Review - Life with Mr. Dangerous

Review - Life with Mr. Dangerous
by Paul Hornschmeier

Villard

Life with Mr. Dangerous is a book I didn’t buy for our collection. This is great, because my colleague who picks these up has no idea what she’s getting. Some are great, other not so. But so far, everything she has purchased has been interesting.

This book is a slice of life tale about Amy. A twenty-something angst ridden young lady who has no direction in her life. As the story starts, she breaks of a crummy relationship. Later on, we find out that she really doesn’t like her job. And the only things that she truly enjoys is a television cartoon called Mr. Dangerous and talking to her friend Michael who moved recently to San Francisco. But through different events and circumstances in her life, she feels that she needs to make some changes for her well being.

Hornschmeier uses a clean style with strong lines and simple backgrounds. Its very traditional and seems to be common with many current graphic novels. I’d hate to describe it as unremarkable, but there isn’t really anything super exciting about it. However, being a comic nerd, I could swear I saw some homages to other graphic works. I thought I saw a sock monkey on a bed stand somewhere. Also the poster on Amy’s wall looks suspiciously like a Scott McCloud character. And it really looks like a portrait of Harvey Pekar on the last page.

This book reminds me of other graphic novels in its style. And I was discussing this with one of our pages here at the library who is into the comics books. It seems that there is a glut of realistic (with some surrealistic touches) tales of angst and ennui. Works like Wilson by Daniel Clowes and Lint by Chris Ware are just a couple more recent examples. But looking over our collection, I noticed many that had similar feels. And though I appreciate them, I’m getting a little tired of reading sad/ironic/sarcastic stories about normal people. Maybe I’ve been corrupted by the super hero comics that I grew up with.

I don’t think I would of picked up this book for the library. But it’s not a bad fit for our collection. We certainly have other graphic novels very similar. But this book will be added to the adult non-fiction area because it is a grown up life Hornschmeier portrays. With swearing and sexual situations, this book won’t be going in our teen area.

Review - The Arctic Marauder

The Arctic Marauder

by Jacques Tardi.
Fantagraphic

This volume is a reprint of a comic work from the 1970s. Obviously French, this book tells a tale set in the late 1800s. It starts as a ship in the Arctic finds a frozen ghost ship high on a pillar of ice. As some of the crew and our protagonist, Jerome Plumier, explore the frozen ship, their original ship explodes, standing them in the frozen sea. But once rescued, Jerome Plumier happens into a plot of world destruction.

The art work in this book is fantastic. The black and white illustrations look almost like woodblock prints. The picture he made of the sailing ships seem quite realistic. And his architectural and seascapes are wonderful. However, his drawings of the people are cartoon type caricatures. This isn’t a bad thing because it reminds me of the works of Honoré Daumier.

However, the story is a little cheesy. Paying homage to Jules Verne and H.G. Welles, there is highly speculative notions of technology. It’s broken up into small chapters, each ending in a cliffhanger which gives it one of those Saturday Morning serials feel. But unlike comics today, this sometimes get a little too wordy. When people explain their plots, it’s just like a bad Bond villain making his speech just before his plans come unraveled.

One thing this book is missing is that I would of loved some more background information for this book. I wish the editors had written some sort of introduction to help place this in some sort of context. Who is Tardi? Why pick this book to reprint? What was its original audience? Sure, I could go to Google and find answers to my questions, but I think it would added more to this work by having a page telling the reader what they were holding and have a couple paragraph biography at the back.

Is this a great work? Not really. So it’s not a book every library should own. But the art will grab some people and there isn’t anything objectionable. So if a youngster were to find it, their parents shouldn’t be too upset.