Home > Letters to CR

T. Campbell on Satrapi and the Potential for Collaboration
posted April 25, 2005
 

T Campbell
Via the Internet

I haven't read Embroideries, but I agree completely with the reviewer about both volumes of Persepolis.

With most indy-comix cartoonists, the art is not something I enjoy, but something I tolerate for the sake of the story. In Marjane's case, I recognized that she had little formal training AND came from a background not especially favorable to the graven image, and just dove on in. But it grew more difficult as we left the isolation of her childhood and she tried to render things like an airport, Europe and sexual relations.

I also think it's, well, vaguely insulting to see artists as creative chatterboxes, incapable of suspending their personal perspectives. Some artists are exceptional at "translating" the spirit of something they did not create while giving it a much finer polish.

And if the alternative is (forgive me) ugly comics that will never spread past the avant-garde "it's-not-ugly-it's-art" crowd and into the hands of everyday readers who REALLY NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT PEOPLE IN IRAN ARE HUMAN -- then if I were Marjane, I'd accept the trade-off.

Worse comes to worst, her message is more than powerful enough to survive anything an artist's stylistic choice can throw at it.