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pdz's review
3.0
Eddie Campbell's pseudo-autobiography. Full of different types of graphic novel - comic -type stuff: real pictures of his daughter with word bubbles, fake newspaper strips, watercolors with drawings paper clipped to them. Regular typed prose.
The premise is that this autobiography contains no appearance of the author himself. It's kind of like Hemingway's TRUE short stories, I suppose. Half way through it I was pretty enamored with the book, but at the end the momentum of the thing kind of got lost. I think that's not a fault of the story telling or of the drawing, though. I think Campbell was going for that kind of meandering mundane sort of narrative.
It was good. Three stars instead of 4 or 5 simply because the genre and narrative I didn't find that gripping, but I don't think I was the target audience. It's definitely worth reading if you like odd graphic novels.
The premise is that this autobiography contains no appearance of the author himself. It's kind of like Hemingway's TRUE short stories, I suppose. Half way through it I was pretty enamored with the book, but at the end the momentum of the thing kind of got lost. I think that's not a fault of the story telling or of the drawing, though. I think Campbell was going for that kind of meandering mundane sort of narrative.
It was good. Three stars instead of 4 or 5 simply because the genre and narrative I didn't find that gripping, but I don't think I was the target audience. It's definitely worth reading if you like odd graphic novels.
arafat's review
3.0
Plenty of great sketches, a sort of comic bricolage. Good humor, too. In general, explores the question of "being-in-the-world" for artists (are they necessarily messy and irresponsible in life?), using the autobiographical story of the author/artist's own mysterious disappearence. Quite enjoyable.
plaidbrarian's review
4.0
Quite good, but defies most conventional explanations. The best I can come up with is "a sort of semi-autobiographical Griffin & Sabine-ish story in mostly-comics form." A bit unwieldy, perhaps, but as accurate as I can get. The mixing of styles - prose, traditional comics, newspaper strips, a bit of fumetti - may be jarring for some, but the end result is a very nice package. The story might not light your world on fire, but the experiment itself very well may.
buzzgirl's review
4.0
The world’s greatest graphic novelist is a Queenslander – via his native Scotland – and this book in which he investigates his own mysterious disappearance is a masterpiece about art, creation, and the dubious business of story-robbing one’s own life and loved ones in the name of storytelling.
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