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A review by jason_pym
Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot
2.0
Alice in Sunderland is a non-fiction comic that looks at the history of England (and the north east in particular) and how it links to Lewis Carroll's Alice books.
I love the way the book rambles, covering all kinds of tangential connections and faint influences on Carroll, and lots of references from Alice. Talbot has found lots of interesting stuff, and this would have made a great text-only book, but....
Visually, I found the book an irritating mess, which is a real shame. The worst offender are the photographs, most of which have been run through a photoshop filter to look vaguely like pastel paintings, but the effect is tacky. And annoying, because it would be great to have the detail of the original images.
The characters he uses to tell the story, Sid James, the thespian and the pleb at the Sunderland Empire, did nothing for me either.
Pity, I was looking forward to this.
I love the way the book rambles, covering all kinds of tangential connections and faint influences on Carroll, and lots of references from Alice. Talbot has found lots of interesting stuff, and this would have made a great text-only book, but....
Visually, I found the book an irritating mess, which is a real shame. The worst offender are the photographs, most of which have been run through a photoshop filter to look vaguely like pastel paintings, but the effect is tacky. And annoying, because it would be great to have the detail of the original images.
The characters he uses to tell the story, Sid James, the thespian and the pleb at the Sunderland Empire, did nothing for me either.
Pity, I was looking forward to this.