Looking for something to read this summer. Here's our round-up of the best graphic novels we've been reading:
Hole in the Heart: Bringing up Beth
Henny Beaumont, £16.99
Myriad Editions, £16.99
Raw, angry, teary and loving, Henny Beaumont’s graphic memoir about life with a Down’s syndrome child is a prime example of just how potent and honest the comic strip form can be when dealing with the pain and joy of being human.
Beaumont’s art is so simple and direct, the emotions so in your face, that you can rush through this book and not immediately note the considered artfulness that is also going on here. (And as an aside, Beaumont is particularly good at telling you what you need to know via the posture of the people she draws.)
The result is a compelling story of frightened parents, medical arrogance and, ultimately, parental love. Oh yeah and Beth’s clearly a star.
Stan and Nan
Sarah Lippett
Jonathan Cape, £16.99
And here’s another example of humanity at its most tender in cartoon form. Artist Sarah Lippett has opted to tell the story of her grandparents Stan and Nan based on the letters her nan wrote to her about her grandad Stanley Burndrod.
It’s a graphic memoir drawn in a knowingly naïve style that tells a sweet, sad, everyday story of two working-class people and their lives together. It’s a story full of love and sorrow and ceramics. A fine expression of the extraordinariness of ordinary lives.
The Wolves of Currumpaw
William Grill
Flying Eye Books, £14.99
William Grill’s last picture book Shackleton’s Journey won the Kate Greenaway Medal last year. Expect more acclaim for this follow-up. Based on a true story of hunters attempting to catch the leader of a pack of grey wolves in New Mexico in the 19th century, Grill jumps between picture book splashes and comic book panels, between large scale and small detail, in this exquisitely designed book.
The storytelling is strong but it’s the power of the pastel art that will linger. The whole thing is beautifully packaged too.
Paradise Lost
Pablo Auladell
Jonathan Cape, £20
Pace Grill’s book, this is the most handsome graphic novel on the stands at the moment. Pablo Auladell’s adaptation of John Milton’s monumental poem doesn’t stint on ambition either, taking us from Satan’s fall to the temptation of Adam and Eve.
The Spanish artist reimagines Milton’s poetic landscape in austere, painterly washes that draw subtly on Renaissance art and architecture. The whole thing has a chilly majesty and an epic power.
The Birth of Kitaro
Shigeru Mizuki
Drawn & Quarterly, £8.99
Shigeru Mizuki’s deeply strange children’s manga are a mix of horror and humour which place cartoony excess against detailed naturalistic backgrounds. Our titular hero is a kid monster who it out to stop powerful yokai (a term that encompasses sea monsters, river spirits, demons, goblins and any other passing supernatural entity).
Mizuki is better known in the west for his accounts of the Second World War, including Showa and his graphic memoir of Hitler. But it’s his children’s stories that remain his legacy in Japan. This volume is a decent introduction.
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