Comicsgirl

Graphic Women Buy at Amazon.com

Hilary Chute’s Graphic Women (2010, Columbia University Press) isn’t necessarily the sort of book you read for fun (unless you are the sort who reads these sorts of books for fun) It’s dense and academic and intended for that audience.

But it’s amazingly in-depth, smart, engaging and important. It’s not light reading but it’s far from boring.

Chute devotes a chapter each to Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Phoebe Gloeckner, Lynda Barry, Marjane Satrapi and Alison Bechdel. These five creators cover a fairly broad range in terms of style, certainly, but Chute’s focus is more what they have in common — all tend to interpret the trauma of their lives in a graphic narrative format (not that I’d expect anything less, but I do applaud Chute for not referring to these books as “graphic novels” because they’re not).

While Satrapi and Bechdel are fairly well-known, even outside of comics, I think Gloeckner and Barry are two important creators and I love their inclusion here. Kominsky-Crumb’s work isn’t exactly to my tastes, but her influence is obvious.

If you’re familiar with these creators’ works, much of this book may be obvious to you, but Chute’s insights and interpretations are always smart. She never over-explains her subject matter and mostly she lets the work speak for itself (many images from these creator’s comics are included) and just adds context.

Still, if you’re picking it up for a pleasure read like I did, it can be slow going. The more interesting chapters for me where on the creators I was less familiar with because I felt like I got more out of them. I already felt like I knew about Satrapi and Persepolis so I admit to skimming portions of that chapter. I don’t think that’s a reflection on Chute’s writing or research — both of which are excellent — but more that the nature of this book not quite being suited to leisure-time reading.

I guess my feelings about this book comes down to these things: Is Graphic Women a great book to read on a Sunday afternoon? Maybe not, but that depends on what you do on your Sunday afternoons. Is it incredibly cool that this book exists? Yes. Am I happy that I read it? Absolutely. I hope it makes its way onto all kinds of bookshelves — even if it’s more suited ones in a university library rather than at home.

Review copy provided through NetGalley.

The Complete Persepolis Buy at Amazon.com

Part of my motivation with this whole “Book of the Month” thing, as I explained, was to highlight female creators who may be overlooked or under-appreciated.

So why am I picking Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis? After all, you’ve probably read it. Your friend who knows nothing or cares nothing about comics has probably read it. Your mom (and no, that’s not a joke) has probably read it, or you’re thinking about giving it to her (I’m weird, but I do think it would make an excellent Mother’s Day gift).

And that’s actually why the book is pretty amazing to me. Like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, this is a comic that has managed to cross a lot of boundaries. It got attention from people who weren’t quite sure what to do with comics.

Also, it’s really good. Satrapi is cooler and smarter than just about anyone else (seriously — read interviews with her — she’s amazing) and her wit and honesty sparkles here. Her bold, graphic art is a perfect backdrop for her story, which is at turns funny and tragic. At its core, it’s about growing up and becoming a woman while never ignoring the realities of her life.

But I guess this isn’t so much a suggestion for you (because you’ve already read this, right?) as much as it is a suggestion for you to go suggest it to someone else who isn’t into comics. I think this work is one of the few that’s a perfect showcase of what this medium can do and do well.

(I was serious about that Mother’s Day thing.)