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geekwayne's review against another edition
5.0
'All The Answers' by Michael Kupperman is a graphic novel memoir about his father Joel Kupperman. It's touching and difficult to read.
Michael Kupperman's father Joel was a child radio star on a show called Quiz Kids. It's something he rarely talks about, and now that he has the beginnings of dementia, Michael wants to know more about this aspect of his life. He pieces things together through the course of the book. Joel's mother was behind his career, which included meeting celebrities and even a movie role, but never really that much money. Joel was forced into staying in the career for far too long, and eventually some people came to hate him. When he escaped that life, he didn't want to talk about it, even though there were really good aspects. As Joel's memory fades, Michael finds that the answers aren't easy or that they can be non-existent.
I really enjoyed the chance to read this. The art is good, and I liked the quotes that start each chapter, many of them about Joel. The story feels a bit detached from it's subjects, and that may be based on the relationship that father and son had with each other. Some readers might find this to give the story a lack of depth, but as |I finished this book and reflected on this aspect, it brings even more tragedy to the story.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Gallery 13, Pocket Books, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Michael Kupperman's father Joel was a child radio star on a show called Quiz Kids. It's something he rarely talks about, and now that he has the beginnings of dementia, Michael wants to know more about this aspect of his life. He pieces things together through the course of the book. Joel's mother was behind his career, which included meeting celebrities and even a movie role, but never really that much money. Joel was forced into staying in the career for far too long, and eventually some people came to hate him. When he escaped that life, he didn't want to talk about it, even though there were really good aspects. As Joel's memory fades, Michael finds that the answers aren't easy or that they can be non-existent.
I really enjoyed the chance to read this. The art is good, and I liked the quotes that start each chapter, many of them about Joel. The story feels a bit detached from it's subjects, and that may be based on the relationship that father and son had with each other. Some readers might find this to give the story a lack of depth, but as |I finished this book and reflected on this aspect, it brings even more tragedy to the story.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Gallery 13, Pocket Books, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
3.0
If you want a book that's like an intellectual version of "Dance Moms," this is your bag.
I'm putting this on my NPR-y bookshelf. That's where comics go that I think appeal to what I call the NPR Comics Audience. Catchy name, right?
Stuff like Maus and Persepolis, of course, but also Tiny by David Small, Chris Ware stuff, Craig Thompson maybe, Chip Zdarsky.
Okay, not Chip Zdarsky. But he's my favorite comics guy, so I try to give him a mention whenever comics come up.
What was that one book...Here? Is that the one where it was like an historical view of one spot and all the shit that happened there? Which turned out to be just about anything historically significant?
Did you like how it was "an" historical view? See, once I'm in NPR mode, no going back.
I'm putting this on my NPR-y bookshelf. That's where comics go that I think appeal to what I call the NPR Comics Audience. Catchy name, right?
Stuff like Maus and Persepolis, of course, but also Tiny by David Small, Chris Ware stuff, Craig Thompson maybe, Chip Zdarsky.
Okay, not Chip Zdarsky. But he's my favorite comics guy, so I try to give him a mention whenever comics come up.
What was that one book...Here? Is that the one where it was like an historical view of one spot and all the shit that happened there? Which turned out to be just about anything historically significant?
Did you like how it was "an" historical view? See, once I'm in NPR mode, no going back.
librarylapin's review against another edition
3.0
This was such a fascinating story. I was so intrigued by what happened to this once famous child prodigy.
ellie_outdoors's review against another edition
5.0
This took about an hour to read. It’s got everything I love in a great comic: fantastic storyline, consistent characters, and convincing artistry. Amazing graphic novel.
mikethepysch's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like it more. I really did. And some of it was interesting, the family dynamic is certainly interesting, but in the end there isn't really a compelling story here..
It feels predictable and, given its topic, it feels like you come out of it a bit disappointed. It doesn't help that the layout has no flow between image and text. They're all separated, which is maybe supposed to be metaphor, but it ends up physically and symbolically disjointing the art from the words, to the point where the art ended up feeling kinda skippable,other than a surface level glance to get a feel for the scene.
It feels predictable and, given its topic, it feels like you come out of it a bit disappointed. It doesn't help that the layout has no flow between image and text. They're all separated, which is maybe supposed to be metaphor, but it ends up physically and symbolically disjointing the art from the words, to the point where the art ended up feeling kinda skippable,other than a surface level glance to get a feel for the scene.
raphaeladidas's review against another edition
3.0
Good, but seemed pretty slight. Probably would have made a better prose book.
driedfrogpills's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fantastic memoir. I was not part of this generation, and knew nothing about Quiz Kids going into this book, but I'm glad I picked it up. This is a poignant reflection on relationships between fathers and their children and on media and what it does to child stars.
The art style in All the Answers is stark and perfect. Even though the book is short, it packs an emotional punch I'm still mulling over.
The art style in All the Answers is stark and perfect. Even though the book is short, it packs an emotional punch I'm still mulling over.
nick_jenkins's review against another edition
4.0
Absolutely fascinating as history, a little by-the-numbers as memoir. In some ways, the book would have been more effective without the frame of a son trying to recover his father's memories--a frame that at times felt almost as if the son/author was losing interest in.
Joel Kupperman would be a terrific subject for a more conventional biography: in addition to his Quiz Kids fame and the cultural import of that career, he had a second career as a successful moral philosopher who--judging by his bibliography--attempted to bring Asian texts into dialogue with the Western tradition. Michael Kupperman nodded at that aspect of his father's life but left it fairly untouched--a puzzling absence given the way he ends the book with explicitly moral questions about duty and interpersonal (particularly familial) obligations.
Michael Kupperman also obscured the fact that his mother had a quite successful academic career, too, and that element--a portrait of an academic marriage and the life and career of Karen Ordahl Kupperman--would be yet another important and interesting facet of a fuller life of Joel.
Joel Kupperman would be a terrific subject for a more conventional biography: in addition to his Quiz Kids fame and the cultural import of that career, he had a second career as a successful moral philosopher who--judging by his bibliography--attempted to bring Asian texts into dialogue with the Western tradition. Michael Kupperman nodded at that aspect of his father's life but left it fairly untouched--a puzzling absence given the way he ends the book with explicitly moral questions about duty and interpersonal (particularly familial) obligations.
Michael Kupperman also obscured the fact that his mother had a quite successful academic career, too, and that element--a portrait of an academic marriage and the life and career of Karen Ordahl Kupperman--would be yet another important and interesting facet of a fuller life of Joel.
mschlat's review against another edition
4.0
Why I picked this up: I had previously read much of Kupperman's silly comics (and loved [b:Snake and Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret|166430|Snake and Bacon's Cartoon Cabaret|Michael Kupperman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348761116l/166430._SX50_.jpg|160714]) and was interested in his turn to nonfiction.
What I thought: Kupperman is telling the tale of his father, Joel Kupperman, and his time as a Quiz Kid (on radio, TV, and the movies) in the 1940's. Or, at least, he's trying to tell the story. His father, for most of his life, never referred to his experiences and actively avoided any attempts to relive them. That compartmentalization and hiddenness bled over into Joel's life so much that Michael often sees his father as an unknowable and uncompassionate figure. And at the time of the graphic novel's writing, Joel is entering dementia. So the thrust of the exploration is not just to tell a good story (and it is a good detailed story) but to determine whether Michael can ever understand his father.
Kupperman's style has always been starkly black and white with a strong emphasis on photorealism. (Think of portraits bleached out to show only the important lines.) That approach works well here, especially with the vast amount of historical images Kupperman displays (e.g., the Quiz Kids doing USO tours, the Quiz Kids meeting celebrities, etc...). And the starkness also plays up the straightforward honesty Michael shows in discussing his father. There is little sugar coating and an increasing sense of Joel's trauma, of the deepening levels of pain and self-abnegation he went through to please his mother, to be a star, to show WWII audiences a cute Jewish kid.
It's a quick read, but an absorbing story, and I cherished how Kupperman probed the need for the undisclosed details of your family history (and whether or not that probing was necessary).
What I thought: Kupperman is telling the tale of his father, Joel Kupperman, and his time as a Quiz Kid (on radio, TV, and the movies) in the 1940's. Or, at least, he's trying to tell the story. His father, for most of his life, never referred to his experiences and actively avoided any attempts to relive them. That compartmentalization and hiddenness bled over into Joel's life so much that Michael often sees his father as an unknowable and uncompassionate figure. And at the time of the graphic novel's writing, Joel is entering dementia. So the thrust of the exploration is not just to tell a good story (and it is a good detailed story) but to determine whether Michael can ever understand his father.
Kupperman's style has always been starkly black and white with a strong emphasis on photorealism. (Think of portraits bleached out to show only the important lines.) That approach works well here, especially with the vast amount of historical images Kupperman displays (e.g., the Quiz Kids doing USO tours, the Quiz Kids meeting celebrities, etc...). And the starkness also plays up the straightforward honesty Michael shows in discussing his father. There is little sugar coating and an increasing sense of Joel's trauma, of the deepening levels of pain and self-abnegation he went through to please his mother, to be a star, to show WWII audiences a cute Jewish kid.
It's a quick read, but an absorbing story, and I cherished how Kupperman probed the need for the undisclosed details of your family history (and whether or not that probing was necessary).
sizrobe's review against another edition
4.0
Somewhat tragic tale of a whiz kid from a child trivia show from wartime radio, leading into television's infancy. The story is told through the viewpoint of his child, who discovers the past via a series of scrapbooks.