Doug TenNapel.
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this postTwo things happened.
I read an article from a recent edition of World Magazine that talked about how there weren't many Christians making graphic novels, even though the genre was exploding. One artist, Doug TenNapel, caught my attention because his style and his stories were pretty bizarre and risky, and weren't just re-tellings of traditional Bible stories or illustrated Bibles.
Plus, I had two Amazon.com gift certificates to use before they expired.
You can imagine where this is going.
I bought Monster Zoo, Flink, Black Cherry, Gear, and Iron West.
I wanted to see what his stories were like. I wanted to see his art. I wanted to get some ideas because I've been working on banging out "cartoons" with a vague idea of throwing them into a jumbled collection to sell. The idea of a complete novel, and not a series of one or two-page sets, has been churning in my mind.
I just wanted to see how bizarre "bizarre" sold as.
Pretty bizarre. It reminded me of watching Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness.
I love TenNapel's stuff. His stories are edgy and hilariously odd and wonderful, all tied up into a kind of undercurrent of truth that I recognize. No browbeating. Just wonderful mixes of elements, such as in Iron West, which combines Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, alien robots, and the Wild West.
Get some, if you're into graphic novels.
Labels: book reviews, recommended reading
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 7/12/2008 01:18:00 PM
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1 Comments:
Have you seen anything by Simon Bisley? He has some pretty interesting work...not really graphic novels, per se, but just...graphics....that can be graphic. Anyway, he did a series of Biblical paintings that are graphic novel-esque. Most are pretty cool.
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrations-Bible-Progress-Simon-Bisley/dp/1932413154
