Different Styles, Different Stories in April’s Graphic Novels
The New York Times | Sam Thielman | April 12, 2024
The New York Times features Freddy Carrasco’s GLEEM
Minimalist landscapes, maximalist extraterrestrials and schlock movie stars populate this month’s diverse offerings.
For the characters in Freddy Carrasco’s GLEEM (Drawn & Quarterly, 206 pp. $22.95), the future is a place where anything can happen. A psychedelic trip in the middle of a church service might take a bored junior parishioner under the sea and deep into space; a group of kids might befriend a robot; technology might become indistinguishable from fashion at a great party. Carrasco loves action and interaction, and his book messes with the visual progress of time, a process that cartoonists more often try to keep invisible. His stories slow down, speed up and stutter as he sees fit — deliberately disordering images of daps, drags on cigarettes and dance moves.
The coolest story in a very cool collection is probably “Swing,” a sort of punk homage to the celebrated mangaka Osamu Tezuka and “Astro Boy,” in which a group of kids must scavenge and steal all the parts to resurrect a fallen member of their crew — a high-end prototype robot. Many Western artists draw inspiration from manga, but far fewer successfully adapt the form to Western milieus. Frank Miller and Moebius are two; Carrasco is another.
Find the rest of the article here!
For the characters in Freddy Carrasco’s GLEEM (Drawn & Quarterly, 206 pp. $22.95), the future is a place where anything can happen. A psychedelic trip in the middle of a church service might take a bored junior parishioner under the sea and deep into space; a group of kids might befriend a robot; technology might become indistinguishable from fashion at a great party. Carrasco loves action and interaction, and his book messes with the visual progress of time, a process that cartoonists more often try to keep invisible. His stories slow down, speed up and stutter as he sees fit — deliberately disordering images of daps, drags on cigarettes and dance moves.
The coolest story in a very cool collection is probably “Swing,” a sort of punk homage to the celebrated mangaka Osamu Tezuka and “Astro Boy,” in which a group of kids must scavenge and steal all the parts to resurrect a fallen member of their crew — a high-end prototype robot. Many Western artists draw inspiration from manga, but far fewer successfully adapt the form to Western milieus. Frank Miller and Moebius are two; Carrasco is another.
Find the rest of the article here!