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April 24, 2005


CR Sunday Magazine

image

I don't know about you, but the above image from an on-line bookseller featurette on cartoonist Marjane Satrapi sure made me stop and look. I had two initial thoughts. First, it's still odd that Art Spiegelman can now serve as a context in which someone else can be publicized. Second, I find this sort of thing interesting in that Satrapi is the first cartoonist to be introduced to American readers through the publicity machine of a major bookseller.

Satrapi's Embroideries has just been published, and you should be reading a lot about her in the next couple of months. To help fulfill this site's function as an aid to writers about comics, CR presents its on-line resources page for Marjane Satrapi.

One of the pieces linked to is a review of Embroideries by Jessa Crispin that appeared in the Globe and Mail. Reader Nathalie Atkinson brought it to my attention, particularly this notion floated by Crispin:
As charming as Embroideries is, it's possible that the book would have been better off in prose format rather than as a graphic tale. The black and white, undetailed artwork of the Persepolis books looks advanced when compared to Embroideries. In the first volume of Persepolis, the artwork seemed suitable, since the childlike drawings accompanied the story of a childhood. By volume two, the artwork no longer looked appropriate, but at least it was more polished than it is here. This looks rushed, more like a rough draft than a finished product. There are even uncorrected smudges and ink bleeds. Each older woman receives three lines radiating from the outside corner of her eyes to denote age. Moles and warts wander around the faces. Most comic-book writers who cannot draw well enough hire illustrators. Satrapi should consider it for her next work.

Not only have I yet to read the work in question, I'm sort of undecided about the general validity of this kind of criticism for any cartoonist. On the one hand, it seems a practical point; on the other, I think works become other things entirely when an author is added to the project. When you think about it in terms of "getting better" versus "using another artist" it becomes an even stranger issue to me. Does anyone out there have an opinion on the subject, either in general or in Satrapi's case? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) I'd be very interested in hearing from you.

Responding:
Colin Blanchette
Mark Mayerson
Michael Avolio
Rob Schamberger
Nick Mullins
Alexander C.P. Danner
Stefano Gaudiano
Luke Przybylski
Bryan Munn
T. Campbell

There are also a couple of letters up there that point out that Embroideries is from a L'Association series that emphasizes sketchbook-style drawing, diminishing greatly the force of Crispin's criticism in this instance despite any interesting issues raised.
 
posted 8:31 am PST | Permalink
 

 
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