Rmort
11-07-2010, 09:45 PM
Book Review of I Kill Giants and Persepolis 2: The Return
When people are approached with the task of picking a book to read, most minds turn to the classics: The Great Gatsby, 1984, and other masterpieces. However, by doing this they turn a blind eye towards all the other forgotten genres of literature that they could engross themselves into. Graphic novels are usually included in this category and ignorant people criticize them as “not being real books” because they have pictures. But graphic novels like I Kill Giants and Persepolis 2: The Return intertwine relevant illustrations with gripping text to form two admirable pieces of literature with common themes that are just as good as regular novels.
Upon hearing the name I Kill Giants, one grows automatically consumed and interested. This graphic novel, written by Joe Kelly, focuses on an individualistic little girl named Barbara Thorson that is smart-assed and very independent. She constantly wears bunny ears and believes she sees little fairies and can hunt giants. Barbara is a very likable character because of her nonstop comical one-liners. Although not very relatable, she really packs a punch and makes the novel even more entertaining. All she ever talks about to anyone involves killing giants, and it often pushes people away. Barbara escapes her reality of a breaking home and bullies at school by drifting into her fantasy life. Yet as the story progresses, the line between the two begins to blur and her fantasy indeed becomes her reality. The climax of the story erupts into a very intense battle between Barbara and a Titan (an enormous type of giant). The illustration of the epic fight along with the dialog between the two enhances the entire mood of the event. The illustration’s darkness and the enormity of the Titan compared to Barbara create a great effect of visualization. This displays an advantage for graphic novels because the author can convey how they visualize the scene whereas normal novels cannot do so. Also, at times Kelly dedicates two whole pages to one specific idea without any text. He uses this to focus on one aspect of the story and to generate emphasis. For example, towards the end of the novel a gigantic side-ways portrait of the Titan pops up, showing its vast size. When you flip the page and gaze upon these amazing images, the awe it generates is overwhelming and it creates a connection by making it seem like you can see the same things Barbara is seeing. The amazing visuals of this book are feats in themselves. Through Barbara’s fantasy life and her enmity with giants, a theme about family life and how children deal with problems emerges. It is revealed nearing the end of the book that Barbara’s mother is suffering from cancer. It becomes clear to the reader that Barbara’s fantasy life was used to escape the daunting reality of her home life. Overall I must say my favorite aspect of this novel was that the story itself was so creative. The symbol Kelly developed with the Titan is fresh and unique. At one point in the story Barbara looks up at the sky towards an apparition of a Titan and says, “You’re coming soon aren’t you?” With the revelation that her mother has cancer at the end of the book, we can surmise that this was foreshadowing the climatic battle between the Titan and Barbara, and that the Titan was meant to symbolize the Barbara’s trouble coping with her mother’s illness. Kelly’s minimal use of dialog along with the baffling images created by his illustrator JM Ken Nimura create a story that pleases on all levels.
Where I Kill Giants centers more on being aesthetically pleasing, Persepolis 2: The Return focuses on conveying its themes with less complex illustrations. Persepolis 2 follows Marjane Satrapi’s first graphic novel where she depicts her life in Iran during its revolutionary era. In the end of that book, Marjane fled the country on her own to live in Europe with friends, and this is where Persepolis 2 begins. Satrapi must make an immediate change when she moves to Europe and the book discusses the vast differences between Europe and Iran. For example, the people living in the same commune as Marjane were much more self-expressive and open to drugs and sex than the people in Iran, where the women could have been killed for just showing their hair. What I appreciated of Satrapi’s writing is that she can incorporate humorous snippets while discussing a serious topic. One of the more memorable comical moments was Marjane and her mother making fun of the commune owner’s “horse face.” The picture depicted shows the lady with an actual horse head and it was very amusing. This part seemed to be used as a buffer between the very dramatic scenes before, where Marjane and her mother discuss the still brutal life in Iran, and the scene after, in which Marjane reminisces about her childhood with cringe-worthy pictures. These little breaks combined with easy to comprehend writing make it less tense and overall makes it better to read. Satrapi also does an excellent job of characterizing herself in the book. The facial expressions on her character’s face along with her dialog paints a picture of a witty, strong woman. She often shows herself reacting to other characters’ dialogue with silly faces. This also brings up the novel’s aspect that it is also a memoir. It would be one thing if the topics talked about were fiction, but this actually happened and it sheds an interesting light on Marjane’s personality. Persepolis 2 also portrays the theme of adolescence and acceptance of opinions well. It does this by showing Marjane’s change from her European self to her new and improved woman-like self when she returns to Iran. These themes are universal, so I believe anyone can relate. On top of these two themes Satrapi lingers on the subject of prejudice a bit when she returns to Iran and witnesses constant brutal beatings. The most important elements about this graphic novel to consider are Satrapi’s nicely flowing text and its themes.
The broad genre of graphic novels is highly underrated and these two books are fine examples of how the genre should be more widely read. Both of these show contrasting methods of how graphic novel authors use illustration to enhance the book. Joe Kelly used intense and complex illustrations to portray how Barbara viewed the world, which proves a very different way of characterization. But Satrapi, on the other hand, used the illustrations as a way of displaying how the characters felt along with showing different approaches to true events. Both of these stories have their strengths that make them excellent pieces of literature and either one could be read and it would be a memorable experience.
When people are approached with the task of picking a book to read, most minds turn to the classics: The Great Gatsby, 1984, and other masterpieces. However, by doing this they turn a blind eye towards all the other forgotten genres of literature that they could engross themselves into. Graphic novels are usually included in this category and ignorant people criticize them as “not being real books” because they have pictures. But graphic novels like I Kill Giants and Persepolis 2: The Return intertwine relevant illustrations with gripping text to form two admirable pieces of literature with common themes that are just as good as regular novels.
Upon hearing the name I Kill Giants, one grows automatically consumed and interested. This graphic novel, written by Joe Kelly, focuses on an individualistic little girl named Barbara Thorson that is smart-assed and very independent. She constantly wears bunny ears and believes she sees little fairies and can hunt giants. Barbara is a very likable character because of her nonstop comical one-liners. Although not very relatable, she really packs a punch and makes the novel even more entertaining. All she ever talks about to anyone involves killing giants, and it often pushes people away. Barbara escapes her reality of a breaking home and bullies at school by drifting into her fantasy life. Yet as the story progresses, the line between the two begins to blur and her fantasy indeed becomes her reality. The climax of the story erupts into a very intense battle between Barbara and a Titan (an enormous type of giant). The illustration of the epic fight along with the dialog between the two enhances the entire mood of the event. The illustration’s darkness and the enormity of the Titan compared to Barbara create a great effect of visualization. This displays an advantage for graphic novels because the author can convey how they visualize the scene whereas normal novels cannot do so. Also, at times Kelly dedicates two whole pages to one specific idea without any text. He uses this to focus on one aspect of the story and to generate emphasis. For example, towards the end of the novel a gigantic side-ways portrait of the Titan pops up, showing its vast size. When you flip the page and gaze upon these amazing images, the awe it generates is overwhelming and it creates a connection by making it seem like you can see the same things Barbara is seeing. The amazing visuals of this book are feats in themselves. Through Barbara’s fantasy life and her enmity with giants, a theme about family life and how children deal with problems emerges. It is revealed nearing the end of the book that Barbara’s mother is suffering from cancer. It becomes clear to the reader that Barbara’s fantasy life was used to escape the daunting reality of her home life. Overall I must say my favorite aspect of this novel was that the story itself was so creative. The symbol Kelly developed with the Titan is fresh and unique. At one point in the story Barbara looks up at the sky towards an apparition of a Titan and says, “You’re coming soon aren’t you?” With the revelation that her mother has cancer at the end of the book, we can surmise that this was foreshadowing the climatic battle between the Titan and Barbara, and that the Titan was meant to symbolize the Barbara’s trouble coping with her mother’s illness. Kelly’s minimal use of dialog along with the baffling images created by his illustrator JM Ken Nimura create a story that pleases on all levels.
Where I Kill Giants centers more on being aesthetically pleasing, Persepolis 2: The Return focuses on conveying its themes with less complex illustrations. Persepolis 2 follows Marjane Satrapi’s first graphic novel where she depicts her life in Iran during its revolutionary era. In the end of that book, Marjane fled the country on her own to live in Europe with friends, and this is where Persepolis 2 begins. Satrapi must make an immediate change when she moves to Europe and the book discusses the vast differences between Europe and Iran. For example, the people living in the same commune as Marjane were much more self-expressive and open to drugs and sex than the people in Iran, where the women could have been killed for just showing their hair. What I appreciated of Satrapi’s writing is that she can incorporate humorous snippets while discussing a serious topic. One of the more memorable comical moments was Marjane and her mother making fun of the commune owner’s “horse face.” The picture depicted shows the lady with an actual horse head and it was very amusing. This part seemed to be used as a buffer between the very dramatic scenes before, where Marjane and her mother discuss the still brutal life in Iran, and the scene after, in which Marjane reminisces about her childhood with cringe-worthy pictures. These little breaks combined with easy to comprehend writing make it less tense and overall makes it better to read. Satrapi also does an excellent job of characterizing herself in the book. The facial expressions on her character’s face along with her dialog paints a picture of a witty, strong woman. She often shows herself reacting to other characters’ dialogue with silly faces. This also brings up the novel’s aspect that it is also a memoir. It would be one thing if the topics talked about were fiction, but this actually happened and it sheds an interesting light on Marjane’s personality. Persepolis 2 also portrays the theme of adolescence and acceptance of opinions well. It does this by showing Marjane’s change from her European self to her new and improved woman-like self when she returns to Iran. These themes are universal, so I believe anyone can relate. On top of these two themes Satrapi lingers on the subject of prejudice a bit when she returns to Iran and witnesses constant brutal beatings. The most important elements about this graphic novel to consider are Satrapi’s nicely flowing text and its themes.
The broad genre of graphic novels is highly underrated and these two books are fine examples of how the genre should be more widely read. Both of these show contrasting methods of how graphic novel authors use illustration to enhance the book. Joe Kelly used intense and complex illustrations to portray how Barbara viewed the world, which proves a very different way of characterization. But Satrapi, on the other hand, used the illustrations as a way of displaying how the characters felt along with showing different approaches to true events. Both of these stories have their strengths that make them excellent pieces of literature and either one could be read and it would be a memorable experience.