Black hole by Charles Burns

Black hole is an exceptional book. One that has stayed in my mind, even though I am not sure I got everything the author intended. It is a graphic novel (and it is novel length) and deals with a plague that is being spread through Seattle teens (nor directly AIDS). To call the story unsettling and a masterpiece would be to be guilty of gross understatement. The art is perfect, precise and yet off kilter and disturbing. Go to Amazon and check out the longer reviews there. An Interview with the author is included on their page.

Marked by Steve Ross [book review]

Marked is an intriguing rendition of the Gospel of Mark. The familiar story is presented in an unfamiliar package – a graphic novel. For those who haven’t encountered a graphic novel, they can appear like oversized comic books, but they are nothing like the comic books you may have read as a child. Modern graphic novels are a mixture of illustration and text, with both benefiting.

 

Why bother, when we have the original text (well, at least a translation of copies made several centuries after the original text)?

The form allows one to digest the essence of the Gospel in short order, rather than the bits and pieces that we might encounter in a church. Mark’s unique story should not be synchronized out of existence or smoothed into other Gospels.

The format brings new freshness to texts that can’t avoid being overly familiar. The graphics provoke and involve us, without the problems inherent in movies or photorealistic paintings. For example, there were as many Harry Potters are there were children reading the books, until it was filmed, then there was only one. As narratives, graphic novels can enlighten us, but film narratives tend to replace/displace existing narratives.

I resist identifying graphic novels with children, since they do not belong in the ghetto that is kiddie lit. Nevertheless, this book is suitable for children as well as adults.