Graphic Novel Friday: The Picture's The Thing
Every Friday, Omnivoracious will turn the spotlight on one or more graphic novels, with future installments also including news and interviews. You can let me know who or what you'd like to see featured by commenting on this post.
Back after longish vacation, I'm focusing this time on graphica that emphasizes the art over the words. Three recent books provide serious visual satisfaction...
Doctor Grordbort's Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory (Dark Horse Comics)
Greg Broadmore has written and illustrated an amazing Steampunk compendium of retro-weapons, along with some stunning visuals of the weapons in action. This might indeed be a Boy's Life dream on the page, but who can resist such insane creations as Ignas Fraunhoffer III Gas Driven Gadabout or Dr. Grordbort's Highly Popular Portable Inertionaut. The concluding section, Lord Cockswain's Marvelous Interplanetary Excursions, is part wacked-out sci-fantasy art, complete with weird aliens, and part send-up of Imperial intent. Yes, there are nice descriptions of the inventions, but the primary joy here is in the intricate detail of the full-color art.
Out of Picture 2 (Villard)
Anyone looking for strong storylines in Out of Picture 2: Art From the Outside Looking In will be as disappointed as I was in Out of Picture 1. But in perusing the gorgeous pages of #2 I've realized I wanted the wrong things out of the first volume. This is, first and foremost, a collection of strange and fully realized art, with narrative not really the point. The series takes its name from a film term used when a character, scene, or shot is cut from a movie--meaning that these books "represent a safe haven for stories and visions that have yet to be realized." The artists include Peter Nguyen, David Gordon, Benoit le Pennec, Tsutsumi, and seven others. As a sumptuous coffee table book, Out of Picture 2 should satisfy any collector of upscale comics art.
Metronome (Nantier Beall Minoustchine)
Every page of Veronique Tanaka's intricate, often understated (and wordless) graphic novel is, as the press release states, "cut out in exactly the same way, each strip also with four staccato images, like a measure of 4/4 on a music sheet. We zoom in and out in equally split time in what is essentially an album-full of stop motion comics animation." The simple black-and-white images tell the story of a relationship, from first bloom to final quarrel. Introduced by Jeff Smith and discovered by Bryan Talbot, the book has unexpected power. The limitation of identical panel structure on each page actually strengthens the overall effect.
Linkage
A few readers have asked about links to good sources for comics/graphic novel information. Here are some sites worth checking out:
Comments