly deserves its own standing against established art forms such as music, film, and literature. In order to argue the point throughout, the author gives us nine well organized chapters of outstanding background information and analyses. Sensibly, after the definition and premise are set, he offers a historical overview of comics, which helps build the crucial momentum of credibility.

And he doesn’t stop there. After setting up some of the basics in the psychology of perception, we’re off to a very fun illustrated breakdown of the stylistic and structural conventions of comics, everything from the strategic use of speech balloons to an artist’s brush strokes or ink lines to established artists to the all-important breakdown of how panels (a structure unique to the medium) work in comics.

The one ostensible weakness that the book has (which ultimately may be forgivable given the scope of the overall work) is the short shrift given to the discussion of differences in Europe’s and Japan’s comics. He does highlight some qualitative difference in their respective visual and narrative sensibilities, but not enough for a reader to get a sense of comics history and aesthetics on a global (versus merely North American) scale.

Furthermore, although the book ages quite well (it was first published in 1994), it might behoove Mr. McCloud to write a second edition update that reflects the growing popularity of manga (Japanese comics) within the US.

Still, taken in its entirety, Mr. McCloud’s book is an impressively thorough contemplation on the genre of comics. It is an ideal primer for people who are unfamiliar with comics, and even for those who have greater familiarity with comics will find it to be an invaluable primary resource. For reader and creator alike, this is a must have book for your library.

Product Details:

• Title: Understanding Art: The Invisible Art
• Author: Scott McCloud (writer/illustrator)
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (April 27, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006097625X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060976255
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches

The Summary Report:
Marjane Satrapi has created a graphic memoir, essentially an autobiography in comics form, that recalls her childhood during the Iranian Revolution.

The Demographic Report:
This work is for mature readers who have only known Iran and its people through the homogenizing effects of mass media, giving readers an alternate insider’s viewpoint. Those who enjoy personal memoirs or history pertaining to Middle Eastern affairs should pick this up.

The Minority Report:
This book gives voice to a perspective not common to general American discourse, i.e., a little Iranian girl who knows how to speak for herself.

The Review:
In Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi has written and illustrated a personalized account of growing up in Iran that provides a refreshing counterpoint to the often slick pedantry of alarmist cultural profiling that major cable news networks love to feed the American public. Satrapi herself had stated that her graphic memoir grew out of that very need to provide Iran with a more intimate narrative distinct from the unilaterally negative stories that have served as the Western world’s public image of Iran.

This is not to say she indulges in the saccharine and sanitized demeanor of tourist-trap literature—far from it. Her recollections of growing up under the politically oppressive regime of the 1979 Iranian Revolution engenders sometimes sad, sometimes tender, sometimes funny, sometimes chilling, but always compelling moments born out the intersection of her private and public life. The people of Iran, rather than becoming documentary subjects, become humanized through her telling, particularly because she is so generous in giving voice to each “character” with a life distinct from her own.

And with her own voice, she rewards her readers with an unapologetic portrayal of her own precocious childhood, infused with a dizzying concoction of charm, wonder, and yes, even the occasional pettiness that are the hallmarks of childhood development. Some of the most profound moments arise from the discomfiting invasions of a more brutal reality into her childhood musings.

Case in point, she had learned as a child from her father’s friend, a former political prisoner, that the seemingly benign household items like the iron could also be used as an instrument of torture. While she allows the character of her childhood to feel the appropriate shock and sympathy for her father’s friend, she doesn’t hesitate to portray the quirky egocentricities of a child that wishes that she could brag about her own father being tortured as a kind of political martyr.

Ms. Satrapi’s style of drawing opts for a storybook appearance rather than realism, which frames the feelings and intentions of each person that become immediate to the reader. This comes at the cost of providing detailed settings that could locate us more vividly in the Iran she knew. However, this is ultimately forgivable, since her interest lies more in the people than the place itself. In fact, her framed illustrations resemble the wide-eyed bas-reliefs and sculptures familiar to ancient Mesopotamian culture, which also seem to boldly announce personhood.

Throughout her book one finds such evidence that Ms. Satrapi seeks grounding in her Persian cultural forebears. Even the title Persepolis refers to the ceremonial capital of ancient Persia, most tellingly burned and pillaged by the incursion of Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. In light of contemporary representations of Iran by the West, Satrapi provides an apt metaphor in the ruins of Persepolis. More pointed is the fact that “Persepolis” is the Greek name that remains extant while the Persian wording Parsa remains little used, at least for Westerners. Perhaps it also serves paradoxically as her homage to the West, which provided her the means to express what her own government would likely condemn.

It is a difficult task to reclaim labels perpetrated by the more powerful, whether one’s own government or foreign powers, but Ms. Satrapi has followed her artistic vision with the moral dedication to resist such monolithic forces. This is the reader’s chance to know a nation not by rhetoric or rote, but by a conscientious woman with a story to tell about real people.

Product Details:

• Title: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
• Author: Marjane Satrapi (writer/illustrator)
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037571457X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375714573
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches