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geekwayne's review against another edition
3.0
'EmiTown, Vol. 1' by Emi Lenox is a year in the life of a good cartoonist. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing I liked, but it kind of won me over.
Every page is a day in the life. From expenditures to doodles to adventures with friends. Emi lives in Portland and runs into other local artists from time to time, but most of her days are spent getting together with friends or trying not to buy so much coffee or breakfast burritos.
There isn't a lot of narrative flow, so it just goes on and on. There are personal details, but it's missing something, so it all has a sameness to it. At 400 pages, that can feel a bit tedious after a while, and it did wear on me, but I kept coming back for more of the adorable artwork.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Image Comics, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Every page is a day in the life. From expenditures to doodles to adventures with friends. Emi lives in Portland and runs into other local artists from time to time, but most of her days are spent getting together with friends or trying not to buy so much coffee or breakfast burritos.
There isn't a lot of narrative flow, so it just goes on and on. There are personal details, but it's missing something, so it all has a sameness to it. At 400 pages, that can feel a bit tedious after a while, and it did wear on me, but I kept coming back for more of the adorable artwork.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Image Comics, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
saidtheraina's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know. I wanted to like this. I did. Emi lives in Portland, so I not only recognized places and activities, but I've also crossed paths with many people in the comics community she mentions.
Also I think her drawing styles kick some a. I would totally enjoy an entire story featuring her casual style, and would probably totally want to OWN a story using her more detailed and realistic illustrations.
I enjoyed hearing the minutae of an up and coming comic creator. And I did warm up to it as I went along.
But it's so. dang. long. And while we get all the detail we could ever want (and more) about her food and spending choices, we get no details of the juicy stuff. Boys, arguments, the meaning of life... it's all missing or only hinted at. We get metaphor alongside budgets with too many abbreviations.
I wouldn't mind this in a zine. I know other comic creators who put out zines of their daily comics/sketchbooks, and to me, that seems like a reasonable use.
But in a four hundred page tome published by image, I wanted there to be some apparent editing. ANY editing. That isn't just so we don't find out who she's thinking about dating. I wish someone (an editor, perhaps?!?) had gone through and picked one image from each page that tells a story, instead of (seemingly) just publishing her entire sketch book outright.
Because there are gems here. There are nuggets of awesome. There are things that I'd REALLY love to read, and maybe even frame. But I feel like her illustrations would be stronger telling a story that isn't just a song lyric that happens to be stuck in her head.
It might work as a "from the archives" kind of piece from a well-known star in comics (man, I would take anything I could get from [a:Craig Thompson|14151|Craig Thompson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1312311495p2/14151.jpg]), but from someone who hasn't done anything else, this feels... unedited.
Also I think her drawing styles kick some a. I would totally enjoy an entire story featuring her casual style, and would probably totally want to OWN a story using her more detailed and realistic illustrations.
I enjoyed hearing the minutae of an up and coming comic creator. And I did warm up to it as I went along.
But it's so. dang. long. And while we get all the detail we could ever want (and more) about her food and spending choices, we get no details of the juicy stuff. Boys, arguments, the meaning of life... it's all missing or only hinted at. We get metaphor alongside budgets with too many abbreviations.
I wouldn't mind this in a zine. I know other comic creators who put out zines of their daily comics/sketchbooks, and to me, that seems like a reasonable use.
But in a four hundred page tome published by image, I wanted there to be some apparent editing. ANY editing. That isn't just so we don't find out who she's thinking about dating. I wish someone (an editor, perhaps?!?) had gone through and picked one image from each page that tells a story, instead of (seemingly) just publishing her entire sketch book outright.
Because there are gems here. There are nuggets of awesome. There are things that I'd REALLY love to read, and maybe even frame. But I feel like her illustrations would be stronger telling a story that isn't just a song lyric that happens to be stuck in her head.
It might work as a "from the archives" kind of piece from a well-known star in comics (man, I would take anything I could get from [a:Craig Thompson|14151|Craig Thompson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1312311495p2/14151.jpg]), but from someone who hasn't done anything else, this feels... unedited.
booknooknoggin's review
1.0
EmiTown...No...just no. DNF...this is ridiculous and a waste of paper. Although I could see an art journal/ diary thing being fun but not for public viewing.
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