Batman: Year One - Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli

Title: Batman: Year One
Author: Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli
Genre: Fantasy (Superhero)
Published: 1987
Formats: Hardback/Paperback/Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
The Book Depository
Amazon UK

Review:
I picked up “Batman: Year One” by Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli in order to meet the graphic novel requirement of the 2014 Eclectic Reader Challenge. I will admit that I don’t normally read graphic novels however as a fan of superhero films etc. I have constantly heard of “Batman: Year One” as being the real basis for how we view Batman nowadays. Therefore I decided that this book would be the one I read to complete this element of the challenge.

The novel chronicles both the emergence of Batman and the rise of Jim Gordon through the ranks of law enforcement. The whole thing is very melodramatic and it feels like an 80’s action movie as our hero gets shot, beaten up and hurt in various ways but fights through the pain to get things done. Batman in this novel is a “real man” who goes out and gets thing done then goes on a skiing holiday to recuperate.

It is also definitely aimed at mature audience and it is not something for a young child to read. Miller is more than happy to show us the underbelly of Gotham with violence and prostitution being brought to the fore. However, I found this was undermined a bit by the rather dated 80’s styled images which did tend to undo any grittiness that the story was trying to portray.

In regards to the characters, I actually found Batman to be rather uninteresting to be honest, yes his weaknesses and inexperience showed him to be human but he feels very one dimensional. It is actually Gordon who comes across as a multifaceted character and draws you into the story. He is a good cop trying to do his job in the face of corruption in the police and the city itself. His attempts to maintain his integrity in the fact of vast challenges endears him to the reader.

Overall, I did find this to be an enjoyable novel even if Batman himself was rather uninspiring. It was also interesting to follow the story which actually created the modern Batman genesis mythos.

Heartbeasts - Rick Boven

Title: Heartbeasts
Author: Rick Boven
Genre: Graphic Novel
Published: 2011
Formats: Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
Amazon UK

Heartbeasts is a collection of three short stories told in graphic form that try to bring across some strong emotional points. These three stories are some of the first that Rick Boven produced and I have to admit the imagery didn't seem quite as refined as what I saw in his later book, The Last Pict which I have previously read and reviewed. Although, I actually think this has worked quite well as some of the stark imagery created does a good job at conveying the tales of heartbreak and woe that are being presented.

I won't really go into the stories themselves in any depth as I don't want to spoil it for anyone that does decide to pick up the collection. However, they do all touch on some of the darker aspects of love and relationships and therefore I felt that the stories can come across as being very angst ridden and "emo" in their style and message which may not appeal to everyone. What I did like though was the way that all three of the stories varied in relation to length and the level of usage of text and artwork to convey the story. It meant that each story felt slightly different, both in substance and style.

The minor issue I did have with this collection though was in regards to the formatting of the eBook on the Kindle. Some of the sections of the story had some very small text which forced me to really concentrate and strain my eyes so that I could actually read it. The only other option seemed to be for me to change the aspect between portrait and landscape which did increase the font size slightly but doing this was a little bit irritating. I still managed to read the story but some people may find the text is rather hard to read in sections if they are using a standard Kindle.

In summary, I do like the use of a graphic medium when creating short stories such as those present here. The limitations of low word counts are counteracted by the ability to use imagery to really convey some of the stories aspects. Personally, I have to admit that the stories felt a little bit too "emo" for me, probably due to the time in his life when Rick Boven was writing them. However, the stories are an impressive collection of graphic work and I suspect there will be plenty of teenagers out there who can relate well to some of these stories much better than I could.

Last Pict - Rick Boven

Title: Last Pict
Author: Rick Boven
Genre: Graphic Novel - General Fiction
Published: 2011
Formats: Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes & Nobel

I don't normally read Graphic Novels but when I got an email from the publisher Nan Bu Nan Publishing to consider reviewing "Last Pict" I decided to give it a go. This was mainly because I was curious to see how well a graphic novel would work on my Kindle as I had never tried one on it previously. As I read it, I was happy to see that it looked great on a Kindle, and for this story I think the greyscale nature of the images worked well.

Last Pict is basically a short story in graphic form about the troubles of a young boy named Evan who just doesn't fit in at school. The story covers the discussion between the principle and the boy's father after he has been beaten up at school for drawing portraits of his class mates. We see through this discussion how a child's love and interest in something can be destroyed by the unthinking remarks of a parent in an instant.

I believe that this story will reach the hearts of most people, especially parents and I myself felt deeply for Evan as the story progressed. The images created by Rick Boven really do justice to the story and you can really see the Evan's dejection as he listens to what his father is saying to the principle. He has basically managed to put across a big and important message in a subtle and memorable way with this novel.

On a personal level, after reading this I am going to make sure that I am always there to do creative and art related things with my daughter if that is what she enjoys. I would never want to make my child feel the way that Evan appears to feel in this story. This was made even more definite after my wife read the book and basically called the father in the story an "arse".

Overall, this is very thoughtful story that is told with some clever drawings. For anyone like myself who thinks graphic novels are all just sci-fi, supernatural, etc. then you should read this and see how wrong you can be. I know it has changed some of my opinions on this form of storytelling and I suspect I will read others in the future.