Monday, January 14, 2008

Tricked and Different Ugliness, Different Madness

Here's how this works: I finish reading something, and I tell you about it, and I try not to bore you to death.



Released in 2005, I finally got around to this and enjoyed it tremendously. It's an incredibly dense and incredibly filmic look at six characters whose lives slowly begin to intersect, and some lies and "tricks" which some of them play as their paths start converging. I was a little disappointed by the climax, but this is perhaps the fault of my expectations, and perhaps because I was enjoying the story too much to want to see it end. Read nothing about this book ahead of time; everybody seems to want to give too much of it away.



Giveaways on the part of reviewers is perhaps also a trait of this book, one of the last to come from the Humanoids/DC deal, and which I picked up in Cincinnati in the spring of '07 and just reread. Marc Malés uses gorgeous linework, which reminds me of Chic Stone inking Kirby. The story is about a woman in the 1930s travelling to nowhere in particular with a dwindling purse, who meets a kind-hearted, generous man in the country who lives a hermit-like life, shunning human contact. Again, revelations about Helen's past and the identity of the man with whom she stays are given away practically everywhere, even on the back of the blasted book, but if you avoid those, the book is a genuinely satisfying read, and I enjoyed it even more this time around. Malés uses a brilliant little "camera" trick from pages 95-101 which shouldn't work in a comic, but took my breath away.

Both books are recommended.

(Originally posted January 14, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

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