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A review by demy_giant
Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography by Chester Brown
Am I crazy about this? Not really. But I had fun while reading it.
As a comic, the novel adheres strictly to a 6-panel-per-page format that feels comforting (almost boring), but the content within is anything but. The form imposes a symmetry while the representational strategies diverge asymmetrically. Despite the black and white print of the novel, most of the characters, the story, and the moral are greyer than grey. The formal symmetry couches the narrative at a critical distance away from Louis Riel as an affective character, while the asymmetry of light and dark demystifies him but never humanizes him. This dialectic energy creates a special reflective engagement between the reader and Louis Riel's narrative. We never quite get a hold of his interiority or "true self." The flatness (I don't mean it as a dig) of both his character and the art style does not satisfy any curiosities about figuring out Louis Riel as a Human Being. He remains a portrait framed within Canadian history. A historical figure rather than a person.
As a comic, the novel adheres strictly to a 6-panel-per-page format that feels comforting (almost boring), but the content within is anything but. The form imposes a symmetry while the representational strategies diverge asymmetrically. Despite the black and white print of the novel, most of the characters, the story, and the moral are greyer than grey. The formal symmetry couches the narrative at a critical distance away from Louis Riel as an affective character, while the asymmetry of light and dark demystifies him but never humanizes him. This dialectic energy creates a special reflective engagement between the reader and Louis Riel's narrative. We never quite get a hold of his interiority or "true self." The flatness (I don't mean it as a dig) of both his character and the art style does not satisfy any curiosities about figuring out Louis Riel as a Human Being. He remains a portrait framed within Canadian history. A historical figure rather than a person.