Preludes and Nocturnes

Many of us turn to comics or Graphic novels as they are now called, as a form of stress relief and to escape into some 'light reading'. Though I hate admitting it, reading a graphic novel can be intense and harder than just settling down with a paperback.

With novels, our eyes move linearly, through words that become sentences and these sentences become paragraphs and then ultimately the pages of the book. While reading a graphic novel, one cannot just read the text. She must always look at the 'big picture on the page. In particular she must study the images to get a sense of context and then examine the characters who are speaking the dialogs and the 'non verbal' clues in their expressions. Sometimes the flow of the plot is horizontal and sometimes it can be vertical, sometimes even diagonal. With graphic novels like this one, the plot itself is pretty surreal and hard to absorb until you 'get into the groove'.

There was my little 101 on Graphic novels. Let's discuss this one.

I have said many times before that Frank Miller and Alan Moore are the greatest of comic novelists. I will now add a new member to this elite group, Neil Gaiman. With this book, Gaiman began one of the most popular series in comic book history. When it comes to prose, Gaiman's comic is another indication that comic books have come a long way from where they used to be in the past

The story is a page turner holding the reader breathless throughout. At times I asked myself, 'What was this guy smoking when he wrote this?'. This masterpiece is a classic amalgamation of folklore, history myth and Gaiman's fertile imagination.

The book begins with a mysterious cabal conducting an enigmatic ceremony. Their goal is to entrap the grim reaper himself, death. However, something goes awfully wring and the cabal end up entrapping not with death, but with death's younger brother, Morpheus, the god of dreams and nightmares. Gaiman portrays this entity as a strange looking man, with a bad haircut.

Morpheus escapes from his captors after languishing in his prison for seventy years. He realizes that in order to regain his powers, he must get back three of his belongings, belongings that were taken away from him, during his years in captivity.

The rest of the book is about Morpheus' adventures and ordeals as he must travel to New York, then to Hell itself and finally to the Arkam Asylum in Gotham, the city of Batman. If this is the first time you are reading this book, I can guarantee that you have not read anything like it.

The faint of heart be warned: This is not the comic book you read years ago, when in high school. It has plenty of 'adult situations', gore and violence. All in all, it is a masterpiece. Wait till you meet Gaiman's personification of the grim reaper.

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Book Review: The Killing Joke

Told by the legendary Alan Moore, this is one of the best Batman comics ever. However, the Dark Knight himself makes only a cameo appearance in this book. This comic focusses on the early beginnings of the Joker.

One striking differentitor with both Moore and Miller is their diction. Moore gives us a view into the Joker's youth and how he came into existence. This book jolts its readers with the Joker doing horrible things to Inspector Gordon and his unfortunate daughter.

If you do not find this book, this book is contained in its entirity in a comprehensive collection from Alan Moore that DC comics relased in Jan 2006. This book is a collector's piece for all Batman fans

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Book Review: Watchmen

There is another genius in the Graphic Novel genere. His name is Alan Moore and Watchmen is one of his masterpieces. After reading about the grounbreaking changes in the Graphic Novel/comic genere I decided I'd try this one after reading numerous reviews. All the praise this one has received is indeed justified.

So far I have read this one twice and still have not found the time to go over the 'non-graphic' sections that are found between chapters of the book. Breathtaking in magnitude and plot, this book can indeed be compared to the works of Ayn Rand.

The cast includes a whole slew of superheroes and a couple of heroines who are now being targetted by an assasin. What could be his motive? While they fight crime when they have to, these people have all the internal hangups that many mere mortals like us face daily. These range from paranoia, identity crisis, dealing with or commiting adultery, unresolved issues with parents and so on. Watchmen is indeed Moore's cynical look on humakind and its follies. Brilliantly conceived, this work must be read and reread a few times to enable one to understand the motives of each character and the depth of his and her personality.

While it has all the thrills of a suspense novel, the enormity of the subjects that this book covers is simply astounding. Alan Moore is a genius in presenting pen pictures of his characters. I have read numerous books that are great at the beginning and then at the end, the plot simply falls apart. However, this is one of the few that kept me guesssing and left me breathless with its unpredictable and disturbing end. This book is recommended for one and all, comic book lover or a 'tyro reader' of comic books. Buy this one now!

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Book Review: Sin City Book 1- The Hard Goodbye

Fascinated by the movie and Micky Roorke's character, I decided to sample the series. Upon reading the book, I realized how perfectly loyal the movie stays to the book. I was even more impressed with both Robert Rodrigues, the director of Sin City and Frank Miller, the creator of the Sin City series.

Marv is a no-good looser, a thug who cannot stay away from brawls. Marv has a heroic side to him as well. He could take on an army and treats women respectfully.

When someone treats him well, he would give up his life for that person. If someone treats him badly, well, he could be ruthless. Someone seems to be framing Marv for murder. Why?

I loved the unapologetic, ruthless plot of this Sin City tale where men can be brave or vicious, girls are wild and dangerous and justice is ruthless. Author Frank Miller's genius shows, not just in the story but in his brilliant graphics. Sin City comes alive keeping the reader wanting more! This book is not for the faint hearted.

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