Graphic novels & co. – more reading experiences
Continuing the previous post, some recent readings of graphic novels and comics.
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis (same in all translations)
Written and designed by the Iranian Miss Satrapi, the graphic novel is great and better and more complete than the movie. Shouldn’t miss it.
Davide Toffolo, Pasolini (available only in Italian)
Naoki Urasawa, Monster
A master of the essential.
A note: this is not a recent read, but if you haven’t read the complete works of the great Venetian, Hugo Pratt, maybe you should: he did a great background and fantastic research for his stories, read either in French Le désir d’être inutile or in Italian Il desiderio di essere inutile to get an idea.
What is the difference between.. a cartoon and a graphic novel? More interesting is the question: what is the difference between a novel and a cartoon? Because my personal classification does not use as criteria the obvious one, that is, the presence of pictures. My criteria is the storytelling style of the author: there are novels, like Camilleri’s Montalbano series, that have the feeling, effect and timing of a comic book, and comics like Perseolis which have the style of a novel. It is all in the beholder’s mind…
One example that stands perfectly in between novel and cartoon: by Gipi, LMVDM – La mia vita disegnata male. In English there is Notes for a War Story,
I don’t seem to be able to stop adding entries to this post: Ari Folman, David Polonski, Waltz with Bashir (its also a movie), in Italian Valzer con Bashir. Get it.
