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A review by meepelous
Aaron and Ahmed by Jay Cantor, James Romberger
4.0
Another fiction book that read like nonfiction. My biggest complaint about this book is that it leaned too far towards the preaching to the choir side of things. If you believe the kinds of things that this book is espousing you will like it; if you don't, or just have no clue what they are talking about it, you will not really learn anything by reading this book. I am sort of stuck in the middle on this one so I feel pretty inspired to look into it more, but there wasn't even a suggested reading list at the end so I will probably never get around to doing more research into this subject because I will procrastinate and forget.
As far as the art goes, it had a pretty classic feel for the Vertigo titles I've read. Lost of expressive lines, which sometimes ends up looking a bit messy. The color pallet is pretty expressive, changing with the moods and setting of the scenes. The page layout varied every few pages but wasn't hard to follow. The art was just weird enough to reflect the convoluted nature of the story without rendering everything a jumbled mess.
As far as writing goes, I was expecting weird going in, but it still managed to weird me out. It's a heavy book with a million and a half different ideas interwoven with each other, but the plot is still pretty fast paced. So even if you don't understand everything they are talking about (like me) you will probably feel yourself being sucked in. As I mentioned at the start of the review, this comic definitly felt like it was preaching to the choir. So if you are in any way shape or form pro torture/GITMO you will probably not like this book.
Otherwise this book is fairly even toned. While they are looking at the "source of terrorism" Canton also turns his critical eye on the USA and their own policies. So the contrast in the novel is less east vs west and more love vs war. As the subtitle suggests, the main characters do move through a relationship that in someways could be termed romantic, but the book is more interested in looking at the basic human need for connection whether that be in familial, religious or patriotic senses.
As far as the art goes, it had a pretty classic feel for the Vertigo titles I've read. Lost of expressive lines, which sometimes ends up looking a bit messy. The color pallet is pretty expressive, changing with the moods and setting of the scenes. The page layout varied every few pages but wasn't hard to follow. The art was just weird enough to reflect the convoluted nature of the story without rendering everything a jumbled mess.
As far as writing goes, I was expecting weird going in, but it still managed to weird me out. It's a heavy book with a million and a half different ideas interwoven with each other, but the plot is still pretty fast paced. So even if you don't understand everything they are talking about (like me) you will probably feel yourself being sucked in. As I mentioned at the start of the review, this comic definitly felt like it was preaching to the choir. So if you are in any way shape or form pro torture/GITMO you will probably not like this book.
Otherwise this book is fairly even toned. While they are looking at the "source of terrorism" Canton also turns his critical eye on the USA and their own policies. So the contrast in the novel is less east vs west and more love vs war. As the subtitle suggests, the main characters do move through a relationship that in someways could be termed romantic, but the book is more interested in looking at the basic human need for connection whether that be in familial, religious or patriotic senses.