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viperbrowncoat's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
4.0
Truly a book unlike any other.
neilsarver's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this and will find a good place for it on a my shelf to refer back to it.
Now, I don't buy the author's essential conceit that this ever could have been made. I think the notion that Irving Thalberg would have championed this pitch and made it as one of those expensive MGM Marx Brothers movies is as ridiculous as a Marx Brothers story. If it was what he needed to give himself a opening to develop it, I understand, and it's worth it. And [a:Harpo|19895|Harpo Marx|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1469289317p2/19895.jpg] with all of this dialog? I'm sure something like that was [a:Dalí|165858|Salvador Dalí|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218295974p2/165858.jpg]'s intent, but I'm not sure he would have done it, even less that the other brother's would have accepted him receiving this kind of role.
So, for me, it works best as a kind of fantasy.
(Although if I picture it as a sixth Paramount Marx Brothers movie with Jimmy being played by [a:Zeppo|8152573|Zeppo Marx|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] in his real world form, it might come close in close to working... close.)
While reading it, though, I couldn't stop thinking how much this needs to be an animated movie. The snappy dialog that sometimes works, sometimes struggles on the graphic novel page could really pop. The surreal events, so wonderfully visualized by [a:Manuela Pertega|18112583|Manuela Pertega|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], would be absolutely incredible. Just take the rails off and imagine the limits of what a Marx Brothers and a Dalí movie could be without trying to keep them anywhere near the limits of what could have happened... mind you, the book does do that, whether it quite intends to or not.
Although, the anachronisms, meta references and comments for a present day audience don't work at all. That would be my exception to taking the rails off. I suppose not in that they couldn't work, just that they most definitely do not.
As a whole, the graphic novel feels half-realized to me, like one more piece in a puzzle rather than a complete work.
The full four-stars I'm giving it is because it's a helluva thing to even half-realize. It's a terrific story with funny gags and ending that feels good in a Hollywood movie way and an anarchic Marx way as well, which is very satisfying on the whole.
Now, I don't buy the author's essential conceit that this ever could have been made. I think the notion that Irving Thalberg would have championed this pitch and made it as one of those expensive MGM Marx Brothers movies is as ridiculous as a Marx Brothers story. If it was what he needed to give himself a opening to develop it, I understand, and it's worth it. And [a:Harpo|19895|Harpo Marx|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1469289317p2/19895.jpg] with all of this dialog? I'm sure something like that was [a:Dalí|165858|Salvador Dalí|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218295974p2/165858.jpg]'s intent, but I'm not sure he would have done it, even less that the other brother's would have accepted him receiving this kind of role.
So, for me, it works best as a kind of fantasy.
(Although if I picture it as a sixth Paramount Marx Brothers movie with Jimmy being played by [a:Zeppo|8152573|Zeppo Marx|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] in his real world form, it might come close in close to working... close.)
While reading it, though, I couldn't stop thinking how much this needs to be an animated movie. The snappy dialog that sometimes works, sometimes struggles on the graphic novel page could really pop. The surreal events, so wonderfully visualized by [a:Manuela Pertega|18112583|Manuela Pertega|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], would be absolutely incredible. Just take the rails off and imagine the limits of what a Marx Brothers and a Dalí movie could be without trying to keep them anywhere near the limits of what could have happened... mind you, the book does do that, whether it quite intends to or not.
Although, the anachronisms, meta references and comments for a present day audience don't work at all. That would be my exception to taking the rails off. I suppose not in that they couldn't work, just that they most definitely do not.
As a whole, the graphic novel feels half-realized to me, like one more piece in a puzzle rather than a complete work.
The full four-stars I'm giving it is because it's a helluva thing to even half-realize. It's a terrific story with funny gags and ending that feels good in a Hollywood movie way and an anarchic Marx way as well, which is very satisfying on the whole.
gjmaupin's review against another edition
4.0
FAScinating. The story behind it, which is printed in front of it (of which I knew little & always longed for more, which I got shortly), and Pertega’s art in particular. Groucho was right - “It wouldn’t play” - but it’s something else presented like this.
wildgurl's review against another edition
4.0
Giraffes On Horseback Salad
by Josh Frank
2019
Quirk
4.0 / 5.0
What a colorful imagination!!
A lost Marx Bros. film, written by Salvador Dali. He has been friends with Harpo for awhile. Offered to MGM Studios, they rejected the script. It has been thought lost and was forgotten. Author and "lost-film fan", Josh Frank found the original script, along with Dali's notes and sketches in a museum archive.
The story is about a business man, Jimmy ( played by Harpo) who is attracted to a mysterious female, known as the Surrealist Women. Groucho and Chico help Jimmy try to tap into her surreal world.
Amazing surreal graphics, imaginative and witty.
by Josh Frank
2019
Quirk
4.0 / 5.0
What a colorful imagination!!
A lost Marx Bros. film, written by Salvador Dali. He has been friends with Harpo for awhile. Offered to MGM Studios, they rejected the script. It has been thought lost and was forgotten. Author and "lost-film fan", Josh Frank found the original script, along with Dali's notes and sketches in a museum archive.
The story is about a business man, Jimmy ( played by Harpo) who is attracted to a mysterious female, known as the Surrealist Women. Groucho and Chico help Jimmy try to tap into her surreal world.
Amazing surreal graphics, imaginative and witty.
dave_ex_machina's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
3.75
The conciet of this book is amazing, and an absolute must for any marx bros hardcore fan (which I am), that being said the adaptation took some odd liberties despite the author declaring in the forward that he wanted too keep.it as close tonwhat could have been as possible, such as a weird jokeabout pagers in the '80s and sevwral recycled gags.
laurensands's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the trial scene and little nods to catchphrases and other references to the movies.
librarianjennifer's review against another edition
4.0
This book/graphic novel/movie treatment is exactly as advertised - the film Dali and the Marx Brothers never got to make!
Funny, surreal, and well-researched.
Funny, surreal, and well-researched.
panelparty's review
3.0
The three stars are mainly for the gorgeous art - I found this story utterly unfollowable, though it does click in places. I get that it's meant to be surreal and abstract but mostly I just found myself dying to finish it. The fact that it took nearly 3 weeks to read a 200 page graphic novel is telling!