Scan barcode
shemah's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
1.0
It is a disturbing and gross book đź’€
tophat8855's review against another edition
5.0
Some surrealist comics for you. It’ll give you a MOOD. The artwork is really great- Woodring is truly skilled.
Warning: Too violent/graphic for young kids. And you have to make your own sense of things, but that’s good for you.
Warning: Too violent/graphic for young kids. And you have to make your own sense of things, but that’s good for you.
thedeadburger's review against another edition
4.5
frank!!!!!! i have recommended this to people for a few years now and no one ever reads it. read frank!!
rdengerous's review against another edition
5.0
"Never show let them know your next move" was how I felt reading this.
I was excited to read a comic for bookclub.
What a ride. What a dream.
Dreamlike storylines up to any reader's interpretation, where literally each panel is a twist.
Manpig is a character.
This comic made me feel a cocktail of emotions, digust, awe, confused, invaded, euphoria, happy.
Be like Frank. While every next moment can be an unknown, embrace it. Go out there and live.
I was excited to read a comic for bookclub.
What a ride. What a dream.
Dreamlike storylines up to any reader's interpretation, where literally each panel is a twist.
Manpig is a character.
This comic made me feel a cocktail of emotions, digust, awe, confused, invaded, euphoria, happy.
Be like Frank. While every next moment can be an unknown, embrace it. Go out there and live.
anttirask's review against another edition
5.0
The Frank Book is probably one of the hardest books to describe. It wasn't that hard to read, since there was hardly any words in it. That's one thing. The stories are told by showing the action (which has its difficulties on the page) and a LOT is left for the reader to decode. Because, and this is the other thing, Jim Woodring is quite the surrealist.
To sum up the stories collected in this volume, they all have one thing in common, a cat-like (but not quite) creature called Frank. There are other recurring characters, but it would be too hard to describe them here so I won't even try. Instead I will just say that the stories are at the same time hilarious, intriguing, scary (from time to time) and most of them messed up.
Jim really challenges the reader and although I thoroughly enjoyed the book (hence the five stars), I'm at the same time quite baffled by it.
A funny coincidence happened while I was "reading" the book. I happened to see "Bill Frisell: A Portrait", which is a documentary about, well, Bill Frisell. But one of the people that appeared in the documentary was Jim Woodring. One of Bill's projects was to play a live soundtrack for some of the animated Frank stories and a clip of this was shown in the documentary. Would definitely like to see and hear the rest of it!
To sum up the stories collected in this volume, they all have one thing in common, a cat-like (but not quite) creature called Frank. There are other recurring characters, but it would be too hard to describe them here so I won't even try. Instead I will just say that the stories are at the same time hilarious, intriguing, scary (from time to time) and most of them messed up.
Jim really challenges the reader and although I thoroughly enjoyed the book (hence the five stars), I'm at the same time quite baffled by it.
A funny coincidence happened while I was "reading" the book. I happened to see "Bill Frisell: A Portrait", which is a documentary about, well, Bill Frisell. But one of the people that appeared in the documentary was Jim Woodring. One of Bill's projects was to play a live soundtrack for some of the animated Frank stories and a clip of this was shown in the documentary. Would definitely like to see and hear the rest of it!
grimondgalgmod's review
5.0
A (mostly) wordless graphic novel that kind of feels like an episode of Rocko's Modern Life written by Eugène Ionesco and illustrated by Charles Burns. So like...perfect?
cantordustbunnies's review against another edition
5.0
With hardly any dialogue and relying almost entirely on images, these cartoons are fascinating and enigmatic pieces of art. They are highly open to interpretation which is part of what makes them so special. To me, the characters within represent metaphorical versions of archetypes that exist within the human mind (perhaps nature more generally) and express themselves both in wider human society and in the deep recesses of the psyche. The short stories have far reaching, albeit mysterious, implications and have numerous applications including but not limited to philosophy and spirituality. This is literature in the form of a comic book. The art style itself is deliciously psychedelic. The juxtaposition between the generic and the profound within the Frank comics evokes the banality of every day reality in stark contrast to an intensive drug trip or religious experience.
sizrobe's review against another edition
5.0
Gorgeously illustrated, almost entirely wordless, and deeply, deeply bizarre. Most of the stories in this book feature the titular frank, his pet named Pupshaw, a disgusting thing called Manhog, and a devilish creature named Whim. I only know their names because of a page in the appendix listing them. This world they populate is a hallucinatory dreamscape, especially the colored pages. Bizarre doesn't cut it. Since there is zero dialogue and almost no words, it's a quick read. I want to say I finished the 350 pages in around 45 minutes.
sisteray's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of the greatest pieces of nightmare fuel ever created. Gorgeously rendered visions of otherworldly Persian palaces, and barren landscapes bedazzled by mouths and eyeballs sucking and watching. It is simultaneously endearing, engaging, perplexing, and unsettling. This is a masterpiece.
kinbote4zembla's review against another edition
4.0
Wow. Part of me thinks I should reserve my rating of this book until I've read it again. I loved it but I cannot honestly say I fully understood it.
Almost completely wordless, this is a collection of comics Jim Woodring made about an anthropomorphic animal of ambiguous species. The art is absolutely beautiful but it really shines in the assortment of full-colour comics included in this collection.
I've seen these comics described as parables and I wouldn't necessarily disagree - though "fable" may be more apt. And Woodring has said that he will not speak to the meaning of his works, allowing them to operate in the mind of the reader as usually happens with literature and fine art.
But the level of ambiguity on display in these comics is both maddening and exhilarating. In a story where things bear very little resemblance to anything real, the level of abstraction increases beyond that inherent in the comics medium.
These are dreamy, surreal comics, illustrated in a seemingly storybook style, about very dark subjects. It would be easy to suggest some kind of Freudian reading of these works - vaginas, penises and anuses can definitely be seen in some design elements of the creatures and environments - but that seems much too simple for what's going on here.
I really did love this. But I'm going to reserve a five-star rating until I've read it again so that I can better unpack some of its symbolism.
4 Gentlemanhogs out of 5
Almost completely wordless, this is a collection of comics Jim Woodring made about an anthropomorphic animal of ambiguous species. The art is absolutely beautiful but it really shines in the assortment of full-colour comics included in this collection.
I've seen these comics described as parables and I wouldn't necessarily disagree - though "fable" may be more apt. And Woodring has said that he will not speak to the meaning of his works, allowing them to operate in the mind of the reader as usually happens with literature and fine art.
But the level of ambiguity on display in these comics is both maddening and exhilarating. In a story where things bear very little resemblance to anything real, the level of abstraction increases beyond that inherent in the comics medium.
These are dreamy, surreal comics, illustrated in a seemingly storybook style, about very dark subjects. It would be easy to suggest some kind of Freudian reading of these works - vaginas, penises and anuses can definitely be seen in some design elements of the creatures and environments - but that seems much too simple for what's going on here.
I really did love this. But I'm going to reserve a five-star rating until I've read it again so that I can better unpack some of its symbolism.
4 Gentlemanhogs out of 5