La suite de “Marius” est aussi merveilleuse en format bédé que dans les autres médias, et j’ai passé un beau vendredi après-midi ensoBilingual review!
La suite de “Marius” est aussi merveilleuse en format bédé que dans les autres médias, et j’ai passé un beau vendredi après-midi ensoleillé sur mon balcon à la feuilleter. Le même artiste qui a donné vie à l’œuvre de Pagnol via ces illustrations a fait un travail remarquable avec cet épisode de la « Trilogie Marseillaise » qui se tourne vers la petite vendeuse de coquillages en peine d’amour, qui cache un océan de courage sous son aspect si sage.
Marius est parti. César est misérable et furieux, et fait passer ces émotions sur tout le monde. Fanny est silencieuse et inconsolable, mais sa mère espère qu’avec le temps, elle se remettra assez pour accepter la demande en mariage de Panisse. Mais quand elle réalise qu’elle porte le bébé de Marius, Fanny se retrouve forcée à choisir entre sa loyauté envers l’homme qu’elle aime et la réputation et l’honneur de sa famille.
Ça peut sembler inconcevable pour quelqu’un qui lit cette histoire aujourd’hui qu’on fasse autant de drame au sujet d’une fille de la classe ouvrière qui a un bébé en dehors du mariage, mais dans les années 30, la pression sociale et religieuse que les femmes subissait était sévère et sans pitié. Les conséquences de cette grossesse non-planifiée aurait pu faire prendre au comptoir de poissonnerie de la famille toute leur clientèle, aurait pu la forcer à déménager là où personne n’aurait pu ête témoins de sa honte… Lire cette histoire avec des yeux modernes peut facilement rendre furieux, rien qu’à penser à la police de la moralité qui se donnait le droit de juger ainsi la sexualité des femmes, mais je n’irais pas plus loin dans ce sujet… Ce qui est remarquable dans cette histoire, c’est que l’instinct premier de Fanny n’est pas de se cacher ou de prétendre que son bébé est l’enfant de quelqu’un d’autre: elle veut avoir son bébé et attendre le retour de Marius, ce qui aurait exigé une grande bravoure d’une jeune femme à cette époque. Ce n’est, évidemment, pas comme cela que l’histoire se déroule, et Fanny prendra une décision qui va changer sa vie et le futur de la petite vie pour laquelle elle est maintenant responsable.
La seule petite critique que j’ai à faire est qu’un morceau de dialogue a été coupé d’une scène cruciale, qui est un des moments les plus émouvant dans le film, et j’ai été déçue de ne pas le voir sur la page. Mais c’est vraiment une critique de rien du tout venant de quelqu’un qui a lu la pièce et écouté le film beaucoup trop souvent, et ceci n’affectera en rien votre plaisir de lecture si vous en faites l’expérience pour la première fois.
Le dernier volume de la trilogie devrait arriver à ma librairie locale cette semaine et j’attends leur coup de fil avec impatience! Si vous avez accès à ces magnifiques livres, ils sont une magnifique façon de découvrir les histoires de Pagnol! Je recommande particulièrement cette trilogie ainsi que “La Gloire de Mon Père” et “Le Château de ma Mère”.
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The sequel to “Marius” is just as wonderful in graphic novel format as it is in other mediums, and I spent a lovely sunny Friday afternoon reading it on my balcony. The same artist who had been bringing the rest of Pagnol’s oeuvre to life with his illustrations did an amazing job with the episode of the “Trilogie Marseillaise” that focuses on the love-sick seashell girl who hides oceans of strength under her otherwise quiet demeanor.
Marius is gone. César is miserable and furious, and he takes it out on everyone. Fanny is quietly inconsolable, but her mother hopes that a little time will help her recover enough to accept Panisse’s proposal. But when she realizes she is pregnant with Marius’ baby, Fanny finds herself having to make an impossible choice between loyalty to the man she loves and her family’s reputation and honor.
It can seem inconceivable to anyone reading this story today that people would make such a big fuss about a working-class girl having a baby out of wedlock, but in the 1930s, the social and religious pressures women had to face were severe and unforgiving. The consequences of this unplanned pregnancy could have lost her family’s fish-stall all their clients, forced her to move some place no one could have witnessed her ‘shame’… Reading a story like this with modern eyes can make you furious about the morality police who felt it was their place to judge women’s sexuality, but I’m not going to get too carried away here… The point is that in this story, Fanny’s first impulse is not to hide or try to pass off her child as another man’s: what she wants is to have the baby and wait for Marius to return, something that would have taken incredible bravery for a young woman to do at that time. But this is of course, not how the story goes, and she makes a decision that will change her life for the sake of the small life she is now responsible for.
The one bone I have to pick here is that some dialogue of a crucial scene was cut, and it’s one of the movie’s most moving moments, and I was a little disappointed not to see it on the page. But really this is a tiny nit-picking from someone who has read the source material and watched the movies way too often, and will in no way mar the enjoyment of someone who is coming to this story with fresh eyes.
The final book of the trilogy should arrive at my local bookseller soon and I can’t wait! If you have access to these beautiful books, they are a wonderful way to get introduced to Pagnol’s work! I especially recommend this trilogy and “La Gloire de Mon Père” and “Le Château de ma Mère”....more
Dual-language review, as I am fairly certain that non-French readers may not be interested in/have access to these graphic novels. I previously publisDual-language review, as I am fairly certain that non-French readers may not be interested in/have access to these graphic novels. I previously published this review under volume 1 and 2 of this graphic novel, which has now been printed as an omnibus edition)
Quatre ans ont passés depuis que j’ai trouvé en librairie la première bédé adaptée de l’oeuvre de Pagnol (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). Depuis, la collection a vraiment explosée, et j’ai fait le bonheur de ma librairie locale en commandant une grosse pile de titres il y a quelques semaines.
Je connais probablement le texte de “Marius” (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) par coeur. J’ai lu la pièce une douzaine de fois et je ne compte plus les visionements du film réalisé par Alexander Korda (et plus récement, la belle version signée Daniel Auteuil – il n’est pas Raimu, mais il adore tellement l’oeuvre qu’on s’en fout pas mal). Mais le plaisir de visiter de nouvelles interprétations est quand même très présent. Je dirais même que de toutes les bédés de cette collection, à date, “Marius” est probablement mon préféré.
Le texte, écrit pour le théâtre, se traduit très bien en format de bande dessinée, et le petit texte en annexe témoigne du travail qui a été fait pour tenter de récréer le plus fidèlement possible le Vieux-Port de Marseille avant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, qui a défigurée une bonne partie du quartier ou se situe l’action. Les personnages ne ressemblent en rien à la distribution des films, ce qui est parfait: autant qu’on puisse adorer Pierre Fresnay et Orane Demazis dans les rôles principaux, ça ne servirait à rien d’essayer de capturer leur jeu sur la page. Sébastien Morice a donné aux personnages des visages nouveaux, mais fidèles à l’esprit de l’histoire que Pagnol imaginait lorsqu’il vivait à Paris et souffrait d’un grand mal du pays. J’adore également les petits clins d’oeil aux autres livres, films et pieces qui sont cachés dans les arrière-plans!
Bref, si vous aimez Pagnol, cette collection est un trésor et “Marius” en est le plus magnifique épisode.
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It’s been four years since I found the first graphic novel adaptation of Pagnol’s work in a bookstore. Since then, the collection has exploded, and I made my local book-seller really happy by ordering a huge pile a few weeks ago.
I probably know “Marius” by heart. I read the play at least a dozen times, and I can’t count how many times I’ve watched the classic Alexander Korda-directed movie (and more recently, the Daniel Auteuil adaptation – he’s not Raimu, but he loves the material so much that no one cares). It’s still an absolute pleasure to look at new interpretations. I would even say that of all the graphic novels in this collection to date, “Marius” is my favorite.
The text was written for the stage, and it lends itself very well to the graphic novel format, with a little annex discussing how much work went into faithfully recreating the Old Port of Marseille before World War II, as the bombings destroyed most of the neighborhood in which the story is set. The characters look nothing like the cast of the movies, which is perfect: you can love Pierre Fresnay and Orane Demazis in the main roles, but it would be silly to try to capture their performance on the page. Sébastien Morice gave the characters new faces, but kept them faithful to the spirit of the story Pagnol dreamt of when he was living in Paris and suffering from great homesickness. I also love the little references to other books, movies and plays that are scattered in the backgrounds!
In short, if you like Pagnol, this graphic novel collection is a treasure and “Marius” is its most magnificent instalment. ...more
When I was little, my mother had a beautiful edition of the “1,001 Nights” with lovely illustrations, and I spent hours leafing through it. I loved thWhen I was little, my mother had a beautiful edition of the “1,001 Nights” with lovely illustrations, and I spent hours leafing through it. I loved the completely exotic (to me, at least) settings, but mostly the fact that magic, gods, demons and other supernatural creatures seemed to be just as much a part of the normal life of the characters as did eating and working. “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi” took me right back to that kind of story, one where the line between the mundane and the fantastic is quite thin.
Set in the 12th century, all around the Indian Ocean, this is the story of a middle-aged pirate of some notoriety who is forced out of her peaceful retirement when the mother of a former crew member comes to see her: her grand-daughter is missing and she believes she was taken by a man from the West and she wants Amina to get her back. That seems simple enough, and Amina feels like she owes this favor in memory of her former crew member, but she soon realizes that there is more to the story than she was told at first. The man who allegedly abducted the young girl is looking for a powerful magical relic, and Amina will need more help than she expected in order to fulfill her mission.
This was just so much fun. Well written, fast-paced, funny and evocative, I was always looking forward to the next chapter in this wild travelogue and grumbled every time I had to put it down to go to work. Amina is such a lovely character, well-developed and easy to root for. I am also always on board for a fantasy novel that doesn’t center itself around young and impossibly beautiful and perfect characters: I like a dose of realism and grit in my escapism, something I can relate to, and a female character in her forties who likes men, who is a strong leader of her crew and who had her heart in the right place feels both refreshing and engaging.
I am also quite impressed with the amount of research that clearly went into this book: the cities and societies we visit through its pages are described and explained in a way that isn’t ponderous but gives you a strong feeling of time and place. That said, this definitely falls into the cozier side of the fantasy spectrum, because things are often just… nice? Perhaps there is a touch of presentism there, but I feel like that place, at that time, would have been a lot harsher than the world we find in this book. I don’t mind a break from the grimdark type of fantasy, but I find a lot of those characters incongruously open-minded and accepting of certain things (open queerness, for instance) given the setting, but I also don’t think that it’s being annoyingly preachy; it’s simply trying to normalize a few things that feel awkwardly anachronistic – which I decided to forgive, given the ‘fantasy’ label. I too, fantasize about a slightly kinder world than the real one, after all.
If you like a good swashbuckling roller coaster and get queasy when things are too gory, this is a fantastic little nautical adventure that reminded me of Sindbad’s journeys. I understand two more books are planned in this universe: here goes another book I thought was a stand-alone and is being turned into a series! Oh well, I look forward to another fabulous travel with Amina and her crew!
I had been eying this book for some time now, and when I was on vacation, I saw it in two different indie bookstores I visited, so I ended up getting myself a copy at the lovely Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport, NY (https://www.liftbridgebooks.com/). Check it out if you are in the area, that place is a little gem!...more
Obviously, I couldn’t go on vacation without throwing at least one book by T. Kingfisher on my vacation read pile, and since I am a completist at hearObviously, I couldn’t go on vacation without throwing at least one book by T. Kingfisher on my vacation read pile, and since I am a completist at heart, the first one I thought of was the last book from the White Rat universe I still hadn’t gotten around to, “Swordheart”. I had avoided that one because the summary seemed to indicate it leaned further into the romance aspect than the other books she wrote which are set in this universe, but hey, I was going to be chilling by the lake with a glass of wine, a little romantic crap won’t hurt.
Well, first off, the summary mislead me: this is as much a romance as any of the “Saints of Steel” books, so yeah, it’s a central element, but the setting and the characters are so strong and interesting that the romance never feels silly or forced or unrealistic.
Halla is a middle-aged widow and has been taking care of her ailing uncle (by marriage) for years, and when he dies, he leaves his estate to her instead of leaving it to his other relatives, who are not too happy about that. They lock Halla up and plan to force her to marry her late husband’s brother in order to keep the house and the money in the family. Finding no solution to this situation, she takes a old sword her late uncle had hung up on a wall of her bedroom, with the intention to kill herself. But when she pulls the blade out, a man appears out of thin air. Apparently, the sword was enchanted with a guardian, and the act of wielding the sword means Halla is now the person he must serve and protect…
Halla can certainly be annoying and comes across as dim-witted because she is sheltered and inexperiened, but she’s a lot smarter than she lets on, and for very good reason. Kingfisher is very insightful, and I love the way she managed to write about the way women have to develop weird coping mechanisms in order to not be killed and/or rapped – even in a fantasy universe as cozy as hers. Her dynamic with Sarkis, who has the mercenary with a heart of gold thing down to an art, is hilarious and eventually really tender. I know it’s fluffy as fuck, but I did enjoy how they are better working together than apart because their strengths compliment each other and all that pap. It's cute and wholesome.
I was also quite happy to see Brindle the gnole again, and I was glad he had an ox to take care of (that gnole loves his ox), and Zale is a perfect example of why I love the Temple of the White Rat so much: help people and get things done should be the motto of any religious institution worth it’s salt. And the not-possessed-but-definitely-not-normal bird deserves a special mention as the weirdest pet I ever read about.
This is a Kingfisher book, so it’s funny and inventive, her characters are awkward and realistic, her world-building is a great riff on the usual fantasy tropes, managing to be both familiar are alien at the same time – and like her other “White Rat” books, reading it felt like drinking a lovely mug of hot chocolate with plenty of marshmallows. Also, I want to go live there: there are jerks, but it seems like a generally great place to live.
Don’t skip this one if you love this woman’s work: it deserves a space on your cozy but smart fantasy shelf!...more
This was the book that got my friend Erika hooked on T. Kingfisher, and she is the one who got me reading the “Saints of Steel” novels, so I felt likeThis was the book that got my friend Erika hooked on T. Kingfisher, and she is the one who got me reading the “Saints of Steel” novels, so I felt like I should check it out, as this is basically patient zero of this cozy fantasy epidemic I have been spreading all year. Now a word of warning: this is definitely more of a YA novel than the other Kingfisher works I have been reading and reviewing! But it’s still loads of fun, completely original and features a plucky heroine who has no idea what she’s doing, but she’s going to do her best!
Mona works in her aunt’s bakery as an apprentice, but she is not an ordinary baker: she is a magician, and she can do some very unusual things with dough! Nothing she considers to be especially remarkable, but it certainly makes her work more interesting. Until the morning when she finds a dead body in the bakery, of course. Too much summary would spoil this very fun little book, so I won’t go into details, but sufficed to say that Mona will uncover a conspiracy festering at the heart of her city-state and will have to be inventive and brave to save herself and those she loves.
Mona is a fantastic heroine, very aware that she is 14 and that none of this is supposed to be happening to her and that she has to do this because grown ups have failed – and I loved her so much. I also envy her relationship with her sourdough starter, Bob, because I was never an ambitious enough baker to go near sourdough – even after years of making my own no-knead bread at home.
This is a fun little romp, but I do prefer Kingfisher’s work aimed at so-called grown-ups. However, her ideas, humor and insight is present in every page, and it’s well-worth checking out if you enjoy her work....more
Early this year, I got a nasty cold and spent a couple of days on the couch in a NyQuil haze. This seemed like a good time to my severely addled brainEarly this year, I got a nasty cold and spent a couple of days on the couch in a NyQuil haze. This seemed like a good time to my severely addled brain to watch "Elvis" and "Priscilla" back-to-back. Both are incredible, albeit wildly different works of art. The first is bombastic, loud, glittery, and borderline hallucinogenic (or maybe that was the cold medicine) and the second is quiet, subdued and elegant. I don’t have a favorite, in case you are wondering: I never thought of those movies as competing to tell the same story, that’s really not what’s going on here. But "Priscilla" made me very curious about the book it was based on, Priscilla Beaulieu Prestley’s memoirs of meeting, falling in love with and living with Elvis. I wanted to see what Sofia Coppola had not put on the screen.
I want to clarify that while I really enjoy a lot of his music, I am a very moderate Elvis fan. His musical legacy is massive, but it’s also complicated, so I enjoy his work, but I never really idolized him.
While I read this book, I kept thinking: "poor, sweet little Cilla…"
The term ‘grooming’ is kind of weird, isn’t it? English is not my first language, and the first time I heard it, I thought of the lovely lady who used to trim my long-haired cat’s fur into a lion cut every summer. That’s not what it means, of course: it means to subtly (or overtly, in some cases) manipulate a generally young and inexperienced person into an idealized partner, the implication being that they don’t know any better, which puts them in a position where they are almost always being taken advantage of, if not simply abused. I thought about that term a lot while reading this, because dang! What Elvis did here is kind of textbook…
Priscilla was 14 years old when she first met Elvis. I tried to remember what I was like at 14, and I admit that’s far enough to be quite fuzzy now. I know I would have loved the attention, especially if it came from the biggest heartthrob of my generation. But even at that age, a ten-year difference would have felt like a lot… And while she insists, repeatedly, that Elvis was always nothing but a gentleman to her, that nothing he ever did was weird or perverted and that they didn’t have penetrative sex until they were married… she also often says that he taught her how to dress, how to do her hair and make up, how to keep house, and shared his drugs with her very liberally. I believe her when she says that he would never have hurt her or let anything bad happen to her, but at the same time, what he did was still manipulative and controlling. He didn’t like it when she talked back, when she behaved (in his words) like a man, by being strong and fighting back, he didn’t want her to go to college or get a job. Poor Cilla basically had to divorce him to have the space and the freedom to discover who she was, and I can’t help but find that tragic.
The book is strangely paced: they only get married in the second half of the book, and while they weren’t married very long, it still feels uneven. Priscilla loved Elvis with her whole heart (and probably still does) and she clearly wants to keep all her memories of him good, and that’s the way she spins – consciously or not. I don’t not get it; it must be difficult to think of such a major part of your life having been abusive. But from an outsider’s perspective, there is something off about what she thinks of as a great love story.
That said, her writing is sweet, if not terribly sophisticated, and while I often felt sad for how isolated she was during her years in Graceland, I also enjoyed learning what it was like living at the heart of this almost legendary place. It’s a shame that Elvis kept her so sheltered, because I think he might have been impressed with the woman she became....more
I’m not sure how this novella by Kealan Patrick Burke slipped under my radar, but ‘better late than never’ will be my epitaph, as I am constantly catcI’m not sure how this novella by Kealan Patrick Burke slipped under my radar, but ‘better late than never’ will be my epitaph, as I am constantly catching up! I have been a fan of Burke’s work for a long time; he is an amazing storyteller, he really knows how to find the horror in the mundane and grief is a theme he has explored often, with chilling results.
Mark’s grandmother passed away, and between this lost and the realization that the girl he loves will never love him back, he decides he is done with this small town and needs to move on. He decides that spending the evening alone at home after his grandmother’s funeral is a bad call, so he decides to go into work, as a bartender at a seaside resort past his prime. An epic snowstorm rolls into town, and while the guests and staff start going home, those who stay behind are surprised to welcome a last-minute group reservation…
Sure, Burke spends some time setting up the story, and maybe a few details could have been dropped, but once it gets going… If you’ve read other works by Burke before, you know he cranks up tension and horror elements very skillfully. I think he is also especially good a shorter form stories, and this novella is perfectly sized for an evening – though I would recommend reading it in summer…
As is often the case with him, Burke wraps up his story with a strange and unsettling twist. While this novella may not be his best work, it would be a wonderful introduction if you’ve never read his stories before, and if you have enjoyed his twisted imagination in the past, don’t miss this one!...more
I’m going to start this review with a PSA: if you are going to read the “Clocktaur War” books, do yourself a favor and just read them back-to-back: thI’m going to start this review with a PSA: if you are going to read the “Clocktaur War” books, do yourself a favor and just read them back-to-back: they are both pretty short, and feel more like a novel cleaved in half than like two separate books.
“The Wonder Engines” picks up immediately where “The Clockwork Boys” left off, so I am going to be very brief here, as I don’t want to give away too much. Sufficed to say, our little bunch of miscreants is back and ready to try and fight the clocktaurs! This book is where the action really ramps up, which is another great reason to read both books from this duology as close together as possible.
Our bunch of misfit adventurers finally arrive at Anuket City, after a rather harrowing journey, but they don’t really get much of a break before they have to face the real enemy they have been sent to defeat.
The relationship between Slate and Caliban is, in trademark Kingfisher fashion, a sweet and awkward courtship dance between two damaged people who don’t think of themselves as someone anyone would want to be with but find comfort in each other. I have never been great at noticing it when people flirt with me, but even I know that when a guy consistently has hankies for you when you have allergies, he definitely cares. A lot.
I would say that I liked this book a tiny bit more than the first simply because I was now familiar enough with the characters and the set-up that I could really just kick back and enjoy. Even Learned Edmund, despite his many, many faults, was now someone I looked forward to reading about every time I picked up the book. Their dynamic is great, complex and engaging - and Kingfisher doesn't rely on the easy or cliché to define them, which is wonderful.
Kingfisher has become my go-to when I need something fun and comforting, and I get the feeling that I will be revisiting her “World of the White Rat” novels when I need something warm and fuzzy and smart to read. I must say I prefer the “Saint of Steel” books because they are longer and have more breathing room for plot and character development. These books were fun, but they would have been even better with an extra hundred page each, to flesh out the story even more. All the elements that make the “World of the White Rat” universe wonderful are here, these just feel a bit rushed. If she sees fit to write more books set in this universe, I will cheerfully throw money at her.
Not to be missed if you want something cozy and clever....more
Nathan Ballingrud is a writer I have been keeping on my radar since I devoured his short story collection “North American Lake Monsters” a few years aNathan Ballingrud is a writer I have been keeping on my radar since I devoured his short story collection “North American Lake Monsters” a few years ago, and he has never let me down. I was very intrigued by the premise of his new novella, since he has shown with “The Strange” that he writes very interesting what I can only label as ‘weird sci-fi’. This one feels rather more Gothic than his Mars novel, but he obviously finds space eerie, and I am here for it.
The story is set in an alternate 1923, which includes not only space exploration by humans, but also a moon that is nothing like the one we know. On this moon, there are forests, and a very exclusive sanatorium a woman named Veronica is committed to by her husband. She suffers from melancholia, and the doctors who run this institution are reputed to be the best at treating such an ailment. But when she gets there, her room is hardly different from a jail cell, and the treatments are not what she expected at all.
At just about one hundred pages, this little novella can be gobbled up in one or two sittings, and carries Ballingrud’s trademark prose, which manages to be both strong and evocative, and his atmospheric and unsettling settings I love so much. Through the bizarre setting and unnerving events, there is a very interesting reflection about bodily autonomy and how violent the act of taking someone’s voice away actually is.
Despite the title, the spiders are not the scariest bit of this story. We learn early on that a huge spider once dwelt on the moon, and that its silk has medicinal property the sanatorium’s doctor is using on his patients’ brains – but the spider is said to be dead. The real terror dwells in Veronica’s isolation and helplessness when she is dropped in a place she is unfamiliar with, and tries to figure out what the true purpose of not only the institution she is clearly a prisoner in, but also why her presence seems to matter so much to those already there, especially a group of Scholars who are closely involved with the ‘treatments’ given to patients.
This story has a very fever-dream quality to it, and I have grown to appreciate books in which the author doesn’t give the readers all the answers and explanation. I like to understand what I am reading, but sometimes, the purpose is simply to make you feel the way a writer imagines their characters would feel, and this is where Ballingrud absolutely succeeds with “Crypt of the Moon Spider”. I see that he means for this to be a trilogy, and I am looking forward to see what else is going on with the moon Ballingrud has imagined.
Especially recommended for fans of psychological horror and anyone who likes weird stories that keep your brain churning. Watch out, however, if you don’t like body horror, because there is quite a lot of that here. Weird and haunting, which is Ballingrud at his best....more
A friend encouraged me to watch the tv series “The Boys”, knowing my love for the darker type of superhero comics, like “Watchmen” and “Doom Patrol” .A friend encouraged me to watch the tv series “The Boys”, knowing my love for the darker type of superhero comics, like “Watchmen” and “Doom Patrol” . I was about two episodes in when I clocked that this just had to have been a graphic novel before it was a tv show, and a few clicks confirmed that my suspicions were correct. Of course it’s a Garth Ennis graphic novel, too! With the gore and the language, I feel like I should have expected that! I got a copy of the first volume after wrapping up the first season (I am now officially all caught up!).
In a situation like this, it’s very difficult to not automatically compare the graphic novel and the tv show, and I might be voicing an unpopular opinion here, but I have a slight preference for the show. Part of that is because I very excited by the amazing cast: so many alumni from all my favorite nerdy franchises! Jack Quaid, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg!! And that’s just in season 1! But seriously, the cast is great, the show very well shot and the first season’s arch, which establishes the world, the main characters and the ideas, was gripping and smart.
I feel like this is a very contemporary, late-stage capitalist nightmare spin on Alan Moore’s idea of ‘who’s watching the Watchmen’ and in this case of course, it’s a CIA black ops team – the titular Boys. The ‘supes’ have organized themselves in a massive corporation that more or less loans them to cities in need of superhuman crime fighters, merchandizes the shit out of them, uses them as spokespeople for various brands looking for endorsements, makes terrible movies based on stories of their various exploits… while the so-called heroes rake in the cash and indulge in, well, whatever they want, really, since they are not really accountable to anyone. The Boys are a small team that tries their best to keep them in line when they can and expose their abhorrent behavior when all else fails, but how do you control people with insane super-human powers and broken moral barometers with a huge PR team behind them?
It's almost annoying how realistic Ennis’ conceit is, in the sense that if superheroes did exist, at this stage, yep, I would expect them to incorporate and run mostly on PR, running shoe endorsements and action figures. Of course, it would all get dysfunctional and gross really fast (like making female superheroes wear extremely revealing kits for no good reason, going around assaulting anyone they don’t like because who is going to stop them and so on), and of course people who would give the supes money would expect them to take their sides and espouse their views, because that’s how sponsorship works… The premise in and of itself is a fascinating speculative rabbit hole. It’s also a clear jab at the big franchises (the Seven are basically a looking-glass world version of the Justice League) and intellectual property right owners who aggressively merchandize other people’s art for an easy cash grab (*cough* Disney *cough*)– and my understanding is that Ennis has plenty of experience dealing with the corporate overlords and their desire to control creative output. I am very much on board with the criticism of all those things, which I believe makes me his target audience.
I understand the criticism about the crudeness, the often-gross violence, the deep unlikability of the Boys, which make this series a superhero comic with… no actual heroes because everyone… kind of sucks. I think that in this regard, the tv show does a better job of bringing a certain nuance to the characters: Hughie clearly struggles with his anger and the violent impulses brought on by his grief, he abuses Starlight’s trust but obviously hates doing it, he takes pleasure in his first kill, but also feels deeply uncomfortable that he did… It’s a lot to process for a character, and that might be easier to illustrate through a good actor than through drawing. I also think that while the illustrations of Homelander are wonderfully sinister, Anthony Starr brings the character’s dead-eyed insanity to another level that isn’t quite captured on the page; it’s not easy to be menacing while you smile, but he pulls it off (not to mention the fact that he ruined milk for me for ever)!
I will probably read the rest of the series, but more out a curiosity to see how both versions differ from each other than out of enthusiasm for the books. Eric Kripke took the spirit of Ennis’ story and ran with it, and that makes the comic undeniably good. I just happen to enjoy the show more – still totally worth reading if you find the ideas intriguing....more
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