Book Club Report: So long for now

So long folks!

The Ottawa Comic Book Book Club is adjourned for the moment. We were supported by the Ottawa Silver Snail, who is unfortunately closing. The book club will return in a different format later this year and the book club report may very well come back at that time.

In the meantime, here are the archive:

Astonishing X-Men: Northstar: A discussion with Marjorie Liu
Everywhere Antennas: A discussion with Julie Delporte
Marvel Knight: Spider-Man: by Matt Kindt & Marco Rudy
It Never Happened Again, A discussion with by Sam Alden
Petty Theft: A discussion with Pascal Girard
Shortcomings, by Adrian Tomine
Dotter of her Father's Eyes, by Mary M. Talbot and Bryan Talbot

Book Club Report: A Discussion with Marjorie Liu on Astonishing X-men

As of writing this, same-sex-mariage has been legalized in the US

A constantly beating drum in the comic book industry is the call for more diversity. It's an important issue, both socially and financially. Since different creators bring in new ideas and fresh new stories informed by their individual experiences. Since the conception of the "superhero" comic book, North America has grown increasingly multicultural. There are so many exciting discussions on aboriginal rights, LGBTQ issues, and other topics; it's phenomenal to see it unfolding. Diversity means introducing new creators that bring with them a new point of view, new ideas and stories and their own authorial stamp. It's also important for the mainstream publishers to move toward diversity as well from a financial point of view. The customer base is much broader than the stereotypical young adult white male (although that age category is debatable, and a late 30 to early 50 age range is probably more accurate nowadays). Superhero movies are multi-million dollar blockbuster. People are interested in this topic and when they look to buy comics, if they only see an insular world of white creators and characters, chances are they won't come back. Alienating potential customers in a modern world where you can access any form of entertainment easily and you`re being constantly bombarded by new opportunities for leisure is not financially viable. Diversity of characters, creators and point of view is the way of the future, it may be the only way comics not only survive, but strive.

The Ottawa Comic-Book Book Club met this month with Marjorie Liu to discuss the first collection of her run on Astonishing X-Men. Our group have different interests in comics: some tend to appreciate structure, design, plot, characters, art or even color. Our regular comic reading habits rarely coincide. Although most of us were familiar with X-Men, few of us understood the minutia underlying their world. Marjorie gracefully accepted to join us for a discussion on X-Men, diversity, marriage, her career, collaborating with other creators and working for Marvel.

What the Book Club was wondering prior to our discussion

Marjorie Liu started the discussion with explaining how she ended up writing for a comic book in the first place. She had originally studied to become a lawyer and even passed the bar, but after she finished school she didn`t feel that practicing law was the right path for her. She wanted to write and so she turned her mind to that. She wrote her first novel, Tiger Eye, a paranormal romance book (and the first of her Dirk Steele series) in about a month in 2005. She became an author, wrote more books and eventually wrote an X-Men novel for Marvel called X-Men: Dark Mirror. Her comic career began in earnest with NYX: No Way Home, then Dark Wolverine, X-23 and Black Widow until she was approached for Astonishing X-Men. 

Since Astonishing X-Men was well established by that point, she had to use the characters already on the team for her stories. This included Wolverine, Gambit, Iceman, Northstar, Warbird, Karma and Cecilia Reyes. She took a look at the characters and decided that one of the first plot-lines she would work on would be to move the character of Northstar forward. Northstar came out of the closet in the mid 90's in Alpha Flight #104, and had been in a relationship with his partner, Kyle Jinadu, since 2009. Marvel Comics approached this idea enthusiastically and cautiously as they wanted to ensure it would be done properly. Many editorial suggestions and re-writes later, the story was accepted. Although well publicized, she didn't anticipate a good reception to the comic. The issue was anticipated and Marvel did warn her that she would likely receive "minor death threats". There was no backlash and the issue was received favorably. It was not an action packed issue, but a thoughtful, heartfelt and intimate look at the characters involved and the reactions of those around them. Overall, the story of the wedding was well done and well received.

The group really enjoyed the character moments found in this collection. How the characters interacted with each other was a highlight of the book. When Kyle Jinadu and Northstar are unpacking, Kyle requests Northstar uses his speed power to furnish the apartment quickly. When they come back from the fight, Northstar is flying and carrying Kyle in his arms. This makes Kyle feel inadequate as he was caught in the crossfire of a vicious battle earlier and couldn't contribute to it. Those little moments are aplenty for each character in the book and they were very welcome. It was quite refreshing to see so much effort being put into developing these characters and making them feel fleshed out.

We quickly understood that for Marjorie, comic stands at the intersection between prose and screenplay. The process she normally uses for writing books is quite different than for her comics. She has to think about her characters, who they are, what they're saying, what they're thinking and how to express those elements in words. In comics, those same train of elements aren't necessarily conveyed by words, but by a combination of dialog, narration boxes and visuals. The challenge lies in finding the right way to collaborate with an artist to illustrate what you hope to see. Through good communication and collaboration, artists bring their vision of how they see a scene and the team ends up with something that satisfies them both. The strengths of all creators elevating the work of the other. This is a really good way to work with someone.

The inclusion of New York imagery within the books was also a welcome addition. We knew the X-Men were based in New York (or San Francisco now), the town where the action took place rarely seemed to matter. Marjorie and Mike Perkins create a City that feels real. The X-Men are taking a cab after a fight, they're eating a slice of pizza in Greenwich Village pizzeria, a wedding in Central Park. This is New York and it feels lived in. We understand where they are instead of thinking they're in generic location #23. 

Cabbing home after a fight

This collection however, was downright confusing and jarring for us to read. Since it begins with issue #48 of a well-established series, it assumes you have a good understanding of who is involved and the background information of the characters. Most of us could recognize Wolverine and Gambit, but we all scratched our head when Warbird is introduced. Particularly since she appears to have killed one of her enemies so those of us who didn't know she was an X-Man assumed immediately she was an enemy. It's not so much an issue of poor storytelling, so much as it's an issue concerning the insular nature of the X-Men in general. You need a PhD in X-Men and a Wikipedia page open before being able to understand the stories being told. As for the jarring feelings, well the collection only tells half a story. Obviously the focus is on Northstar, but the central plot concerns a villain using mind control to get at the X-Men. Why I couldn't tell because the story abruptly ends at what I assumed is a halfway mark. The collection does conclude (or appear to conclude) Northstar character`s arc, but leaves you right in the middle of the main story arc. After the wedding, a cliffhanger happens, then it's a short story from an unrelated comic published 4 years earlier. Then it's the story of Northstar coming out of the closet which features this stupid guy:

The least stereotypical Canadian character ever created

How these issues are collected is not a decision by the creative team, but rather their editorial team. Though we may be cynical, it wasn't hard to understand that this was collected as soon as possible to cash in on the publicity of the wedding issue regardless of whether or not it was narratively coherent. From a business perspective, it make sense, you want to make sure you squeeze out sales while the trend is still fresh because you`ll lose out on those sales the longer you wait. Removed from that context, years after the publication, it's just jarring and kind of obscene. As readers, how can you take this seriously? We all understand that the serialized nature of comic books means that "the story is never really over", but how much can you stretch that elastic before it bursts? We as readers felt the story to be important, but can the same be said of the editorial team? Does this encourage readers at large to pursue the other collected editions? I'm not sure. We're a large group of individuals and our tastes vary. I'm not sure that paying a premium fee for half a story that ends with a guy in a penguin suit, a top hat and a monocle telling you "well if you like this, you gotta buy the next book to see how it ends, huh huh!" is the right way to ensure longevity with sales. No one likes to be taken for a fool. This probably explains why sales of comic books (at least floppies) have been steadily declining. There's only so much insults one can take.

Again, this wasn't something Marjorie or her colleagues had any control over so we couldn't really fault her for it. This did bring us to the topic of creator-owned comics and of the extra liberty this brings about. Marjorie is currently working on a creator owned project for Image Comics called Monstress with Sana Takeda. Monstress takes place in a fantasy 1900's Asia, where mythic beasts roam the land and we'll follow a young girl with a psychic connection to one of those beasts as she is hunted by many who wish to exploit that connection. The release date was still up in the air at the time of our meeting but we were assured it would be "soon, very soon". We could tell Marjorie was eager to talk in depth about this project. The amount of freedom that this allowed her was quite exciting. How long will the series be? How many pages will the first issue have? How will it be collected? Will there be guest artists and who could they possibly be? All of these things will be determined by her, Sana and their colleagues.

And this extra liberty is just something you can't have at a corporate comic publisher. The corporation owns the right to the work, the universe and the characters. At the end of the day, nothing you do belongs to you. And this is a subject we've encountered before in discussion with other comic artists and writers we spoke to. They may be invested in the work they've done, and once they leave, they may want to come back to it later, but there is no guarantee they'll ever be involved in it again. It can be quite frustrating and this seems to be what is pushing a lot of established creators toward owning their own material. It won't always be successful, but it will belong to them and that control, that ownership, is worth a lot more than you can imagine.

A lived in city for the X-Men

On the subject of collaboration, Marjorie mentioned that, although it's always a good thing to know your collaborator's strengths, it's also important to understand your own weaknesses. Being humble and recognizing where your weaknesses lies allowed her to collaborate with colleagues much better. For example, Marjorie mentioned that she will often rely on the artist she works with to create fight sequences. This allows the artists to make better choices concerning the page layout and the action that unfolds. The two of them know where the action is going and what needs to happen, but the fluidity of movement and how exactly the same takes place doesn't rely only the writing of Marjorie, but on a collaborative process where the artists and writer contribute to construct the scene. The results in this comic, for example, is seamless. The action flows nicely from one panel to the next without skipping a beat. Knowing what your collaborators are good at is great, knowing where they can help you can sometimes be even better.

Nightmarish dream vision

On the subject of diversity, Marjorie talked to us about her own experience at Marvel. She's always felt welcome and supported by her colleagues. While she recognized that she has worked with a diverse team, mostly at the editorial level, that didn't extend to the level of writer and artists` teams that were around her. The call for diversity has been beating louder and louder across the internet and hopefully publishers are listening (N.B. Although it's hard to tell if they're listening or if they're completely tone-deaf. Only 8 women will be working on the 45 title Marvel relaunch of October 2015). There will never be a time when we'll be able to say we have "enough" diversity. As I mentioned earlier, those new creators bring with them new ideas and stories, it's just hard to ignore the positive outcome both from a story perspective and from a PR perspective. Most members of our book club are women and the idea that comics are a "boys club" is difficult to shake. Marjorie was kind enough to let us know she feels things are moving in the right direction, albeit at much slower pace than anyone wants to admit to.

We were able to have a solid discussion with Marjorie and gain a better understanding of her experience as a writer by the end of our meeting. We learned much about collaborative process, diversity and the process behind the comic book in terms of editorial input. Leaving the meeting, we all had mixed feelings about the book, myself included. Not all of us were sure that we would recommend the book. It was a flawed experience, mostly due to how the book was collected. A cautionary tale perhaps for overeager editors. In any case, we were quite thankful for the time Marjorie took to speak with us. Her eloquence, candor and honesty was quite riveting. We're looking forward to Monstress and her upcoming projects. Some of us have already started reading her novels. Truly the mark of a captivating author.

Looking forward to this

Book Club Report: A Discussion with Sam Alden on It Never Happened Again

Longing and Belonging

I'll always remember the day I was first introduced to comic books. One of my dearest childhood memories was walking (6 blocks exactly) to the independent video rental place near my family's house in Quebec City. It was a cold but sunny spring day and my grandmother took me there to get one comic book. She was over for the weekend and wanted to encourage me to read in English. My entire family is French. I went to a typical French school, and the English language was not commonly spoken in that part of town, or even in the town in general. She understood the value of learning a second language, even though she never learned one herself. She knew I enjoyed cartoons and figured that I would at least be interested in the medium of comic book.

I must have been no more than 6 years old at the time. We got there and I stared at a single spinning rack of comic books for a while. One comic book felt huge. There were so many to choose from. What was I supposed to pick with all of these 18 choices? I browsed and I picked a Batman comic. I will never remember which one it was, but I will always remember the feelings it evoked. Walking home, my grandmother holding my hand, the sun landing on my cold face and also importantly, the feeling of paper on my fingers. It was the first comic I remember reading and it became an important part of my life. I will always be grateful to my grandmother for it and to my parents who supported this addiction. It changed my entire life. 

This moment was a revelation, both important and fleeting. It happened once and my life was changed forever. I have been chasing down this moment for the past twenty years. Hoping to relive that first high, yet I have never been able to fully recreate it. I'm talking about this because this month, the Ottawa Comic Book Book Club read Sam Alden's It Never Happened Again, and Sam kindly agreed to meet with our group to discuss his book. 

Sam Alden by Sam Alden

Sam Alden is a 25 year old cartoonist and illustrator from Portland, Oregon. He has previously written web comics, comics and graphic novels, which include Haunter, The Man that Dances in the Meadows, Backyard, and many more. Hiw work is generally published online first and printed afterward. His comic Wicked Chicken Queen published by Retrofit Comics, won an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic at SPX a few weeks ago

Fleeting moments

It Never Happened again collects two short stories, Hawaii 1997 and Anime. The first is the story of a Young Sam Alden who is on vacation in Hawaii. He goes out one night to see the beach and the stars and meets a girl. The second is the story of Janet, a girl who feels out of place in her hometwon and plans to visit Japan, where her favourite fictional anime character lives to find her place in the world. The themes of longing and belonging are very much present in this book. The Young Sam will spend the rest of his life trying to find the girl, or some version of her, always yearning to recreate this moment. Janet wishes to recreate the experience of Kiki, or even become Kiki as best as she can. She is also looking for a place where she can belong, a goal she may never achieve as the anime paradise she wishes to reach is as fictional as her idol. 

Sam was kind enough to tell us the genesis of Hawaii 1997 and how it was a stepping stone to his current style of drawing. Drawn on notebook pages during a flight back to the U.S, this comic came to life as a sort of personal challenge and as a way to fight the boredom of air travel. The style that came through was, and is, still very distinctive and appealing and Sam embraced it. This took him away from his previous style, a sort of Craig Thompson emulation, and into his own distinctive creative style. We are all the better for it. This book shows Alden's style evolving. The use of pencils is so raw that, as a reader, you try to avoid touching it for fear of scratching or smearing the pencil marks. The look is fantastic and you can find stunning passages nearly everywhere. Of particular interest, when Young Sam puts his head underwater (above) or the map of the unknown town in Japan (below)

In Transit

Language also held an important role in the book. Janet's only silver lining in her otherwise bleak story is when she is complimented by a local man on her mastery of language. We were wondering if language had any influence on Sam's writing. It did in some ways, but not what we were expecting. Language in Anime serves to further reinforce Janet's feelings of isolation. She does not fit in her hometown, she does not fit in in Japan, and even worse, there, the foreign language isolates her from the community even more. This experience was similar to Alden's own trip to Japan when he was younger. The language barrier kept him at a distance from his environment, never quite fitting in. 

Isolation, and the search for a place where she belongs

We were also surprised to hear Sam talk about what influenced him to write this story: a similar trip to Japan with his then-girlfriend as a young adult. Nothing went as planned, not that he had planned much, and the whole fiasco became a real catalyst to the man he grew up to be. Writing Anime also forced Sam to adopt a different point of view on his experience. Our discussion then turned toward gender. By writing a female protagonist, Sam often wondered whether the characters felt true enough. In a way, he distorts his experience and projects them on a woman. In this regard can the text be read as true, as authentic? The group (which consisted that evening of over 80% of women) felt so. 

Haunting

The theme of longing are present, so is another recurring theme in Alden's work: Haunting. The community Backyard is haunted by the wolfchild, the woman is haunted by The man that dances in the Meadows. In this book, Young Sam will be forever haunted by the memory of the girl. Although it didn't appear that Sam did this consciously, the idea that people are haunted by memories, feelings and even their own mind is a recurring theme in Alden's books. The author did confirm that he does not believe in ghosts.

Finally, we were very interested in hearing about Sam's process in writing for the screen and for paper. He explained to us that he had always intended Hawaii 1997 to be printed. The movement of the kids running translates very well online as well, but that was not the primary goal. The pacing and movement also works on the page as it was intended. The Anime story was also conceived for the page and it truly shines this way. He constantly works to improve the layout and searches to find an optimal pace for the story, both for the online/Tumblr audience and for the page. His new webcomic Hollow tries to integrate those two elements. It will be interesting to compare the final results.

Gazing at the unreacheable wonders of the universe

We were lucky to have such an interesting conversation with a talented young comics author. Not only did it help us gain some perspective and knowledge on It Never Happened Again, it allowed us to learn much about his process and his thoughts on making comics. Much like Young Sam's search for an ineffable girl, or my quest for this very first comics experience, our group will keep looking endlessly for a similarly enlightening discussion on graphic novels. In the meantime, we will value our discussion with Sam and recommend everyone to seek out this outstanding work. 

Book Club Report: A Discussion with Pascal Girard on Petty Theft

The Comic book book club we belong to is an interesting group. We all like reading, but for each member, reading the same book brings a multitude of different interpretations, especially with regards to the subtlety imbued by the particular language of the book. We’re located in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, and live in a bilingual environment. Almost 40% of the city’s inhabitants are bilingual. English isn’t even my first language, it’s French. Most of us are working, living and reading in both languages.

The book club met to discuss Petty Theft, as we normally do every month. There usually is a sense of fun and anticipation before the meetings. We’ve had a month with our book, we`ve each read it and have had an appropriate amount of time to think about it. This month our discussions proved to be especially significant as it was a special event for the Ottawa Comic Book Book Club: we had the pleasure of welcoming Pascal Girard to discuss his newest graphic novel Petty Theft. He gracefully accepted to join us for an evening to talk about his book, his characters, his process, language, family and construction work.

Pascal is a French-Canadian cartoonist. His Tumblr bio informs us that he was born in Jonquière, in Saguenay (the town with one of the weirdest mayors in Canada, Jean Tremblay). He loves drawing and running and he's in love. This biography relates to the themes of his newest English book Petty Theft. Pascal has written more books in French such as Conventum, Jimmy et le bigfoot, Paresse, as well as some other collaboration work and children's books. Three of his French books have been published in English through Drawn & Quarterly.

Language

Language was at the forefront of our minds when we met with Pascal. We were all very eager to discuss how Pascal's writing may be influenced by language. He mentioned that while he didn't think it affected his first translated book, as he hadn't even considered it, it certainly had while writing this book. It may not have been a conscious consideration, but more as a result of integration and internalizing the idea of a second language and a wider audience for his books.

The title is also quite surprising as Petty Theft is actually called La collectioneuse in French. We noticed it did affect our reading of the book. The English title immediately frames the girl as a thief. It leaves little doubt to interpret her actions. She steals, and therefore is a thief. However, the French title leaves room for more ambiguity. She is a collector. Her actions, although criminal, are somewhat more justifiable as she is not framed as a thief from the get go. Pascal did explain that there was a long process with Drawn & Quarterly to determine the best translation for the title. Choosing to translate word for word "collector" wasn't as close to "collectioneuse" and therefore wasn't as meaningful. In the end, Petty Theft was selected and only those few who know the two titles can determine how this affects them.

Pascal & Kids

Fatherhood is also an underlying theme in this book, not by showing exactly what it meant for the protagonist, but by providing clues into his thoughts. The main protagonist panics and is uncomfortable in the presence of children. Although this doesn't reflect the values of the author, it does affect how we can interpret his character. We have a man who, underneath the pretense of finding his way and true love, doesn't really see a relationship evolving to the stage of parenthood. Now this could be a choice, but when we add the facts that he aims to right the wrongs of the thief, it reveal a very selfish character.

Mental VS Physical labour

The book begins when the main character falls and gets injured while he is out for a run. Forbidden from running, down on his luck and with a broken heart (his girlfriend and him having just broken up), he ends up also reinventing his career. He stops drawing and goes back to construction work. This created an interesting parallel between the physical labour of construction and the mental (and creative) labour typically associated with art. The protagonist`s body having changed, so must his psyche. This created yet another layer in a seemingly easy-to-classify character.

By the end of our meeting, we gained perspective on a multitude of topics: language, fatherhood, characterization, etc. Pascal Girard helped us gain some perspective on Petty Theft and unlock elements which revealed further interpretations and depth to the story. There was so much more to discuss and some of my fellow book club members may wish to add to this in the comments, but we all felt tremendously satisfied reading this book. We'd highly recommend it. 

Book Club Report - Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine: Gender, Identity, Sexual Politics and Whining

Meh'

Questions on Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings

Our Book Club met recently to discuss Adrian Tomine's Shortcomings. We all had very diverse opinions on the book. I personally did not like it, but in a way, it kept me wanting to rip it apart panel by panel to discover why. In my case, it was more visceral than anything. Others thought it was a well-thought out study on identity and sexual politics; some others felt the main character was such a whiner it was difficult to take anything he did seriously. I thought it would be easier to come up with some questions on the book rather than do a full book club report like I did on Dotter of her Father's Eyes. The goal being to foster discussion and help other book clubs who may wish to have a fruitful discussion on the book. In no particular order below:

• How does the page layout affect the reading of the story? Does the inflexibility of the layout (its 7 to 9 panels per page) represent the inability of the protagonist to accept change? We were all quite aware that Tomine does not normally play with structure. Is it a conscious choice in this to mirror the protagonist's ineptitude to evolve?

• Is it offensive that the book depicts Alice, Ben Tanaka's friend, as a sex-addicted lesbian? Does this character feel like a cliché as depicted by a male?

• Is it offensive that the bisexual character of Sasha feels like a real character or is this one of Tomine's weird sexual fantasies?

• Why is this a graphic novel? Tomine's theme suggests an affinity with the literary. So does Tomine wish to write, but illustrate instead? 

• Does the pacing in the first chapter of the book affect the reading of the book? Segments begin abruptly in the middle of a page without any signs of transitions (7th panel on p.13, 7th panel on p.17, 7th panel on p.22, 8th panel on p.27). Is the lack of transitions too jarring? Is it clunky? It happens less and less as the story progress; was Tomine refining his work as he wrote his single issues?

• Is Tomine writing a thinly veiled movie screenplay? Is this a graphic novel or a movie screenplay? 

• Why was Ben Tanaka so attached to Berkeley? 

• Does your appreciation of the book depend on your knowledge of identity in second and third generation immigrants in the US?

• Does Ben Tanaka get upset at Miko for her betrayal or because he finally recognizes Miko's sexuality after he lost her?

• Can the reader distinguish between the statement made about race and those made by the characters themselves? Is it really a book about ethnicity or single-mindedness?

• Is Tomine's underlying theme that one's ethnic background matters? That denying your identity and heritage will make you unhappy?

• By refusing to address ethnicity, is Ben Tanaka refusing to also aknowledge his own problems?

• Does the book want to address acceptance of third generation immigrants in the social fabric of America? About how sexuality can act as a way to neutralize and suppress ethnicity? Or is it only about a whining man-child unable to deal with life?

• Does the final page explain the rigidity of the page layout? 

There is much more that could be said about the book, but the bulk of our conversations centered around those. Can we recommend this book? We most certainly would. It is a deeply flawed book and brings its fair share of discussion. Shortcomings is a very interesting read in spite of its many problems. 

Book Club Report- Dotter of Her Father's Eyes - Colors, gender issue, family trauma and failures

Colors and Style

Dotter of her Father's Eyes is a  graphic novel written by Mary M. Talbot and illustrated by her husband Bryan Talbot. It is fundamentally two biography narratives told together. We follow the life of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce as well as the life of the author Mary M. Talbot, who is  the daughter of Joycean scholar James S. Atherton. The author juxtapose her story to that of Lucia Joyce's tumultuous life from her birth in 1907 to her schizophrenia diagnostic in 1935 where she was placed in a psychiatric institute and where she spend the rest of her life. Social and family expectations, gender politics and historical context eventually created a storm of tragedy for Lucia Joyce. This story is told conjointly with that of author Mary Talbots' life.

On many levels, this is a fantastic collaboration between the author and the artist. The life of Lucia Joyce is riveting and makes for a fascinating read. However, the author's biography feels like an attempt at exposing how rude, distant and mean her father was to her all those years. All the slights, fights and disappointment are portrayed in depth, almost to the point of exhaustion. Upon first reading, it felt like a long book on self-pity and a exhaustive account of wallowing in one's pain. It is not a negative point per se, but since it is juxtaposed to Lucia's story, the whole group of readers at the book club felt that this was an attempt to add importance to her own story by comparing and contrasting to her own life. In a way, this is isn't completely false, but I do not believe that it is the only reason. Mary Talbot's life as described in the book is nothing but ordinary, neither tragic, nor particularly exciting, just a life lived. The only thread connecting the two women seems to be their father and the traditional family upbringing view that their father adopted.

Talbot's approach to biographic work is reminiscent of the modern French biography.This current has been quite important in French Literature over the past decade or so. The biographer select a subject, sometimes important, sometimes not, and study it. It becomes less of a straightforward tale on the subject and more of an exploration of various topics (cultural, political, , time period, etc.). This effectively blurs the lines between biography, essay and fiction. Emmanuel Carrère's "Limonov", Pierre Michon "Vie minuscules" or Benoit Peeters "Derrida: A biography" are good examples of this type of modern French biography. Another good example is Benoit Peeters second book on French philosopher Jacques Derrida in which Peeters chronicles the process of writing the first biography of Derrida, his life during the process from research to publication. He also talks about Derrida, almost as a second thought, even though he is the reason this book is being made in the first place. Talbot use a similar tactic while writing the book. She uses juxtaposion as a mean to contrast two narratives. It also allows her to explore the themes she wishes to such as the importance of the father, family trauma, gender and failures. She blurs the lines between autobiography and fiction.

Style and colors reminds us throughout the book that even though the story wishes to create a link between the two women, they are indeed quite different and must be seen as such. There is actually three different styles throughout the book. The opening pages shows the Mary and her husband Bryan in the present, the colors are bright, realistic and well defined. They are the now and therefore looks the most similar to reality. From this, we are led to flashback of Mary's childhood. The pages are in shades of grey and beige and accented by dash of colors in very specific points. The grey-beige scheme could represent a mundane, uneventful life while the dash of colors is used to represent either important objects, to evoke emotions or simply to accentuate contrast.The traditional panel grid is also absent from any pages in the past, allowing for a much more fluid page layout which Bryan Talbot uses effectively.

The present and the past

Dark, cold blue, greys and blacks are used when it comes to Lucia Joyce's story. The color scheme represent the unnatural nature and drama of Lucia's life. They come from different eras, both from a cultural and societal point of view. Lucia Joyce lived during the First World War, the roaring 20's and Second World War while Talbot was born long after the war was over. She lived a life of peace, privileges, and emancipation and these are just a few examples of what separates the two women.

The colors are not the only trick used to differentiate the two narratives. A careful attention has been place on the characters eyes. Characters in Mary Talbot's era (past and present) have single dots in lieu of eyes, whereas characters in Lucia Joyce's era have much more developed eyes. Comparing it to the cover page, where Mary Talbot has two dots, we can see the difference. Surprisingly, the book club members did not caught on this point during our discussion.

The eyes

My only problem with the book as to do with one page which was blatantly plagiarized. My favourite movie of all time is "The Red Shoes", a 1948 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It has been released by Criterion and here is their description of the movie: Red Shoes, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Technicolor feasts ever concocted for the screen. Moira Shearer is a rising star ballerina torn between an idealistic composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack Cardiff, Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable, hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, now dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the artist.

Now why is this relevant to the book? Well, one exchange between Lucia Joyce and Samuel Beckett has been lifted wholesale from the movie. Not just any, but one of the most important passage. This young ballerina discuss with the ruthless impressario and she expresses that art, is just as important as life. For comparison purposes, I've included the youtube clip of the movie and the panels in question.

 And three panels

These three panels took me out of the book completely. I have done some research, but I have not been able to find any evidence that this is historically related to Lucia Joyce. If anyone has any idea on the matter, please feel free to write it in the comments.

Aside from this slight issue, the book is fantastic and I'd recommend it. The entire book club agreed that this book was a very good read. It is short, but incredibly dense. It,s an interesting exploration of gender issue, family trauma, life failures and color design. Mary and Bryan Talbot have created a captivating book. The Ottawa Comic Book Club unanimously recommend the book.