Book-It 'o14! Book #16
Aug. 11th, 2014 12:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alivemagdoleneThe Fifty Books Challenge, year five! (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013) This was a library request.
Title: The Big Book of Grimm edited Jonathan Vankin
Details: Copyright 1999, Paradox Press
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Once upon a time...
...two brothers decided to collect and write down all the folk tales and bedtime stories parents told their children. Believing they were doing this for the benefit of generations to come, the brothers soon realized the stories were filled with all manner of grisly torture and torment. But this was GOOD, the brothers knew-- for these were cautionary tales, and the lessons to be learned by their telling could not be stressed too strongly. The Brothers Grimm published their tales, and all was good in the world...
...But society decided the stores were TOO violent, TOO grisly, TOO grim for childhood consumption, and undertook to eliminate the graphic terror and violence. Over time, the tales were transformed into innocuous, sanitized shadows of their former selves, and society sat back and smiled a satisfied smile. All was good in the world...
...UNTIL NOW!
THE BIG BOOK OF GRIMM: Read it to your kids... when they're BAD!"
Why I Wanted to Read It: I was contemplating a study of fairytales/folklore based on rereading a section in one of my favorite books, An Underground Education, and while I couldn't grind through Bettelheim, much to my disappointment, there were a series of other books offering dissection. I was looking for a straightforward graphic novel, and found this, a shlocky horror version instead. I did not exactly realize HOW shlocky until I saw the book. The factual inaccuracy of the back cover aside (the brothers Grimm collected various folktales and in editing out the sex, they decided to drum up the violence for compensation), I figured it'd at least be interesting, what with having several artists.
How I Liked It: I've discussed before the disconnect that can occur when a graphic novel has a different author (in this case, translator) and artist. There are excellent authors whose work gets lost beneath mediocre artists, and there are excellent artists whose work cannot save terrible writing.
The author's interpretations of the Grimm stories are flat and the dialog is aggressively simple. It's almost all-tell, no-show, which spells disaster for this format.
The artists vary in skill and style, although of course none can save the author's hopelessly bland take on the stories. However, looking strictly at the art itself, none of the artists can really carry simple black and white illustration. Considering that (as advertised) these people usually worked with a decent color scale of comic book comics, their illustrations look flat and, well, monotone in this fashion.
The book's premise was mildly promising, at least as schlocky fun, but poor execution ensures that this fifteen-year-old copy will stay out of print.
Title: The Big Book of Grimm edited Jonathan Vankin
Details: Copyright 1999, Paradox Press
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Once upon a time...
...two brothers decided to collect and write down all the folk tales and bedtime stories parents told their children. Believing they were doing this for the benefit of generations to come, the brothers soon realized the stories were filled with all manner of grisly torture and torment. But this was GOOD, the brothers knew-- for these were cautionary tales, and the lessons to be learned by their telling could not be stressed too strongly. The Brothers Grimm published their tales, and all was good in the world...
...But society decided the stores were TOO violent, TOO grisly, TOO grim for childhood consumption, and undertook to eliminate the graphic terror and violence. Over time, the tales were transformed into innocuous, sanitized shadows of their former selves, and society sat back and smiled a satisfied smile. All was good in the world...
...UNTIL NOW!
THE BIG BOOK OF GRIMM: Read it to your kids... when they're BAD!"
Why I Wanted to Read It: I was contemplating a study of fairytales/folklore based on rereading a section in one of my favorite books, An Underground Education, and while I couldn't grind through Bettelheim, much to my disappointment, there were a series of other books offering dissection. I was looking for a straightforward graphic novel, and found this, a shlocky horror version instead. I did not exactly realize HOW shlocky until I saw the book. The factual inaccuracy of the back cover aside (the brothers Grimm collected various folktales and in editing out the sex, they decided to drum up the violence for compensation), I figured it'd at least be interesting, what with having several artists.
How I Liked It: I've discussed before the disconnect that can occur when a graphic novel has a different author (in this case, translator) and artist. There are excellent authors whose work gets lost beneath mediocre artists, and there are excellent artists whose work cannot save terrible writing.
The author's interpretations of the Grimm stories are flat and the dialog is aggressively simple. It's almost all-tell, no-show, which spells disaster for this format.
The artists vary in skill and style, although of course none can save the author's hopelessly bland take on the stories. However, looking strictly at the art itself, none of the artists can really carry simple black and white illustration. Considering that (as advertised) these people usually worked with a decent color scale of comic book comics, their illustrations look flat and, well, monotone in this fashion.
The book's premise was mildly promising, at least as schlocky fun, but poor execution ensures that this fifteen-year-old copy will stay out of print.
