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Colin Blanchette on Satrapi and the Potential for Collaboration
posted April 24, 2005
 

Colin Blanchette
Via the Internet


This would have been a great place to debate Tim O'Neill's fourth essay on aesthetics. It's too bad he took down his essay after your onslaught. He should have left it up, regardless.

Satrapi is not a wunderkind cartoonist. But then, neither is Spiegelman. Who cares if she can draw like Wally Wood? The Persepolis books were effective on their own merits. Are they the pinnacle of the art form? No, and they don't have to be. Satrapi should be concerned with putting out the best work which she is capable of producing.

Like O'Neill (and you I would guess), I don't see anything inherently wrong with collaboration. But for Satrapi, it would be a waste, unless she wants to pursue something completely different from what she's doing now. If she wants to do Watchmen, she could use the help. For more autobio, why bother? We all know what a Satrapi book looks like.

I'm going to buy Embroideries this week. I'm not expecting it to floor me. But now, I may look at her cartooning a little more closely than I would have before.